BOARS NEST FARMHOUSE - South Cave

Recently I spent a weekend in Hessle, East Yorkshire. It was the first time I went to Yorkshire, so as a perfect tourist I ate a Yorkshire pudding and Wensleydale cheese in York. 
On one special night, I went in the country side of South Cave for dinner at Boars Nest Farmhouse with my boyfriend and his parents. 
As we walked into this farmhouse, I thought we will go straight to our table, but instead we were shown to a bar area with comfy seats to relax and have a drink while we read the menu. It was a bit unusual and old-fashioned but I really liked it. 
The maître d’hôtel introduced us the special dishes from the board, then he brought us to our table.
Our table was in the middle of the main room, the decor was a mix between rural style with beams across the ceiling and a wild boar taxidermy head and modern with colorful wall papers. 

The food at Boars Nest Farmhouse is British cuisine style with French influence. All dishes were a real bargain, starters were £5, mains £10 and desserts £5 apart from specials dishes from the board.  

The dinner started with some venison paté served with bread as an amuse bouche.
To start my companion went for the rillettes and pickle, I opted for the spinach and goats cheese tart with lentils while his parents had both fish and potato cakes. 
The tart was very good, pastry was light and the lentils dressing gave the dish a real flavour.

 Rillettes and pickle

 Spinach and goats cheese tart with lentils

Red wine braised chicken with mashed potatoes, mushroom and baby onions

For main I chose the red wine braised chicken with mashed potatoes, the sauce was rich and smooth, baby onions were really lovely with the mashed potatoes.
One of the special dish from that night was Venison Wellington served with girolles and baby onions. I am very happy my friend gave me a bite of his dish. Venison was perfectly cooked, his dish was equally as enjoyable as mine. 
As sides we ordered home made chips and vegetables.

Venison Wellington with girolles and baby onions 

From the minute we walked through the door to the end, the maître d’hôtel made us feel very welcome and looked after. It felt like the entire team there was passionate about their job and happy...it was very pleasant. I think it is rare to find the same level of friendly and professional service in London restaurants. 

8/10

Boars Nest Farmhouse

Rudstone Walk

South Cave HU15 2AH

Twitter: @boarsnesthull

PIZZA UNION

A new pizzeria opened in January near Spitafields market on Sandy's Lane. 

This restaurant is a massive space with high and lower tables and an open kitchen with the oven. The atmosphere is a bit cold, maybe because the space has high ceiling and it wasn't the busiest time when we went there.

I came to Pizza Union for a late lunch on a sunday with a friend. 

The concept is easy, you order at the counter, they give you a buzzer (same concept as Shake Shack), you find a seat and then you go at the counter again when your pizza is ready. 

I had some doubt about the quality of the pizza when I saw the menu, it says their pizza are all 12 inch and price range is between £3.95 to 6.50. You can see their menu HERE.

When I grab our pizza I was very surprised. I wasn't expecting a pizza like that for this range of price.

I ate a lot of pizza this year and for the first time I think it was a very good value for the quality & quantity of toppings on it. Some other places, you pay more than £8 your pizza and you only have 5 slices of sausages or ham on it. 

We had two different pizza, the Manzo and the Pepperoni. Both were delicious, they were perfectly cooked, thin bases with crushy crusts.

Manzo : Tomato sauce, mozzarella, beef , garlic, green chilies, rocket 

Pepperoni: Tomato sauce, mozzarella, double pepperoni 

As a dessert I had a Dolce, it was probably the best part of the meal, this dish is a dough ring filled with Nutella and mascarpone. It was so good, I licked my finger at the end to be sure I haven't forgot any nutella or mascarpone on it. 

Dolce : nutella & mascarpone

Pizza Union is a great place to enjoy tasty and cheap pizza. I look forward to go again and try the Carne. I just think they should improve the decoration so it looks a bit more cosy when the place is less full outside the rush hours. And they should supply some sauce to dip the crusts. 

8/10

Pizza Union

Sandy's Lane

London E1 7HW

Twitter: @PizzaUnion

QUO VADIS

This week I had lunch for the first time at Quo Vadis. I really like the entrance decoration with a massive table and a floral selection on top of it. 
My friend and I didn't have any booking but we manage to get a table, the staff was very friendly from the hostess at the entrance to our waiter.
Decoration on the table was quite simple but very cute, table cloth and flowers. 

To start I opted for the spalla served with pear and fennel salad while my friend had the salt cod, sea kale and butter sauce. I found the balance of the sweet pear and salted spalla very interesting. It was very good, and light, I will keep in mind this recipe to try it again at home. My friend really enjoy his starter, especially the butter sauce which was according to him excellent. 

 Spalla, pear & fennel salad

 Salt cod, sea kale and butter sauceAs a main course my friend took the onglet, when the dish arrived he thought the meat was a bit more cooked than what he requested. At the end it didn't really matter as the meat was very good and tender. He discovered something new with this dish : pickled walnut! 

 Onglet, pickled walnut and horseradish

We shared sprout tops, savoy cabbage and herbs side with our main courses.

 Sprout tops, savoy cabbage & herbs

I opted for the smoked fishcakes served with chipsand aïoli as a main course.This dish was excellent, only disappointment is that leaves in the plate would have been better with some dressing (vinaigrette). I don't usually like big chips as most of the time they are not well cooked but those one were fantastic, crispy and cooked.  

 Smoked haddock fishcakes and aïoli

 Chips

As a dessert we shared a almond tart, figs and mascarpone. Which was I think a stupid idea... it was so good and also light, I regret I didn't have a full one just for myself.  The tart was served a little bit warm, it was delivious with figs and fresh mascarpone.

 Almond tart, figs and mascarpone

I had a great time at Quo Vadis. Decoration was simple but elegant, the food was good and interesting. The bonus is our waiter made us feel very comfortable. I will come back to Quo Vadis pretty soon. 

8/10

Quo Vadis

26-29 Dean Street 

London W1D 3LL

Twitter: @QuoVadisSoho