Recent Food Outings

Well, a pub and resto really; I've been eating my way through the contents of the cupboards and freezer, and have only really gone out socially lately.

The restaurant: Chez Gerard in Guildford. Lovely; attentive non-servile staff who know how to keep just the right amount of attention going; good steak served in gorgeous slices with a decently firey pepper sauce, and a little pot of yummy anchovy butter with the bread (and a second pot delivered after we devoured the first one). Credible wine and a 'licious tarte citron to finish; all in all a most civilised experience, marred only by the difficulty of finding a pub in the centre of Guildford afterwards (we eventually found a really local local which itself would have been acceptable to eat at with a pint or two of beer, and warmed outselves with JDs before heading back out into the night. It can be cold out there without one's shoes on - high shoes, cobbles, tired feet, bad combination, especially when we headed back and found a disguised-in-black good-looking pub just down the high street from Chez Gerard).

Finding a pub was no problem the day after though; my friend S and I postponed a wild trip to Brighton (she was still tired from a wild trip to London; I was virtuous and had been pointed towards the train before 10pm in Guildford) in favour of a late working session and dinner at the Gatwick Manor. Now I know this is part of a big chain (Chef & Brewer) and the menus are meant to be the same everywhere etc etc but it's really not true: the GM kitchen staff turn out some damn fine meat courses, and the service is much better and friendlier than you'd expect from a pub of this size (it's huge). Mine was Pork Chops; fatless but succulent chops on a big bed of non-fatty bubble-n-squeak (delicious); S had the sausages and mash ('comfort food' said the girl with the hangover bigger than herself). I don't think I'll be trying that week's special beer again though. Now, if I could just remember what it was called...