What I ate in New York

Now that my Christmas and new year blog posts are done and dusted, I thought it was about time I wrote another blog post about New York.

January feels as if it's dragged on for about a hundred years, and it genuinely feels like a lifetime ago since we experienced the magic of New York during the festive season.

We really love eating (shock horror) so we researched lots of places to eat before we went and plotted all the possibilities on a Trello board. We also added a few must-do-again restaurants to our list after falling in love with a few on our first trip to New York six years ago.

If you know me at all, you'll know that my days are always structured around food whether I'm at home, in work or on holiday. We started every day with a classic American breakfast which usually kept us full until mid afternoon, then we'd have a snack and a hot drink before going out for dinner a few hours later.

After reading the title of this post, I know you all just want see some food photos rather than scrolling through my ramblings. Your wish is my command...



Breakfast 

We ate breakfast at our hotel on the first morning. It was a good breakfast but was very expensive, so we decided to eat at Tick Tock Diner every morning for the rest of our trip. It was only a ten minute walk from our hotel, and we had a bonus view of the Empire State Building from our table if we were given a window seat. The pancakes at Tick Tock Diner are my absolute favourites, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm salivating just thinking about them.

Fast food 

One of the many excellent things about New York is the sheer amount of places where you can eat on the go. There's a huge variety of cuisines to choose from to suit every possible dietary requirement and appetite. Our most difficult decision was figuring out how to try as many places as we possibly could during our trip without over-eating and making ourselves sick.

We discovered a place that sold huge pizza slices for two dollars on our first afternoon so we promptly went there for our first snack of the holiday. Obviously you can't go wrong with a pizza slice for two dollars, so we visited a couple more times before the end of our trip.

We couldn't go to New York without getting a takeaway cheesecake to eat in our hotel room over three days, so we made sure we went to Junior's to get the biggest slice of cheesecake I've ever seen. True to form, it did last three days. 

The next two snacks were absolute must-dos after our last trip. The best hot dog I've ever had from the food court in Grand Central Station, and a giant burrito from Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Lastly on the snack front, no day in my life is complete without a hot chocolate stop. Although we tried to go to coffee shops we wouldn't find in the UK for the most part, I did succumb to a Starbucks one afternoon when I had a sugar low and was freezing cold. 

Dinner 

We'd scouted out all the restaurants we went to for dinner on TripAdvisor beforehand and they definitely lived up to the hype.

My favourite find was Bareburger on 46th St, and we ate here on our first evening and our last evening. If America does one thing really well, it's big fat burgers. And just look at the size of those onion rings! There are lots of sweet potato fries hiding under there too which were equally as delicious. 

After trying Junior's last time we visited New York and rating it as our best meal of the trip, we absolutely had to visit again. The photo makes my meal look a bit beige and bland, but I can promise you that it wasn't. However, I will grudgingly admit that it was far too big for me to eat the entire thing. 

Pure Thai, a little hidden gem on 9th Avenue, was another firm favourite. We would easily have walked past it without a thought if we hadn't looked it up on TripAdvisor. It was a tiny little restaurant with fewer than ten tables so we were lucky to get seated without a booking. The food was so simple but SO TASTY, and the service was fantastic. 

We splashed out on an expensive meal at K Rico Steakhouse, a few doors up from Pure Thai. We had three courses and a couple of glasses of wine, and it was well worth the price. The waiter helpfully warned us that the desserts were big enough to share, so I didn't eat that entire slice of cheesecake myself (just in case you were wondering). 

I well and truly miss New York and its amazing food, and I'm absolutely starving after writing this post. Have I inspired you to try any of these places if/when you visit New York? Let me know! 

Restaurant review: Llanerch Vineyard

It was my husband's 30th birthday in March and I wanted to take him somewhere special for his birthday meal. After several hours of googling and trip-advisoring (trip-advisoring should definitely become an official verb), I decided to treat him to Sunday lunch at Llanerch Vineyard.

Llanerch Vineyard is situated in Hensol in the Vale of Glamorgan, just off junction 34 of the M4. I'd never been there myself but I'd heard colleagues raving about it, and the reviews on Trip Advisor speak for themselves. I emailed the restaurant to book a table for Sunday 1st March and to order a gift voucher for a three course Sunday lunch for two. I thought it would be nicer to pay beforehand and to give Neil a voucher rather than paying on the day, particularly as he probably wouldn't let me pay for it all myself if I paid on the day! The restaurant staff were really helpful and made the whole booking experience very easy. Now all I had to do was keep the location a secret.

