Akbars Restaurant Review

I've heard this place is really good so when my cousin and aunt and niece invited me along I wasn't going to say no!

We arrive and the place is pretty huge. Two big wooden doors welcome you to the stunning interior full of twinkling lights, elephant statues, Buddha heads etc. The Waiter leads us to our table which is in a huge room that seats at least 100 people.



Its a bit dark in here and I worry slightly about not being able to see my food. There are real rose petals on the table, it has a very romantic feel to the place.

I have a look at the menu and order the seafood balti at £9.95, my family go for chicken balti and another chicken dish which I cannot remember.

We have a few poppadoms to start and four dips, one of which is a fresh coriander with lime and green chillies which is delicious but very spicy. The tomato and onion, raita and mango chutney are average.

The food arrives and its tasty, I cannot really see what I am eating though but it has lots of lovely coriander and the spices compliment each other well.
I'm not overly impressed because Pakistani food is the food I was brought up on and I've had better but it wasn't bad.
Theres also a huge family sized naan which is delicious with a lovely onion seed flavour.



Most of the customers are rich fur coat wearing women in their twenties or middle aged couples, theres only one Asian family in the whole dining room and a fair few children. I spot a waiter carrying some sort of chicken nuggets and chips to one child and hear happy birthday being sang along with a recording of the same song being played at the same time..except the everyones singing out of sync.

For dessert I have a rassmali, its refreshing and soothing but not really outstanding.
To be fair I had very high expectations but found it to be over hyped.



I guess I've also been spoilt with my family's wonderful Pakistani food and it would have to be very very good to beat that so yeah if you've not been brought up eating such food then I'm sure you would enjoy it very much so.
However East & West still remains my favourite Indian/Pakistani restaurant by far and the food is just outstanding.

The bill for three curries, two boiled rice, poppadoms, family sized naan and three desserts comes to just about £40.

Noodle Inn

Last night I went to see Seth Lakeman at plug. I'd never heard of him but my friend asked me to go with him and he's into him so I tagged along, turned out to be really good actually and afterwards we went to noodle inn on London road for some supper.

I wasn't planning on blogging this place at all as I was pretty tired and didn't think it would be that good to be honest but it was very very good! We got there at about 10 o clock and it was pretty full but they found us a table and we sat and ordered food.
They are famous for their noodles here as the name suggests with the names and descriptions of the different noodles on a sign on the wall, its decoration is very modern with a large fish tank and a wide screen tv showing a Chinese programme. the tiny kitchen door keeps swinging open as the waiting staff run back and forth and theres only 3 chefs in there with a few ducks hanging by the ceiling for company.

I don't want noodles tonight though so I opt for honey ribs and crab and sweet corn soup whilst my friend chooses schezuan beef, salt and pepper king prawns and some egg fried rice.

I pick up a rib and place it in my mouth. my guest does the same and our faces are both of extreme pleasure because these are simply delicious, a crispy outside with soft tasty pork inside all coated in a thick honey sauce.
The prawns are also tasty and very fresh with a light crispy coating and a generous helping of chillis sprinkled on top.

The beef is ok, very tomato-ey with not much depth.
My soup is bland until I add some soy sauce then its delicious with little chunks of prawn and crab and sweetcorn.

We finish out food and I go to wash my hands in the toilet and am totally stunned! This is the coolest toilet I have ever seen! Its huge, theres mirrors on two walls that are as big as the wall. The paint is black and theres a led flashing light of hello kitty on the ceiling, a wide screen tv on the other wall and then a Chinese toilet like the one in that episode of the simpsons with all the little buttons etc.

I sit down and try the buttons, they don't work and I'm slightly disappointed but still amazed by this super cool lavatory. I go back and join my friend.
Theres a scoop of free ice cream waiting for me which makes me even happier and we ask for the bill. It comes to £20.60!!!!

This amazes me, very cheap and I leave very happy. Best Chinese food in Sheffield, great end to a great night for me! Oh and I didn't take any photos of the food but here are some of the amazing bathroom! - Sorry for poor quality, taken using my phone.

The ceiling

the toilet buttons

distressed looking lady on the tv

Toilet

Free ice cream!

Update!!

More photos!

the view from the outside

Lovely honey ribs!

Heeley City Farm Cafe

To celebrate this wonderful weather we've been having in Sheffield recently I decided to go to heeley city farm with my mum, sister and best friend.

It was lovely and sunny and we saw many different animals including a peacock, goats, chickens and pigs.

After all this stroking goats and staring at the sleeping pigs waiting for them to do something other than be asleep we decide its time for lunch and stroll on into their newish cafe on site.



Theres a variety of extremely reasonably priced foods, all vegetarian and vegan such as sandwiches, flans, potatoes, soup, salads etc.
I order a baked potato with cheese and three salads, an organic cola and an innocent smoothie for my sister. It comes to an astonishing £4.25.

My friend orders an onion tart with salad. It arrives and its delicious, the salads are very fresh tasting, the rocket being grown on farm and the beetroot with sunflower seeds particularly delicious and the cous cous is not too clumpy or dry, perfectly cooked.



My sister eyes up my potato and decides to spend her pocket money and order one with beans. It's only £1.50 and is a decent sized spud with lots of nice looking beans and a salad garnish, great value for money and she says its very yummy.

For afters I order a piece of apple cake which is absolutely gorgeous, so moist and tender with cinnamon, which I usually detest but in this case I found to be very tasty and complimented the apple beautifully.

