Going dining...

Menu range	*****
Atmosphere	****
Surroundings	***
Facilities	***
Service	***
Quality	*****
Worth it?	****
Return?	****
Overall	31/40

Brasserie Gerard
35-36 Abbeygate Street
Bury St. Edmunds
IP33 1LW
Tel: 01284 756260
Email: bury@brasseriegerard.co.uk

http://www.brasseriegerard.co.uk/

Brasserie Gerard promises much and offers pleasant and agreeable surroundings. However, it is more formulaic than effective and one senses a certain lack of passion in the preparation of the food. Nevertheless, the staff are most hospitable and charming and all is set fair for an enjoyable evening. The food is perfectly acceptable but a little salty and not very hot. But there’s to choose from and bill won’t break the bank. You would probably be better off in France.

Menu range	****
Atmosphere	***
Surroundings	***
Facilities	***
Service	****
Quality	***
Worth it?	***
Return?	**
Overall	25/40

The Angel Hotel

3 Angel Hill
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP33 1LT
Tel: 01284 714000
Email: staying@theangel.co.uk

http://www.theangel.co.uk/

Charles Dickens was a guest at the Angel Hotel and this venerable coaching house features in the Pickwick Papers but Mr Dickens would be unlikely to recognise the contemporary style of what is thought-provokingly called The Eaterie. However, he’s missing a treat because it’s well worth a visit and the place clearly boasts an excellent chef. The staff are the usual students who don’t know a great deal about service but the maître d is in-charge and everything runs smoothly. Try and get a table by the window and look across the Angel Hill to the medieval Abbey Gate. The restaurant is a rare example of a place in which, even if it is busy and buzzing, you can still hear what your companion is saying. There’s a good wine list but, if you take coffee or liqueurs in the lounge afterwards, there’s a good chance you will be forgotten. At the end of the day, however, Bury St Edmunds is fortunate to have the Angel Hotel in its midst.

Menu range	****
Atmosphere	****
Surroundings	***
Facilities	****
Service	**
Quality	****
Worth it?	**
Return?	****
Overall	27/40

The Grid Grill

34 Abbeygate Street
Bury St. Edmunds
IP33 1LW
Tel: 01284 706004

The Grid is a splendid privately-run restaurant in Bury St Edmunds with a good chef and a good menu. It’s all a bit cramped and you’re more comfortable upstairs or in one of the two alcoves on the ground flour. No surprises that the staff are students and don’t win prizes for service. Rightly or wrongly, we’re used to that... Nevertheless, it’s good to be in a restaurant which isn’t run by a chain and the quality of the menu and wine list will satisfy most tastes.

The White Horse at Whepstead
Rede Road
Whepstead
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP29 4SS
Tel: 01284 735 760

http://www.whitehorsewhepstead.co.uk/

A visit to the Beehive at Horringer soon became a visit to the White Horse at Whepstead when a website redirected us there. Lucky us! This is one of those classic Suffolk gems: a good country pub with excellent food and a warm welcome from enthusiastic staff. It’s a bit of a tale of two cities – a charming dining area to the left but a rather utilitarian eating space to the right. We settled for the area in between – a window table by the bar with two splendid Windsor chairs. The gourmet menu chalked on the wall promised well and we weren’t disappointed. However, the rather tired side salad was not particularly satisfying. Other than that, this is a good place to come. Our host was certainly keen to tell us that it was a good place to come. On the way, home the driver hadn’t been drinking but the effect of the icy roads suggested another story!

Menu range	****
Atmosphere	****
Surroundings	***
Facilities	***
Service	****
Quality	****
Worth it?	****
Return?	****
Overall	30/40

The Zen Noodle Bar
6 Angel Lane
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP33 1RF
Tel: 01284 723 559
www.zen-noodlebar.co.uk

If you’ve a few minutes to spare while waiting for the bus, you can go and have dinner at the Zen Noodle Bar. It is fast – very fast! The courses arrive in whatever order the chef chooses to send them out in and there’s something of the staff canteen about it all. However, the food is good and the crypt-like-cellar has a good atmosphere. If you’re not into uncomfortable benches and backache, bring your own chair. And make sure that you have plenty to do for the rest of the evening. (We went to The Angel for pudding. After all, we knew that would take a long time!)

Menu range	****
Atmosphere	***
Surroundings	*
Facilities	*
Service	**
Quality	***
Worth it?	***
Return?	**
Overall	19/40

The Greek Taverna
22B Hatter Street
Bury St Edmunds
IP33 1NE
Tel: 01284 752 900

Nicos, proprietor of the Greek Taverna, is a Bury St. Edmunds legend! His cute little restaurant in Hatter Street is only open to bookings and, even then, it helps if you’re a regular. A good word to use of this place is – idiosyncratic… Forget about a menu; there isn’t one. But the food just keeps coming and Nicos divides his time between the kitchen and the politics of his Cypriot homeland. It’s rather like going round to Nicos’s home for supper. He is a great host and very generous. You’re missing out socially if you haven’t had the Greek Taverna experience!

Menu range	***
Atmosphere	***
Surroundings	**
Facilities	***
Service	****
Quality	**
Worth it?	**
Return?	***
Overall	22/40

The Leaping Hare
Wyken Hall
Wyken Road
Stanton
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP31 2DW
Tel: 01359 250 262
www.wykenvineyards.co.uk

Wyken Vineyard is a rare treasure in the Suffolk scene. Good quality wine, beautiful grounds, and the Leaping Hare – not to mention the farmers market on Saturday mornings – make this a must-go experience. We arrived as the farmers market was packing up and the rain beginning to fall so the medieval barn which is now a high quality a la carte restaurant was most welcome. One feels as if one is rubbing shoulders with the great and the good of Suffolk but then, let’s face it, they were rubbing shoulders with us. The service was good if a little impersonal and lunch is expensive. Excellent quality locally produced food and you can walk it all off afterwards either in the grounds or, in our case, in the shop.

