The Big Sleep Hotel. Eastbourne

I went to  Eastbourne last week end. There, I had organised a small event for 100 people.

Altered reception area

Having failed to confirm on time the great hotel I had picked for my team to stay at on time, we were reduced to stay at the first hotel that would have us at such short notice. So we stayed at the Big Sleep Hotel on Eastbourne Parade. I had never come across it before (Big Sleep is a chain). The website should have been a warning enough but…

So I got to the hotel on the Friday afternoon. I couldn’t find the door… what I could see looked like a service door,  I pushed it, got in the reception area … (The service door was in fact the main entrance) … looked very clean and the staff was pleasant enough. To the left, a picture of the reception area altered to hide and actual guest and staff with the photo of John Malkovich.

I asked and was shown the lift… ahahah… I walked passed it, came back to the reception asking “Where is the lift?”,  “it is just there.” The receptionist replied … the door to the lift looked  like a bedroom door. I got in with my luggage. … no more than 2 people can get in that lift with their luggage.  Door of the lift shuts, then, starts a cricking noise… it sounded like a kitchen elevator… This gets better. I got to my floor looked around… It all looks and smells like a teenagers dormitory. The colours are … well looked at the picture on the side: Grey stained carpets, white clinical walls, bad lighting.

Malkovich & the curtain

I got in my room and a nutter looking John Malkovich was staring back at me from the wall. The bedroom looks like a 10 year old boy’s display room in a IKEA shop…. Baby blue with a baby blue shaggy rug… I mean curtain… who in their right mind let a child decorate this place?...  guess what? The coat hanger is just above the TV… I had to double check that I wasn’t in guest house where I had to stay in the little boy’s room. Two good things about the room though. The view of the sea and the new bath towels… Nope! I will not come back event for that.



Tv in my room

After checking my room, I when downstairs to further explore the reception areas and came across an oddly decorated room which turn out to be the bar and breakfast area… with those quirky colours, I don’t think a chandelier has a place here… I DON’T GET THE DECO HERE (puzzled look)...  

The reception and bar areas are worlds apart; any one would hardly believe that the accommodations and this are even in the same building…. Needless to say, my colleagues hated the hotel and tried to stay out of it as much as possible… my boss got a lovely a pink room! Imagine the set up of my room in baby pink… I’d love to meet the designer of this Hotel; it must have been a dare to decorate it this way me thinks.

Bar & Breakfast area

Lesson learnt; in Eastbourne, do not book anything under £100 if you want to enjoy your stray. Do not always trust what you read on Trip Advisor... Some hotels post their own review on the site.

I don’t think I will be visiting the town any time soon anyways… a day trip should do it for now.These are my views. Do not take them as they are, try and form your own opinion. Info on the Big Sleep Hotel here.
The Reviewer.

The Crown & Sceptre. South London

I went to lunch last Saturday with some volunteers from our local homeless charity. We met in a pub in Central Croydon, South London.

This costs £5.50 in London

 The Crown & Sceptre is a very old pub located on High street Croydon opposite Leon House. The location is very well served by the public transports and not too far from the shopping centre.

Pubs are not my usual hang outs because of the smell of beer that embraces you every time you push the door into one.

I was pleasantly surprised when I entered this one as I didn't get the beers smell. It might be perhaps due to the time it was in the day.

Looking around at the clientele, it was a great mix of whites, Indians and blacks. Most of them, families or groups of friends meeting for lunch. I dread to think of what this place must be like on matches day; there are TV screens everywhere.  Just on the side of the wall where our group sat, there are 3 TV screens in a 5 metres portion of pub.

There is a little lounge like area toward the back of the pub. Maybe I’ll seat there the next time.

The drinks seem to be really cheap here; I ordered a Sauvignon Blanc and had a full glass at £3.50. In central London that would have cost me £5.50 for this not-best-quality-but-drinkable wine…

For food,  I ordered fish & chip and that cost £4.75. At 1.30pm, this was my third function of the day and I didn’t want to spend much so this was pretty great and unthreatening. If it didn’t taste good,  I could leave it without a second thought.

Fish & Chips no peas £ 4.75

The fish & chips actually tasted nice, the fish piece wasn’t the usual giant slobby soaked batter that I usually see in others’ plates. As I looked at my 7 other friends’ food orders, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of food that was coming out of the kitchens.

The menu card had Indian and Chinese dishes available to order and I am told that, the pub has an Indian and a Chinese chef. This is great and guaranties that you would get what you order. It also means that you will not find Indian spices in your Chinese meal. I am also told that the guys in the kitchen are also the owners of the pub which is event better as I am sure that food is the heart of this family pub… they will make sure that you get what you order.

I also used the ladies there and must say, it was clean enough a part from the stained sink. There was no smell and it seems to be cleaned many times during the day. The colours are warm and there is a full length mirror… always a plus for the ladies. Yeah, I am obsessed with loos.

Everyone from my group seems to enjoy the food they were eating and the drinks were flowing as they were cheap.

I had a good time here and will be coming back during the summer for a glass of rosé in the back garden which I didn't have the time to try.

I’d recommend this pub for a family lunch and ladies (not chavs) meeting for an afternoon drink before dinner.

I’d give it two stars plus 1 star for the lovely waitresses; they are the picture of patience… and will visit again.

Crown & Sceptre is located 282 High Street; London; CR0 1NG; 020 8726 0080

Banana Leaf - South Croydon

Last week I was invited to a curry house or dinner with a bunch of friends... at The Banana Leaf curry house.