This place is very cheap and does tasty food.
They also sell herbs and fresh eggs from the chickens, so if you are ever in the area between 9:15 and 4 (the opening hours) be sure to pop by!
They also sell herbs and fresh eggs from the chickens

The Blue Moon Cafe

Ah the blue moon cafe, it was my favourite place to eat a few years ago when I was a vegan/vegetarian. I remember it as being very good so decided to give it another visit. Its a beautiful building with loads of light shining through. Theres art on the walls and about 1 million little flyers and postcards on the noticeboard varying from 'have you seen my cat?' to advertisements for yoga classes and also one asking anyone if they know who killed their mother which I find kind of strange but fascinating to read through some of them. It smells quite a bit of patchouli but I suspect thats from the diners. I walk in a bit more and smell delicious food. I'm getting hungry! I look at the menu and it has dishes such as pea soup (gluten free and vegan), aubergine and chickpea bake (vegan) cauliflower, cheese and brown rice bake, hommity pie, a couple of quiches and something with sweet potato. It all looks and smells delicious. I choose the cauliflower dish and ask for some salads to accompany it aswell as a hot chocolate and a orangey chocolatey slice thing. It tastes good! It is seasoned well although quite heavy on the cumin but luckily for me I love cumin! The salads -cous cous, rice and peas, lettuce and tomato- are all good, the rice and cous cous also being heavy on the cumin but it doesn't distract too much from any of the other flavours. Its a good meal. I feel full but not bloated. I sip some of the hot chocolate and taste some of the chocolate slice. Its very very sweet. I think because its vegan they have compensated for the lack of tasty dairyness by adding bucketloads of sugar. I can't manage it all but I'm sure someone with a sweet tooth would love it. Altogether my bill comes to just under £10 which isn't too bad, I'll go again but there are other places in town that would definately give blue moon a run for its money.

Nether Edge Farmers Market

Hooray!
Today the day finally arrived for the farmers market in nether edge!
I had been looking forward to it all week and it was fantastic!
The sun was out from 11 o clock and stayed around til 4 it was probably the nicest day we've had all year, very lucky indeed.

There was lots of entertainment including morris dancers, a brass band and bowling as well as all the wonderful stalls that ranged from cakes, cheese, meat, some vintage clothing, books etc it was all great and there was also a bar on the bowling green so I had a couple of pints of moonshine in the warm sun with friends which was very pleasant.

Here are a few photos from the event.

Carrot cake bun - tasted of onion seed...

Morris dancers

Lovely cakes

A brass band


More cake


Various mushrooms


Yabba


Coconut chicken with rice and peas and my moonshine - they were both delicious

So as you can see it was a truly wonderful day, beautiful weather and a chance to catch up with old friends and relax and just enjoy yourself.
I can't think of any other way I'd rather spend my day.

Creamy mushroom and kale puff pastry pillows

These are a delicious treat as the creamy mushroom part is very rich. I like to serve these simply on their own as a meal on the go or with salad. I used crimini mushrooms from waitrose but it works well with any variety. Ingredients 1 pack of mushrooms 1 onion butter curly kale splash white wine cream garlic puff pastry beaten egg Method

1. First fry the onions with the garlic in butter til softened
2. Add wine and let the onions absorb the wine, season with salt and pepper
3. Add the mushrooms, fry until mushrooms are golden
4. Add the cream, reduce for 5 mins and set aside
5. Steam or saute some kale until cooked, season, set aside
6. Cut puff pastry into squares
7. Add a spoon of the kale to the middle of a square
8. Add some mushrooms (not too much juice)
9. Brush the eggs around the side and place another square of pastry on top
10. Crimp with a fork to seal and make a small slit in the top
11. Brush the egg on the top and bake for around 10 minutes or until puffed and golden

Yuen Shan

I was sitting in the pub with my friend drinking rum when we both realised we were getting rather hungry.

I remembered this place having visited there about 6 months ago and it being really good so I suggested we go visit.
It was only two doors down from the pub that we were in so we didn't have far to go.

We arrive and its full. Most of the customers are Chinese which is always a good sign when you're dining in a Chinese restaurant.
After waiting for about 5 minutes we are seated to our tables and are given the menu.

Its all you can eat for £11.99, its not a buffet as the food is cooked fresh to order but you just keep on ordering dishes until you can't eat any more.
You choose your dishes, write down the number on a piece of paper and hand it to the waiter.

There is free prawn crackers and green tea.
I'm not too keen on prawn crackers but my friend says they're the best ones he's ever had and I'm so hungry I eat a few anyway.
We also order some wine and it comes with an ice bucket.






Our food arrives soon and there is crispy wontons first which are mainly pastry with a tiny bit of prawn in the middle so we weren't too impressed by them.

Next is beef in satay sauce and thats tasty, can't taste any peanuts though but its still good nonetheless.





Malaysian lamb is next and arrives with pancakes, cucumber, hoi sin sauce and leeks, like crispy duck is normally served but with lamb instead.
I prefer the lamb to duck because its very sweet and not as fatty as duck.

Shredded crispy chicken is basically strips of chicken skin that has been coated in a batter, deep fried and then covered in a very sweet sticky sauce. It tastes good but is very hard. This is the one we end up leaving the most of.

The spare ribs in chilli sauce however are very delicious, slow cooked pork so that it just falls off the bone. My friend realised this as he picked up a piece by the bone and it the meat just slid off and fell into the hoi sin sauce!






We're pretty stuffed but choose one more dish when the waiter returns - salt and pepper ribs which would be really tasty if they weren't so incredibly salty.

Stuffed, we force as much food down us as we can and ask for the bill which is around £32 so we leave £36. Good value food that is quite tasty.
I'll probably return when I fancy lots of tasty Chinese food for only £11.99.