On 1st March, we got into my car and I drove to Hensol. Although Neil kept trying to guess where we were going for the entire journey, I knew he hadn't heard of Llanerch Vineyard so I was pretty confident that none of his guesses would be correct. I put some effort into my appearance for the occasion... definitely the best bun I've ever achieved!

The weather was unfortunately quite dull and dreary, but this didn't dampen the appearance of Llanerch Vineyard at all. The restaurant's surrounding areas were beautiful and I could have taken photos of all the different nooks and crannies for hours. However, I only took a few as I was hungry and didn't want to annoy Neil on his birthday with my incessant photographing. Also, as the scenery outside the restaurant itself was so lovely, I couldn't wait to see what the interior was like. 

The interior of the Cariad Bistro & Restaurant didn't disappoint. It was charmingly rustic but with a modern and fresh twist, and it felt like the perfect place for a nice Sunday lunch. We were shown to our table by a friendly waitress and were greeted by a daffodil on our table to mark St David's Day. 

I ordered the soup of the day to start, then the roast sirloin of beef Sunday roast for my main. I'm a massive fan of Sunday dinner and have had some excellent examples in my time, so this meal had a lot to live up to. My soup arrived promptly with a nice bread roll... 

The soup of the day was carrot and coriander and it was very tasty. I've always liked tinned carrot and coriander soup, but obviously this was ten times better. The roll (Swansea bread, apparently) was also delicious. I usually prefer white bread with soup but this roll was the perfect accompaniment. A good start! I cleared my bowl and sat back to wait for my main course. 

Wow. Just wow. The plate looked a lot prettier before I loaded my cauliflower cheese and vegetables on to it, but still... wow! Massive yorkshire pudding, honeyed roast parsnips, roast potatoes, sprouts, carrots, green beans, cauliflower cheese and the most succulent beef I've ever had. The meal was topped with a lovely rich gravy. I ate every scrap and absolutely loved every  bit of it. Neil doesn't like cauliflower cheese so I had a double helping of that which was a bonus. I also love a good honeyed parsnip and these were roasted just the way I like them. Neil asked for lamb as his meat of choice and said it was the best lamb he's ever had. Top marks from both of us for the main course! I was far too full for dessert, but we had a voucher for a three course meal so we obviously had to finish the meal off in style. 

I ordered the white chocolate and apricot cheesecake with butterscotch cream for my dessert... possibly the most decadent dessert I've ever had. And yes, I include my Italian holidays in that statement which makes it even more impressive. I didn't even know if I liked butterscotch but the little dollop of cream with cocoa dusting was just heavenly. The base was very thick and buttery and the filling itself was so rich and indulgent with just the right amount of apricot flavouring. Absolutely beautiful. I'm also a big fan of round desserts (no idea why) so this bowled me over on all counts. 

The rain cleared up while we were eating so we went outside for a wander after finishing our food. The vineyard itself is just a few metres from the restaurant, and there's a seating area outside ready for the warmer weather. Such a pretty setting for a Sunday lunch! I definitely want to go back during the summer so that we can have a longer walk around the vineyard. 

The restaurant at Llanerch Vineyard definitely lived up to all its hype. Every aspect of our three course meal was delicious and it really felt like an indulgent treat. I paid £45 for the voucher for two which is very reasonable considering both the quality and the quantity of the food. The service was excellent and the views were beautiful, even if the weather wasn't perfect on the day we visited. 

Have you ever visited Llanerch Vineyard? What did you think? We'll definitely be back!  

Restaurant review: The Captain's Wife

The Captain's Wife is more of a pub than a restaurant, but I didn't want to disrupt the title of my series! Just humour me...

We visited The Captain's Wife back in November to celebrate our three month wedding anniversary. I'd never been there before but I'd heard lots of good things (particularly about their portion sizes) so I was pretty excited. We decided a few hours before lunchtime that we'd like to give it a go, so we simply went online and booked a table there and then. Hassle-free!

