9/3/2022 0 Comments Restaurant Review - The HowffABERDEEN RESTAURANT WEEK 2022 [AD - PAID PARTNERSHIP WITH ABERDEEN INSPIRED]Well, it's certainly been a while since we've been here isn't it? But we're back, and with good cause, because it's the Aberdeen food fans' favourite time of year - Aberdeen Restaurant Week. As one of the ARW Brand Ambassador Team, I was asked to head along and review The Howff and their £25 dinner menu. Having missed out last time around, I'm delighted to be back on board as part of the team! One of Aberdeen's few remaining cellar bars, The Howff is absolutely a Union Steet institution. With its blink-and-you'll-miss-it entrance, it's unfortunately somewhere that can quite often be forgotten about. It first opened for business in the mid 80's under the name The Wine Cellar. Following changes over the years, it was renamed in the 90's and The Howff was born, where it is now part of the PB Devco group. Aberdeen Inspired covered the cost of my meal in return for me providing a review as part of my duties as a Brand Ambassador. Inside we were greeted by manager Calum who introduced himself and took some time to speak about the main menu, and what they are trying to achieve with the Aberdeen Restaurant Week menu. The Howff was actually one of the last pubs in Aberdeen to re-open following Covid-19 restrictions, so are understandably keen to get the crowds back. The FoodThe Howff's menu is certainly eye catching - there may not be something for everyone, but I knew exactly what I was going for. They offer three courses for £25 or two courses with 250ml of wine. For me, to start it had to be the Beef Stovie Bon Bon's, followed by Smoked Haddock and finished off with the Baked Vanilla Cheesecake. Kerry opted to go for the Soft Vegan Tacos, followed by the Smoked Haddock & Dark Chocolate Delice. It didn't take long for our food to arrive following the drinks, and boy did it look good. The golf ball sized Stovie Bon Bons looked outstanding! Photos out the way, I got stuck straight in - and I couldn't believe how good they were. Honestly... They are a revelation to the food world. Why hasn't anyone done this before?! And with the beetroot on the side, stovies and beetroot just work so well together. Wow, what a start! As for Kerry's tacos, she really enjoyed them. I also had half of one and can confirm that they were super tasty and I couldn't have guessed they were a vegan option if I didn't already know. After a short break, it was soon time for the main courses. For the record, I’m not really that much of a fish person, outside of “fish & chips” however, I really liked the sound of this on the menu, and when it arrived, it smelled and looked fantastic. It tasted great too – the fish was cooked perfectly; full of flavour, juicy and flaky. The crushed potatoes and black pudding, along with the creamed leeks were the perfect accompaniments. And the perfectly cooked poached egg on top just finished the dish off, lightening the whole thing up just enough. This main course was superb and I highly recommend it. Kerry agreed, she really enjoyed it too. It was then time to try and squeeze our desserts in. While we ordered one each, no one really has a whole one to themselves do they? So naturally, we shared. The cheesecake was delicious, light, fluffy and not too heavy and the whipped Chantilly cream on the side was absolutely superb! The dark chocolate delice was also tasty and full of flavour, however, it was just a little too much on the rich side for my liking. Again, though, with the Chantilly cream on the side, along with the white chocolate ice cream, it just worked. The VerdictWell, I cannot fault that at all. The food and service was absolutely superb from start to finish. The stovies bon bons are sure to be hit with anyone that tries them, and if I were to offer The Howff one bit of advice - make them a permanent menu item ASAP! £25 for these three courses is excellent value for money in my eyes and I cannot recommend The Howff enough. Also, after eyeing up the regular main menu, we will definitely be back to try that.
