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[Lucky Rathen]

Right, there seems to be a lot of talk of restauarants and the like in various threads at the moment so how about centralising the whole lot into one thread. A one-stop shop of opinions to recommend / warn people away. Restaurants, pub dinners, takeaways, if you eat out, give your thoughts on food quality, service, ambience, value for money etc... I'm sure we can do a lot better than the Evening Express' cock-sucky efforts.

Last night I went to Mister Li's, the new Chinese restaurant on Crown Terrace. It's owned by the guy who owns Wok Wok on Crown Street. The restaurant itself is really nice, a relaxed, quiet atmosphere, and it all looks quite shiny and new. The staff are very warm and friendly, they all make a point of greeting you as you are walking past them and heading for your table. They kept an eye on our table the whole time and made sure we always had drinks, etc. they really tended to our every need and made us feel really welcome.

For starter I had Dual Seafood, which was deep fried eel and squid slices, and it was excellent. The wife had prawn toast, which was big and thick and filling. For main course I had Salt Baked Chicken with Egg Fried Rice, which was also very good, but unbelievably salty (the clue was in the name), and the wife had Honey Chilli Chicken with vermicilli noodles, which she enjoyed very much and couldn't finish. I can't fault the food at all, it was first class.

The only thing that let them down slightly was a few communication breakdowns. While they treated us like royalty , the waiters made mistakes with both the starter and the main course - when the waiter brought my eel and squid starter, he said "Here are your prawns sir". I told him I didn't order prawns, and he had to shout over the manager to tell him what it was. After a short discussion they decided it was squid. I still don't know if it was the eel and squid that I ordered, or just squid, but it was fine anyway. When we ordered a side of Vermicilli noodles, the girl had to come back five minutes later and ask to confirm that we had ordered Vermicilli noodles. Then when the order came, we had two portions of vermicilli noodles. The manager then came over and apologised for the mistake and said he would only charge us for us for one, but we could eat it if we wanted. So that was fair enough. It's a brand new restaurant, new staff, new menu, so I'm sure these little teething problems will be ironed out soon enough. It didn't make any difference to what was a really nice meal.

The whole lot (2 starters, 2 mains, 2 desserts, 2 coffees, a few glasses of wine and a couple of soft drinks) came in at just north of £60, which wasn't bad at all. AND you get a fortune cookie!

All in all, top notch Chinese fare. I would recommend giving it a try.

[paranoid]

We went to Skippers down at the beach last night.

Nice clean place; very friendly, helpfully staff and a good menu selection. Huge fish selection on the menu and a good choice of other options. They had decent background music that was just that, in the background. It wasn't just Northsound One either, so that is only a good thing.

Bar selection is a little poor, but they had Deuchars IPA so it's not all bad.

Food is damned good, portions are ace and you get the option of chips, boiled or baked tattie, something sorely lacking from most places these days.

Dunno how much it was as my Dad paid, but the prices are reasonable, and they are in the new Spree book so that is always a bonus.

[kirkt]

Ayisha Tandoori in Balnagask is the bee's knees for food when they get your order right. I'm particuarly fond of their Pakora Curry. Yum! Can't wait to go back to Bollywood again too (next to Bruce Millers/Howff)...£5.99 for starter and main course and great service.

Worst experiences in recent months was with Cinnamon and Triple Kirks.

[Bigsby]

FORTUNATELY my appreciation of French food is a lot better than my abilities with the French language.

My French verbal skills are limited to announcing that I’m 11-years-old and that the bus goes to the local swimming pool.

And both examples aren’t that easy to work into conversation while sat in a French restaurant (unless I want the waiter to think I’m mad as cheese).

Luckily, Cafe Montmartre makes it easy, with translations of all the mouth-watering dishes.

To start I went for fishermen’s soup with garlic croutons (£7.45).

The soup was rich and full of fishy flavour but it only really came alive after I stirred in the little dish of aioli (garlic oil) and cheese.

Anyone with a dislike of garlic would be advised to give this one a miss, but for garlic fiends like myself it was spectacular.

My wife, who I sometimes think loves garlic more than me, went for the pan-fried king prawns with spinach, garlic butter and herbs (£7.45).

From her first bite to the last she had that self-satisfied look on her face that means ‘I’ve chosen a nicer starter than you’.

I had to disagree, but at least we were both delighted with our selections.

For my main course I went for a classic French dish – duck confit in an orange and port sauce (£16.95). The leg of duck, with its crispy skin and meltingly tender meat, and the sweet-but-not-too-sweet sauce was star of the night for me.