The Captain's Wife is situated in a little village a mile or so from our house so I'm not sure why we've never thought to visit it before. It was a gloriously sunny day which really showed off the restaurant's beautiful surroundings, and I could have stood outside taking photos for hours. However, I love my food too much for this to be a realistic possibility. Ever.

I'd been yearning for a roast dinner for weeks so I opted for their Sunday roast with turkey. This was my first roast dinner since the wedding so my levels of anticipation were very high, and I was absolutely famished (as usual). We didn't have to wait too long for our food even though the restaurant was fairly busy, and the dinner was rather impressive when it arrived...

I was lovingly gazing at the parsnips and roast potatoes so I didn't even notice that there were no vegetables on my plate. They came along in a separate dish which I then added topsy-turvily to my plate, but I made sure I took the 'before' picture as my presentation skills aren't very good when it comes to food!

It was a proper mountain of food but I valiantly ate every morsel, as I'm sure you'd expect from me by now. The roast potatoes were particularly good, as well as the yorkshire pudding. Parsnips are my favourite vegetable in the world so I heartily enjoyed those too. You just can't beat a massive roast dinner!

You'd have thought we couldn't even consider ordering dessert after eating this lot... you thought wrong. I ordered the peanut butter and chocolate cheesecake without thinking twice as the description in the menu was simply salivating. 

Our desserts did take a while to appear from the kitchen but I didn't mind too much when I saw mine. Just look at that sugary chocolatey pile of goodness! I took a photo halfway through to show all the different layers... so tasty. There was a huge layer of cream on the top and a generous helping of chocolate sauce around the edges, as well as a beautiful chocolate base. I'm not even a huge fan of peanut butter when it comes out of a jar, but the layer of peanut butter on the top and the cheesecake mixture itself were just amazing. I (obviously) ate every bit of this course too. 

Needless to say, we'll definitely be back in The Captain's Wife soon. The location is perfect for us and the food was so reasonable considering the sheer volume of it. It was also exquisite! The atmosphere was very homely and family-friendly, and it was just a lovely experience all round with friendly staff and beautiful views from the rustic windows. It also has a seating area outside if you fancied a drink in the sun. This place is just perfect for anniversary meals, birthday occasions or just a normal sunny Sunday. Or a rainy Sunday, but your external photos won't look so nice!  

Have you ever been to The Captain's Wife? Did you also manage two courses...? Let me know what you thought! 

Last big meal before the wedding!

I'm sure it won't surprise you to hear that I'm currently in strict 'wedding diet' mode. The big day is less than a fortnight away so I'm spending even more time than usual in the gym and obsessing over eating healthily and cutting out any rubbish from my diet. Boring, but essential for my sanity!

I went out for lunch with my lovely work colleagues yesterday as this is my last week in work before my wedding and honeymoon leave. We decided to go to the Cedar Tree Farm restaurant in Cardiff Bay as we hadn't been there before as a group. You can read my previous blog post on this amazing place here. I fully intended to be healthy and to restrict myself to a very small helping from the carvery, but this just didn't happen. I can't say no to food when it's right in front of me!

I went for the beef option as I haven't tried it before and it looked very lean. So I started well! I then said yes to a yorkshire pudding and stuffing, and things just snowballed from there...

I even went for the 'small plate' option instead of my usual 'standard plate', but it didn't seem to reduce my portion size. I just piled things even higher than usual! My plate mainly consisted of beef, yorkshire pudding, stuffing, roast parsnips, roast potatoes, swede, carrots, red cabbage, some kind of cauliflower cheese concoction and onion gravy. Diet fail! I probably did manage to squeeze in my 5 a day though, on the bright side.

After insisting from the beginning that none of us were having dessert, we eventually decided to share a slice of the Galaxy cheesecake between the 7 of us as it looked so beautifully decadent. We weren't quite prepared for the sheer size of the portion...

We didn't manage to finish the magnificent slice (if you can even call it that) even though there were 7 of us there to tackle it! Yes, most of us are on diets, but that still shows how massive the thing was. It was so good though... the biscuit base was absolutely beautiful and there were two different layers of chocolate mousse which were both mouth-wateringly delicious. I only wish I'd managed to finish the whole thing off, but I did have a tiny bit of a conscience left at this point which strongly insisted that I'd feel guilty later if I ate any more. Put the spoon down! I consoled myself by mentally pencilling in a guilt-free date to return after the honeymoon in order to conquer one of these fantastic desserts. Well, I say 'guilt-free'... I don't think anyone could consume that much sugar/fat/chocolatey goodness without feeling a bit guilty. 