Menu range	*****
Atmosphere	****
Surroundings	***
Facilities	*****
Service	***
Quality	*****
Worth it?	****
Return?	*****
Overall	34/40

Ipswich School
25 Henley Road
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP1 3SG
Tel: 01473 408300
www.ipswich.suffolk.sch.uk

Not open to the public, funnily enough, but inside influence resulted in school lunch one day. And well worth it because this school clearly cares about its people, their appetites, and their health. Very good food and lots of choice – not to mention that essential accompaniment: delicious tap water in those standard issue school glasses. We sat on the masters table and heard various accounts of morning lessons. Riveting stuff but then one of us at least was an interloper so we could hardly expect the conversation to be much broader. You can’t go and share the experience but you will be glad to know that the pupils are getting something for their fifteen grand a year!

Menu range	****
Atmosphere	***
Surroundings	**
Facilities	**
Service	****
Quality	****
Worth it?	****
Return?	****
Overall	27/40

Pizza Express Ipswich
24 Lloyds Avenue
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP1 3HD
Tel: 01473 212651

www.pizzaexpress.co.uk

Its late Friday night and we’re in Ipswich so thank goodness for Pizza Express with its flowery blue smile attracting us along the deserted shopping centre. As ever, you know what to expect and the standard is high. The waiting staff, on this occasion, were a little cool and the charm school must have been closed! However, the food was excellent and where else would you want to be just after a performance of Rossini’s The Barber of Servile… Yes, ok, Spain or Italy!

Menu range	****
Atmosphere	***
Surroundings	***
Facilities	**
Service	**
Quality	***
Worth it?	***
Return?	****
Overall	24/40

Maison Bleue
30 - 31 Churchgate Street
Bury St Edmunds
Suffolk
IP33 1RG
Tel: 01284 760 623

www.maisonbleue.co.uk

It is regarded as a social catastrophe never to have been seen dining in Maison Bleue, the premiere restaurant of Bury St Edmunds and one of the finest in the region. It should have a Michelin star but we’re not yet accredited for doling them out so it will have to make do with a willnmike star. The restaurant is characterised by a quiet elegance and the maître d’ remembers her guests and welcomes each of them with exquisite courtesy and warmth. The menu is equally exquisite and it is impossible to make a bad choice from the wine list. One dines at a gentle pace and the small portions are completely satisfying. You don’t quite need to take a mortgage out to go through the front door but you’re unlikely to be dining here every night. (In any case, it is closed on Sundays and Mondays…) Everyone has heard of Maison Bleue; not everyone has been fortunate to visit it.

Menu range	*****
Atmosphere	*****
Surroundings	*****
Facilities	***
Service	****
Quality	*****
Worth it?	***
Return?	*****
Overall	35/40

House of Fraser Outlet Cafeteria Doncaster
10-14 Baxter Gate
Doncaster
DN1 1NR
Tel: 0844 800 3722

www.houseoffraser.co.uk

We are in Doncaster so where else would we take lunch than in the House of Fraser Outlet Cafeteria?  And that is exactly what we do… Actually, it’s ok as these things go and the service is warm and jolly. We don’t even have to clear the table from previous occupants as there are plenty of tables to choose from: it’s not quite the January sales. The food does what is says on the tin and, where it lacks sophistication, one can always stare out of the panoramic window across to the beautiful St George’s Minster, Doncaster’s parish church.

Menu range	**
Atmosphere	***
Surroundings	***
Facilities	**
Service	***
Quality	**
Worth it?	**
Return?	*
Overall	18/40

University College Durham

Durham Castle
Palace Green
Durham
DH1 3RW
0191 334 4099
www.dur.ac.uk/university.college/

Durham’s little bit of Oxbridge is University College, housed in the medieval Durham Castle, former home of the Prince Bishops. You can’t quite walk in off the street – certainly not in term time. You need to be a member of one of the common rooms and we are dining on High Table along with other members of the Senior Common Room. Yes, it’s all college servants, portraits, academic gowns, and a Latin Grace. The food is good but inevitably rather institutional. It’s a college tradition, not an economy drive, that dons carry the candelabra back to the Senior Common Room after dinner. If talk over the port begins to wane, one can always take a stroll up the Black Staircase and along the Norman Gallery – to walk off the beef and red wine. You’re unlikely to be able to dine here; we just wanted to show off that we had!

Menu range	***
Atmosphere	*****
Surroundings	***
Facilities	**
Service	**
Quality	***
Worth it?	****
Return?	****
Overall	26/40

Slug and Lettuce Durham
7 Unit
Durham
DH1 1SQ
Tel: 0845 126 2900
www.slugandlettuce.co.uk

It used to be a tatty old car park but it’s now a piazza of theatre, hotels and restaurants sliding down the back to the River Wear. They’re all chains and, there amongst them, is the Slug and Lettuce. A big open plan set up with striking and quirky black and white photographs of Durham’s nooks and crannies. The menu is what you would expect; plenty to choose from, not much to write home about. But it was all worthwhile thanks to our great fun waitress. Thanks, whoever you were!