The combination of salty skin, rich meat and sweet sauce was balanced to perfection.

As I tucked into the duck, my wife was enjoying – although not quite so enthusiastically – her halibut with tomato and basil sauce (£18).

It was light, fresh and tasty but after sampling my duck and going wild for it, she lamented the fact it didn’t go quack.

To finish we shared another French classic – tarte tatin (£6.95).

Caramelised apples, sweet pastry, ice cream... what’s not to adore?

The only black mark is that service was a bit slow and absent-minded (our waiter forgot that we’d ordered coffee and we had to chase him up for our bill).

But then again that could be down to the fact that there was a very large party of French people to cater for that night.

And if this is the place French people eat out in Aberdeen, you don’t get a much better recommendation than that.

[Lucky Rathen]

I smell plagiarism....

[RossP]

Had a PHD gatecrasher pizza on friday, which had a couple of slices of 'Simply Sausage' topping.

Chorizo, black pudding and smoked sausage. Absolutely incredible!

[Bigsby]

Originally Posted by Lucky Rathen

I smell plagiarism....

*cough*, surely not. Here's another review to the same standard.

Went to The Marine in Stoney for lunch yesterday. Had chicken liver and haggis pate for a starter (about 5.50 I think) and a really fine beef casserole for main (£10.50 or something). Ate one of Bigsby Jr's haddock goujons that he didn't want so had no room for pudding. Pint of Guiness was just shy of three quid I think.

Damn fine, and good service, recommended.

[Lucky Rathen]

On the subject of French food, I took a mate to Creperie Jacques on Union Street last week for lunch, after being really impressed with it when it first opened. Holy shit what a difference a few months makes.

The first disappointment was when we got the menus which showed that their crepe menu, which used to have 20+ different types of savoury crepe on it now has only 6. I picked Mexican and my mate picked Italian, with a starter of snails. His snails had according to him, "the consistency of coal". Crunchy.

The crepes were awful. They used to be massive, thick things that were hanging off the edge of the plate, in fact you could fold them in half and the plate was still full. I recall likening them to duvets once. They have made way for these pishy little soggy things, about as thick as a sheet of paper that fall to bits as soon as you touch them. My Mexican crepe was basically microwaved fajita mix, with chewy chicken and no spice at all, just an overwhelming sensation of blandless. They were so dull I almost fell asleep. My mate's Italian was pretty much a tin of chopped tomatoes in a crepe, with some cheese on top. Utter balls.

I used to love this place but unless they seriously buck their ideas up I won't be going back. They need to sort out the wanky little thin crepes, and bring the barbeque meatballs crepes. And the ham and cheese ones, and the chicken and cheese, and the bacon and eggs, and all the other things that were actually good. This meal was just simply shit. No wonder the place was fucking empty.

[Tam o' Shantie]

Originally Posted by Lucky Rathen

On the subject of French food, I took a mate to Creperie Jacques on Union Street last week for lunch, after being really impressed with it when it first opened. Holy shit what a difference a few months makes.

The first disappointment was when we got the menus which showed that their crepe menu, which used to have 20+ different types of savoury crepe on it now has only 6. I picked Mexican and my mate picked Italian, with a starter of snails. His snails had according to him, "the consistency of coal". Crunchy.

The crepes were awful. They used to be massive, thick things that were hanging off the edge of the plate, in fact you could fold them in half and the plate was still full. I recall likening them to duvets once. They have made way for these pishy little soggy things, about as thick as a sheet of paper that fall to bits as soon as you touch them. My Mexican crepe was basically microwaved fajita mix, with chewy chicken and no spice at all, just an overwhelming sensation of blandless. They were so dull I almost fell asleep. My mate's Italian was pretty much a tin of chopped tomatoes in a crepe, with some cheese on top. Utter balls.

I used to love this place but unless they seriously buck their ideas up I won't be going back. They need to sort out the wanky little thin crepes, and bring the barbeque meatballs crepes. And the ham and cheese ones, and the chicken and cheese, and the bacon and eggs, and all the other things that were actually good. This meal was just simply shit. No wonder the place was fucking empty.

and as i touched upon in a different thread, the service can be ass-dilatingly awful. the last time i went there (the last time for the following reason: ) I think i waited something like 50 minutes for soup & a sandwich, and was served my drink in a greasy wine glass with crumbs adorning the rim, much like the salt would on a glass of margherita.

[Lucky Rathen]

Shit food, shit service. It doesn't have much going for it.