Tag: restaurant

Can I Take Your Order? Place your order if you dare (3)

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

Welcome back to Cafe Bleu. The last time we were here was back in April! Back then we had celebrated receiving a new 4 star rating! I was so excited and proud of my staff that I increased wages significantly. What followed was amazing, so I will break it down for you.

Following a staff meeting, and then a subsequent meeting after raising wages, a team member steps forward and offers some suggestions, and I am impressed with what she says so I give her a promotion to team leader. Her name is Anna. She recommended the following changes:

1# To cater for a wider variety of guests I should add a vegetarian and vegan option onto the menu. So I did! Everything on the menu has a vegan equivalent and I added some individual items which you can see below. We saw a rapid increase in customers as word spread that we now had vegan food.

2# To change the look of the menu, because it was too blue and the flowers at the bottom meant nothing. Initially I disliked this, so decided out of fear of change to make a ‘joke’ menu, which looked completely awful. What do you know, her suggestion to change actually caused me to make a design which customers loved! They said ‘it reminds them of a proper café.’ I cannot complain, Anna, thank you.

3# Add more food items to the list, to increase profit and this idea was already on my mind, the menu was so small, but I intended to keep our menu integrated into the new one. Yes profit was being made on the small menu, but having more options allowed more choice.

Look at the new bloody menu below! The staff are doing so well. We have a clean, highly regulated café with efficient staff, good hygiene procedures – we got 5 star on hygiene – and excellent customer service and feedback. After creating a box for anonymous feedback we found that 89% of visitors would come again, and that a whopping 98% had a nice time and enjoyed their food! What does that tell you?

We love to chat to new people, and have set up a dedicated booth for people to discuss their mental health, or any worries they may have and this is led by our newest addition to Café Bleu James. He’s a qualified psychologist and also works here, helping to clean tables and serve food and drinks.

You can get a starter, main meal and dessert for under or around £15 if you wanted. Where else will you find such excellent quality food at affordable prices?!

© 2022

Below is our current rating, which I hope will change by next month when they come to inspect.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Café lite: Review!

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

You can find a bit more here: https://stockportoldtown.co.uk/visit/cafelito/

The café is located in the old town of Stockport, Greater Manchester. It is a wonderful part of the town, the better part if I say so. All the old ancient buildings from 500 or 600 years ago, great architecture, great shops and the feeling of going back in time.

I have sat outside this café before and had a drink. I only went back the other day, for a drink inside. Today I was braver and sat in for a decaffeinated Americano and then, decided to try the vegan breakfast! they are open until 6 serving any food unless they haven’t got the ingredients.

I had another decaffeinated Americano with the vegan breakfast. I must say that I was expecting something sub par put the food was nice and lovely. Food cooked to perfection and there was a big amount of smashed avocado. The dish was as follows: 2 slices of lovely bread/toast, not the average stuff; big pot of beans, 2 vegan sausage, some peppers on the avocado, a slice of lime, fried tomato, big mushroom, 2 hash brown. Excellent! It cost me £6.50 for the meal. I think it was worth it, very filling, and cooked well. Oh, and a pot of sauce… I chose red, aka, tomato sauce. Good value for money if you think about it. The avocado is the most expensive part in terms of cost both to bank card and the natural wildlife.

The decaf coffee was £2.20 each which is actually pretty standard for most places. The coffee they use appears to be in mugs displaying Grumpy Mule coffee, quite tasty. After my recent trip to Bramhall, the café there didn’t seem quite as good as café lite.

As you can see above, the café is in one of those brilliant pieces of architecture I mentioned. You don’t need to travel the world to find great examples, they are on your doorstep. It offers the vegan options which will automatically bump it to 4 stars minimum. If you look for images of the café, you will find outdated pictures.

Inside is a lovely modern décor with tons of plants, giving it a lovely low beat vibe. Flooring is wooden. You cannot see into the kitchen a lot, which is not a problem. I think having as many plants as they do is why I like it.

Overall, clean, welcoming, great staff, lovely service, good house coffee, great food and choices. Has to be a massive; 5/5. Well done café lite.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Harappa ! Restaurant Reviews!

Posted on by T. Maxwell-Harrison

https://www.harapparestaurant.co.uk/default.aspx

My first restaurant review and my first Indian restaurant visit for many years! Wow, incredible food and service. I have not been out for a meal since November, and that was the first in over 2 years I believe.

Overall it was a good quality restaurant with good timely service. However, the restaurant was empty, my guest and I the only two in there. Also, there appeared to be no central heating and the restaurant used portable heaters. Not very good and it was cold given it is winter, the heaters appeared to do little. This is really the only downside.

Like I said I have not been out to a restaurant like this for years. So, price wise I did not know what to expect. It ended up being £48 abouts for two people. It was also, to my surprise, two for one Tuesdays! Wow, what a coincidence. Apparently that was on main courses. I think drinks cranked up the prices as I had two sparkling waters and a coke. They did not add a service charge on and on the bill it said we are welcome to add that on, very good.

I ordered the most spicy version of this garlic chicken masala dish which came under some variety of fusion dish. It was extremely spicy which is what I like. I also ordered chips with this and some garlic naan bread. I had vegetable samosa for starters which was lovely, and prior to that some poppadoms with plenty of side sauces. I think the portions were massive, I even took a lot back home with me!

For the price there was enough food for 4 people in honesty. It was cooked well and not overpowering. I enjoyed the consistency of it too. Vegetable samosa was perfect, my guest had some variety of halloumi in a wrap. The restaurant was empty, only 2 men turned up when we were leaving so I can tell from previous that weekends are busier, as when I have walked past at night in the past it has been rammed.

Overall I will rate the food, the price, the service and the actual restaraunt.

The decor was consistent with Indian, it had some variety of bollywoof music playing. Led lights were used to good effect and dark green and red were used as the colours to the chairs and the napkins. Service was good, waiters friendly and rather than bringing things out when we were not ready, instead let us wait and then we could ask to have our main courses.

You can see part of my anatomy on the pictures, so don’t worry that is me, not my female guest. Back to the restaurant, it was cold and I felt like why would such a popular place not invest in central heating. There was one electric heater attached to a wall and portable heaters, I could not feel it as they placed it next to my guest rather than in the middle of us, I suppose if it were too much of a problem I could request a discount. But, it turned out to be 2 for one Tuesdays. Apparently that is on the main course. Drinks were as expected, coke with lemon and ice and 2 sparkling waters. The restaurant actually has a statement on the menu that you can bring your own beer and wine if you book. I did book a table despite knowing it would be quiet, simply because formality bears all good things. I also wore my suit trousers with black brogues and a Ralph Lauren polo shirt, as seen in the picture.

Okay, here goes:

FOOD: 4/5

PRICE: 4/5

SERVICE: 5/5

RESTAURANT: 4/5 Good theme, music and atmosphere. (thought I could smell incense at one point)

Temperature: 2/5 Considering it is winter, the restaurant should be keeping it warm.

I recommend the Harappa Indian restaurant in Stockport, Cheshire/Greater Manchester as an evening to enjoy good quality food. Recommend going on a busy evening as although it was empty, I felt like more people would have boosted the atmosphere. 🙂