Needless to say, I was too full to eat anything else substantial all day and I worked extra hard in my Spin class after work. 

So I've (hopefully) had my last big meal before the wedding day... I'm glad it was such a good one! 

Restaurant Review: Cedar Tree Farm

Newsflash... I might have found a new favourite restaurant. Cedar Tree Farm is a relatively new pub/restaurant which is located in the Cardiff Bay Retail Park area. Neil and I went there on Sunday evening with a few of Neil's friends, and I'm still raving about it. I know I talk about food a lot, but this place really is worth talking about.

This photo was taken from my car window...

There was only one parking space left in the entire car park when we turned up at 5:30pm on Sunday, so you might need to park elsewhere if you're visiting on a Sunday. Luckily Neil's friend had booked us a table (again, booking is essential on a Sunday) so we went to join the rest of the party and salivated over the menu for a while. As well as offering a very impressive carvery, Cedar Tree Farm also provides pub favourites such as chilli con carne, curry, fish and chips, pies, sandwiches, and so on. 

If you choose to go for the carvery like I did, you have a choice of three plates - small, large or mega. I went for the large option as I wanted to leave some room for dessert... I'm always thinking about my next course/meal. You go up to the counter area to order your food then move on to the carvery section to choose your meat/s and help yourself to a copious selection of vegetables. 

You can choose gammon, turkey or beef for your meat option. If you really like meat, you can choose all three! I just went for turkey as I'm not a big meat fan and wanted to pile my plate high with vegetables instead. All the meat was falling off the bone in lovely thin strips... it all looked amazing. 

Although the meat looked impressive, I was mostly impressed by the veg and all the trimmings. Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, boiled potatoes, carrots, red cabbage, green cabbage, broccoli, swede, stuffing, parsnips, gravy... my eyes must have been like saucers! I LOVE VEGETABLES. I wanted to take more photographs, but the counter was very busy and I don't think people would have appreciated my camera standing between them and this amazing food. 

As you can see, I managed to fit quite a lot on my 'large' plate, including a very healthy portion of parsnips as they looked really delicious. I can confirm that everything on my plate tasted beautiful and I ate every last crumb. I was genuinely gutted that you can't go up for seconds! My highlights were the parsnips, swede, red cabbage, roast potatoes... I'm going to stop there before I name everything on my plate. I'm not even a big fan of turkey usually, but I was even impressed with that. Definitely the most tender turkey I've ever eaten. Everything tasted fresh and of a very high quality, and I wasn't disappointed with a single aspect of the meal. 

In spite of my huge meal, I still wanted to try a dessert as the rather magnificent dessert counter had caught my eye on the way in to the restaurant. After having a closer look, I can confirm that I've never seen anything like it outside of America. The cheesecakes on display were as big as my head! I have quite a big head so that makes them even more impressive. 

I obviously had to post lots of photos of the desserts on offer...

Are you hungry yet? It was an extremely difficult choice due to the vast array of options available, but I decided to go for the Strawberry Shortcake Sundae. Although I was very tempted by a number of the cheesecakes, I was in an ice cream mood. I thought it would probably be quite large due to the sheer size of the cheesecakes, and I definitely wasn't wrong! 

Although the double whipped cream on the top was lovely, it was quite heavy after a while so I was relieved when I hit the ice cream layer underneath. There were huge strawberry slices in the sundae as well as strawberry ice cream, clotted cream ice cream and oodles of crushed shortcake. The ice cream was very creamy and, unsurprisingly, there was lots of it. I was full to bursting by the time I got to the end, but I absolutely had to finish every drop. There was no way I was wasting even a tiny bit of this spectacular dessert!

The atmosphere in the restaurant was very relaxed and homely, and I thought the prices were pretty reasonable. My 'large' carvery plate was £7.95 (it's cheaper during the week) and my dessert was £4.20. The desserts at the Harvester are the same price and they're definitely not as big as the desserts at this restaurant. So if you live in the Cardiff area and fancy a nice Sunday lunch/dinner during the next few weeks, you can pop down to Cedar Tree Farm for a huge and very reasonable meal!

