Friday, 14 October 2011

The Harvester



So, My parents and I went out for a meal at The Harvester, I thought I would review it for you.
Upon entering, we were forced to wait quite a while, not because it was busy, but because there didn't seem to be any staff around. When we were seated I ordered the chicken and bacon stack with corn on the cob and chips. (I skipped the starter and had from the salad bar instead.) 
The salad was nice, there was a great selection to choose from, along with a nice range of dressings and toppings and bread rolls. The only problems were that some of the salad was a bit limp and the pasta was a little over cooked. The bread rolls, however were very, very nice, they were still warm, and the texture was beautiful.
The chicken and bacon stack was what the title had promised, a stack. They were very generous with the portion size. The bacon and chicken were a bit over-cooked, but the sauce disguised it well when teamed with the slice of melted cheese. The barbecue sauce was perfect, although there was a little too much of it, It had a lovely smokey taste with just enough spice to give it a good kick without being over - powering. The chips were delicious, they were seasoned to perfection before they were brought to the table; I just wish they would have been slightly more crisp.
I gave into temptation and ordered an ice - cream sundae to share with my mum, we has the "Coconut Heaven" and they wasn't lying, it was heavenly. There was a gorgeous coconut sauce on top of the whipped cream with pineapple chunks hidden beneath - In my opinion a great combo. The warm fudge cake at the bottom of the glass was nice, but there was too much of it, after a couple of spoonfuls of it, it became too sickly, even though its warmth went nicely with the cold ice - cream.
Overall, the food was delicious, the service was good, and was just generally a pleasure to eat there, which is why I give it 7/10
 

Saturday, 8 October 2011

McDonald's 1955 Burger.


McDonalds 1955 Burger was recently released, so I went to go try it. The first thing I noted was the size of the box, It was very large compared to the usual size you can expect to recieve. When I got to the table and opened the box I found that the usual Mcdonalds standard wasn't spared, the burger looked like it had just been dropped into the box, onions scattered everywhere.
Presentation aside The overall taste was nothing special. The bun looked nice, but it was slightly more chewy that what I would have liked.The "Caramelised onions" didn't actually seem to be caramelised at all, they were limp, moist and flavourless, it was as if they had been left in a container to sweat all day. I was particularly looking forward to the bacon, as the best burgers I have ever eaten have always contained bacon, however this time was different, the bacon was very fatty and slightly undercooked for my taste; as it was also very limp. I think they would have done better with a type of dried cure bacon. I was told that there was supposed to be a smokey tomato sauce, but my burger seemed to have a significant lack of it, instead, it was drenched in what seemed to be Mcdonalds own burger sauce, which I'm not too keen on at the best of times. The burger patty itself was very thin and rubbery, It had the texture of being reheated as it was very dry. The taste of the patty was also dissapointing, as is had no real flavour and little to no seasoning.
Overall, The 1955 burger was nice, it was a great size compared to normal Mcdonalds burgers, unfortunately it was ruined by its lack of any real flavours, any that were present merged into each other. Of course this is just my opinion, I'm sure there are people that would disagree.  I would give it 4/10.