Photo from the restaurant's website

 I have never been to a curry house before and frankly I can’t really stand the smell of curry. Curry is a very British thing and it is funny the reaction you get when you tell people that you do not like it.

When you go in a curry house it seems, EVERY thing has THE CURRY spice in it by default and if you do not like it, you will be reduced to have the naan bread on its own…

View from my table

The Banana Leaf is located on Addiscombe Road in Croydon, Surrey. I was told that it was a shop with a green sign. It seems on that side of Croydon everything is GREEN! I walked up and down and struggled to find the restaurant… The entrance was un-impressive and I am told that the restaurant has won many restaurateurs prizes?! Isn’t that supposed to include the location and presentation of a restaurant… anyway... I digress. So I found the entrance, got in. It was really dark at the entrance and the only source of light seemed to be coming from a massive fish tank near the till.

The poori  with Mushrooms

 I was taken to the basement where some of my friends were already seating. After all that walk, I was blooming thirsty and just wanted a glass of tap water to cool me down. So I asked for it. The waiter didn’t bring me my glass of tap water before 15 people had placed their drink orders including me and after he had given everyone their drink. Only then, he brought me my tap water… now that put my nose out of joint for the evening!

We proceeded to order the food. It was quite tasty, but often mushy. They didn’t take too long to serve from oder to delivery. I ordered Poori and mushrooms or starters and an aubergine curry with a coconut naan… (I had never heard or tasted any of that before).  Have I told you they were both curries? Yes they were! I skipped dessert… it could have been another sort of curry.



Aubergine curry with naan bread

While we were waiting for our food, I sneaked into the ladies… I always find that if the toilets are clean somewhere it is the sign of how clean the place might be; Restaurant, hotel, a friend house etc…

In this place, the toilet wasn’t the most clean. The taps were surrounded with a accumulation of dirt and the ladies toilet seat was broken. Light in there was very dim too. As for the hand dryer… well I didn’t use it as I thought that if the dryer recycles the air in the room in which it operates, all the possible gremlins will wind up being spitted on the hands I have just washed… yes I am a bit deranged like that… I went back to join the group still wiping my wet hands on my derriere as I suspected my clothes must have been much cleaner than the air from the dryer.

Overall, I will give 2 out of five stars for the food at Banana Leaf.  The venue will have 1 out of five stars. I don’t think I will ever set foot there unless blackmailed.

Highly recommended for High Street fast-food consumers, not for those who want to enjoy the environment as well as the food.

That is what I think, but Don’t take my word for it. Try it and form your own opinion.

Ciao!

The Reviewer.

Ristorante Gustoso - London

The full name of the restaurant is Gustoso Ristorante & Enoteca - London

Inside of the restaurant - Restaurant's own photo

To welcome a new colleague this week, we decided to go check out a new restaurant that opened in Wilton Place between Pimlico and Vitoria.

I saw this place being renovated throughout last year and was really looking forward to eating there. Wilton place is full of offices and private residences; it is also a very quiet street not far from the Queen Victoria Sports centre. It is almost a surprise to stumble on a restaurant here. Only people who use this street as a short cut towards Victoria Street will know there is an Italian restaurant here.

Ladies that lunch

4 of us went to launch and I had booked the table prior to leaving the office. An Italian lady’s voice took my booking making me even more curious than I was already. When we got there, we were welcomed by the smell of a big and very beautiful bouquet of flowers placed in the anti-chambre of the restaurant. We were attended to fairly quickly by a very smiley Italian waitress.

Once seated, another waiter, equally agreeable and Italian too presented (not given, but presented) us with menu boards. I was impressed! The menu and drinks list was beautifully presented on a brown varnished wooden slate… (can you tell? I love artisty and beautiful things). I am easily excited about original things… While we considered what to order, he brought and served us water with ice…Nice touch.

Taking a look around us, the restaurant was beautifully laid, with red light shadings, beigy-brown wooden tables with very darker patterned lines running through, a little pot of flower on every table. The walls had these beautiful Italian drawings and caricatures. Another wall behind me had a big black board with the menu du jour handwritten with chalk. The clients during this lunchtime seem to all be professionals from the area... no lost fans of liquid lunches.

my food order order

Since it was my first time here, I wanted to taste a lot of small dishes so I can make my mind up. I ordered Bruchetta & wild boar pâté, green olives, prawns with Chilli mayonnaise dip .My colleagues tried the fried sardines, spinach, lasagne and other things. The food presentation was really good and would have all tasted really really good had it not been for the amount of salt in the food. WOW!

The most beautiful olives

My wild boar pâté was so salty that I had to scrape the pate and eat the bread on its own. Tut tut. I was really impressed with how it all looked though. Even the green olives really looked like straight-from-the-tree green and glistening with olive oil. We all made the effort to finish our food… It would have been a sin not to.

I hope the salt was just a blip and will return to the restaurant again. If the food is less salty then, I think we may have found a new lunch time hangout.

the rolled towers are in the middle

Two of us did check out the ladies and liked them too; clean, modern with some character given to it by the mirror on the wall. To dry hands there is a choice between a dryer and some actual small real (not paper) hand towel, which I suspect are steamed and cleaned daily…

On my way up from the ladies, I spotted a small private room in the basement… I think I may have my next birthday lunch there.

Over all, I will give the place 4 stars out of 5. They lose 2 points because of the salt, but gained one on the authenticity and the accent of the waiters. The food is very fordable and there is something to eat from £1.50 on the menu. Just pop n to feel the atmosphere.

See you there!

Gustoso Ristorante & Enoteca is situated 35, Wilton Place, London, SW1P 1JH

The Reviewer