I can't wait to visit Cedar Tree Farm again... the big question is, should I go for a 'mega' plate next time and sacrifice dessert, or should I try a slice of cheesecake? All comments welcomed! 

Florida and food...

One of my favourite things about going on holiday is knowing that I can eat as much as I want without feeling guilty. I always make a big effort to eat healthily during the week when I'm at home, so it's nice to relax the rules when I'm on holiday. Calories don't count when you're abroad, right?

The food in Florida is absolutely immense and I couldn't even begin to describe all the meals I ate there... you'd probably think I was disgusting if I detailed everything I ate. Or you'd be very very jealous.

I thought I'd compile a list of my top five restaurants, then I realised that I couldn't really narrow it down to a top five because there are so many fantastic places to eat in Orlando. So... I've attempted to rank my favourite five restaurants, but I added a load of notable mentions too to make sure I didn't leave anything out. I didn't take many photos of my food unfortunately, but I can assure you that it was all amazing.

1. Portobello, Downtown Disney

We ate in Portobello on our last night, and we definitely saved the best until last. I had beef and veal meatballs in a tomato sauce to start, and spinach and ricotta ravioli for my main course. We were also given some bread rolls with olive oil and roasted garlic... I'm still drooling at the thoughts of this amazing meal. Words can't actually describe it. We didn't have room for dessert unfortunately, but we did splash out on a bottle of Pinot Grigio as it was our last night. This was also Neil's favourite meal of the holiday, and we'll definitely be returning at least once next time we go to Florida. 20 out of 10!

2. The Cheesecake Factory, Mall at Millenia

The Cheesecake Factory isn't actually in Disney World but it's an absolute must if you're ever visiting Orlando. It's located in Mall at Millenia, and it's definitely not just about the cheesecake... although that's pretty good too. Their menu is about 20 pages long, and you really do have to spend about fifteen minutes deciding what you want. I went for a grilled chicken and avocado sandwich for my main course and the Oreo cheesecake for my dessert. You might be thinking that a sandwich is just a sandwich, but this is definitely the best sandwich I've ever had in my life. Don't even get me started on the cheesecake... it was absolutely spectacular. I took it back to the resort with me and took three days to finish it!

3. The Rainforest Cafe, Downtown Disney

Again, this is a restaurant you absolutely have to visit if you're in the area. It's a very unique restaurant as the interior actually makes you feel as if you're in a rainforest... there are even fake earthquakes and volcano eruptions from time to time! I had an amazing Italian sausage and mozzarella pasta in a tomato sauce, and I definitely didn't need a starter or a dessert to go with this massive main course. They do lovely cocktails too!

4. Perkins, Crossroads

Perkins is situated just outside the gates to Walt Disney World and is hugely popular with tourists and locals alike. We went for breakfast at Perkins twice... I had a bacon, egg and cheese melt with hash browns the first time and strawberry pancakes the second time. I ate every bite of the bacon, egg and cheese melt as it was probably the best breakfast I've ever had. However, I only managed one and a half pancakes as my stomach doesn't seem to let me eat any more than that before getting full. This is very gutting for me as their pancakes are delicious!

5. Via Napoli, Epcot

Need I say any more after sharing this picture? This pepperoni pizza was big enough for both of us to share and is one of the best pizzas I've ever had. I know I keep saying that about all the food I eat in Florida, but it's so true! I also had lovely mozzarella and risotto balls to start in Via Napoli, but the starters are always slightly overshadowed (literally) by this immense pizza. The pizza dough was absolutely perfect, and the pepperoni was really tasty and wasn't dripping with grease. No other pizza will ever satisfy me!

Notable mentions:

Nine Dragons Restaurant, Epcot's World Showcase

We ate here three times!

Earl of Sandwich, Downtown Disney

Pictures will never do it justice.

Ghirardelli's, Downtown Disney

Might have eaten four of these during the holiday...

Be our Guest, Magic Kingdom

An amazing and authentic dining experience... and I met the Beast!

Karamell-Kuche, Epcot's World Showcase

I wanted EVERYTHING... I settled for some chocolate covered grapes. 

Good's Food to Go, Old Key West

Good old American food!

The Plaza, Magic Kingdom

Lovely burger and New York cheesecake... first meal after we got engaged :)

Churros and pretzels, everywhere!

Are you hungry yet? The big question is... how did I only put on 2lbs?!