Catch up reviews

As our third outing down the road is imminent I'll give brief reviews of the restaurants already visited.

Sanuk - I made no notes at all but remembered that the decor was quite red and the dishes came with decorative flowers! I enjoyed the discussions on scoring establishments though felt that post-its and flipchart paper would be an advantage next time.

Istanbul Grill - I was more on the ball this time and made notes the same evening. All the WREC were present and so we were able to go through the scoring system again - though we failed to bring the requisite recording materials.

I was disappointed with the service as it was slow and our dishes did not arrive together. Also my main meal was served on a cold plate and was luke warm so by the time I stopped talking about the need for a 3 dimensional scoring matrix my food had gone cold!

I can't remember much about the decor except that there were some decent abstract paintings displayed and the presentational touches were sometimes innovative (e.g. a lettuce stuck in a cucumber) though a bit weird.

As for the food, the shared starter plate had good variety and one very hot chilli. Apart from being luke warm, my main course had too much onion to lamb. We avoided the desserts as they were shown with photos as in tacky holiday resort restaurants. We did chose the Turkish red wine, which was not as bad as feared.

The food, service and decor is of course only part of the experience of dining out and soon fades. The company, the atmosphere we generate and the conversation is what stays in the mind. Leaving the kids safely tucked up with their DSs and chocolate stashes, we were all ready for deep meaningful adult discussion. Let loose, and able to talk uninterrupted, our conversation ranged from problems we have had with mobile phones via Birmingham and the Apprentice (oh, those heady days of something worth watching on TV!) to the nerdy jobs we would secretly like to have if we were not gainfully employed elsewhere. We need to get out more ...

Crikey - I can blog by Diner4

It's taken so long to be able to post - I've forgotten what to say. I'll be back!

Well our second outing for the Wrec was at the Istanbul Grill in Didsbury. To be honest I was expecting the choice of food to be rather limited here and was hoping to be pleasantly surprised, which I'm pleased to say I was. Looking through the menu I had one of those terrible moments as a diner of having to make a choice! There were several starters and main courses that I would have liked so choosing between them was quite hard. One of the advantages of dining with 5 other people is that, if you play your cards right, they'll let you taste some of their food which, now that the Wrec have had two outings, seems to be acceptable. This means that at the Istanbul Grill I not only had the opportunity to taste my own very tasty food but also that of my fellow diners, and there was plenty of tasty food to choose from. For my main meal I had Istanbul stew which was Lamb cooked on the bone in a tomato sauce, a dish I would highly recommend especially as there was plenty of it. My only criticism of this restaurant was the rather slow service, especially as the restaurant wasn't particularly busy.

Life within the WREC is moving on nicely now. We have now had all members present and I think that I can safely say that we're enjoying the fact that for at least once a month we can meet up with like minded friends and get away from busy family life. We're starting to get into the swing of the scoring criteria, although we still haven't decided what to do with this information yet, but most importantly one diner who made it clear from meal one that he doesn't share his food, is the diner in meal 2 who offered to share his fish cakes.....onwards and upwards!

Better late than never!

The Sanuk
At last I am contributing to the comments. (At least I'm not THE last!) Well I imagine the last 2 diners are going to have an equally difficult time of remembering what we ate in the Sanuk. To be honest I was excited at the idea of regularly meeting for a meal out. I became the 'note taker' for the evening (mainly because I was the one with a pen and a paper in my bag!). There was much debate about the features we would comment on and I insisted we include the toilet facilities-subconciously I feel there is a link between the cleanliness of the bathroom and kitchen-based on no logic what so ever!
In the Sanuk I liked the contempory decor and was impressed with the presntation of food. I can't honestly remember what I ate but I know it tasted good and was pleased that I appeared to have chosen well compared to my fellow diners. Yes I would encourage others to sample this restaurant.
The 'Turkist restaurant next to the laughing Buddah'
The venue name can't be that memorable but most people knew where I meant when I described our next dining choice. (I'm not good at remembering things!)
I enjoyed the tasty mixed starters-perfect for sharing. I'd dithered about choosing the fish cakes but was honoured when a fellow diner allowed me to taste his! I expected my main course of chicken, spinach and feta cheese to have a stronger flavour but I still enjoyed it-just the right portion size for me. Didn't fancy the desserts-photos on a laminated menu put me off but did have a nice earl grey tea (sorry not very Turkish). An enjoyable evening yet again!