Thanks again to Calum and the team at The Howff for a great evening. If you decide to check it out for yourself, please be sure to let me know what you think. #arw #arw2022 #rediscoverABDN #supportlocal https://www.aberdeeninspired.com/festival/restaurant-week/ https://www.howffaberdeen.co.uk/
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ABERDEEN RESTAURANT WEEK 2020 [AD - PAID PARTNERSHIP WITH ABERDEEN INSPIRED]The bumper edition of Aberdeen Restaurant Week (Aberdeen Restaurant Fortnight doesn't quite have the same ring does it?) is now well underway & if you're still trying to figure out where you'd like to eat... well, you've come to the right place. As an Aberdeen Restaurant Week brand ambassador I was asked if I'd like to review The City Bar & Diner & their £20 dinner menu. The City is somewhere who's previous ARW menu's have really appealed to me, and yet I'd just never got round to trying it. The City Bar & Diner can be found at 37-39 Netherkirkgate, and has been a mainstay of city dining for some time now, offering up dinners, lunches & afternoon teas comprised of locally-sourced produce, along with a variety of craft beers & cocktails. Inside, we were greeted by the super friendly Polly, who took our details for track & trace, then showed us to our table. It's a really nice space inside, super clean, with a mixture of modern & traditional decor. It was well set up for social distancing too, with screens separating the tables in the main dining area. The was plenty hand sanitiser throughout, along with ample Covid-19 related information. The FoodThe menu offered up by The City Bar & Diner is certainly interesting, & at first glance it looks to be excellent value at three courses for £20. I opted for the Korean Fried Candy Chicken Wings, followed by The Maryland Rooster - now, banana & pineapple on a burger certainly seems like a bit of a bold choice, but I was all in for trying it out. Kerry decided to go for the Smoked Haddock Arancini, followed by the Tandoori Lamb Shank. For dessert, we chose the Banoffee Pie & Cranachan. The starters arrived shortly after ordering, & they were absolutely wonderfully presented - they looked first class. I wasted no time in getting stuck in, and the wings tasted great. The sauce was the perfect combination of sweet & spicy, without being overly spicy. There was enough meat on the bones too, which can sometimes be an issue with wings. It's safe to say they didn't look as good as they did when they arrived for long! Kerry also really enjoyed her arancini too, & finished it all - well, I helped slightly by having a bite, & can confirm that it tasted great. The fish was well flavoured & worked really well with the mango. When our starters were taken away, Polly dropped another plate on our table, saying that the chef really wanted us to try the Tandoori Crumbled Halloumi also. Wow! These were great, really great. If you're a fan of halloumi then I would highly recommend trying these out. After a short break, it was soon time for the main courses. They were placed down on the table, & both looked very impressive. The Maryland Rooster was absolutely huge with a giant fried chicken breast taking centre stage, smothered either side by loads of toppings. Served with accompanying fries & coleslaw, it really did look like an impressive dish. I can say much the same for Kerry's Tandoori Lamb Shank too - it was a mouthwatering giant lump of lamb, served with 3 great looking garlic puri & pilau rice. Time to tuck in! Tackling this burger looked like no easy task. I considered cutting it in half, but I squashed it all together & just decided to go for it. First off, the fried chicken breast tasted great - it was juicy & the fried breadcrumbs soaked up the sweet & sour sauce to give it a nice tangy, sweet flavour with each bite. Now, here's where things start to get weird... but, stick with me. Before you know it, you get a mouthful of banana, which combined with the chicken is a bit of a strange taste sensation to begin with, but the more you get into it, the more it works, & along with the pineapple, you get the perfect amount of juicy sweetness. Don't get me wrong, it is a really strange combination to begin with, but it all comes together quite well, & I enjoyed it, I finished every bite. Kerry also really enjoyed the Tandoori Lamb Shank. Having tasted it myself, I can confirm that it was delicious. The lamb just fell off the bone & the combination of the tandoori flavours was excellent. The garlic puri was great for scooping up the sauce too! Main courses done, & bellies bulging... we thought we just about had room left for dessert. They arrived on the table looking fantastic & I dived straight into the creamy Cranachan. Straight off, the whiskey cream tasted amazing - mixed with the oats and the strawberry ice cream, it was pretty much a perfect cranachan. With a few bites left, we decided to swap & I got to taste the outrageous looking bannoffe pie. Wow! The warm butterscotch sauce smothered over the bananas & the crunchy banoffee base was incredible. You couldn't go wrong with either of these desserts. We finished things off with a coffee before ending the evening with a quick chat to the ever friendly Polly, along with the chef & then we headed off for the night. The VerdictOverall, we had an excellent meal at The City Bar & Diner - the wonderful service provided by Polly, along with the first class food made for a great night. £20 for any those three courses is phenomenal value for money in my eyes, & I absolutely recommend that you check it out.
These are tough times for many of us at the moment, but it's just as tough a time for many of these restaurants too, & without our support, we might not have them around for much longer. So go out, treat yourself, enjoy some great food, & most importantly, stay safe. #arw #arw2020 #rediscoverABDN #supportlocal https://www.aberdeeninspired.com/festival/restaurant-week/ Good Food Is Coming [AD - PAID PARTNERSHIP WITH ABERDEEN INSPIRED]Sometimes things have a habit of appearing, just when we need them to. The Aberdeen hospitality industry is going through a pretty tough time at the moment, and has been for a while now, with some places unfortunately having to close their doors permanently. Thankfully, Aberdeen Restaurant Week is here to remind us all how great our restaurants are, and give us the push we need to get out and get supporting them through these tough times. I've been part of the Aberdeen Restaurant Week Brand Ambassador team for the last couple of editions now and I've always had such a great time doing it, and I always try to shout as loud as I can about it. The team at Aberdeen Inspired have done an amazing job of pulling together a great team of local bloggers to promote the event in coordination with the local media. I've spoken at length in the past, in previous blog posts about what ARW is, and how it works, so I'm not going to go in to all the information, and I'll just keep this short and simple, to give you an idea of the basic concept, and what's new for Autumn 2020. In what will now be its sixth iteration, ARW is a week long celebration of the amazing food scene that we have here in Aberdeen. Coordinated by Aberdeen Inspired, ARW encourages local restaurants to sign up and create special £10 lunch menus, and £20 dinner menus in order to showcase the amazing food scene here in the city. So what's different this time round? Well, for the first time, ARW is going city wide, and it will be taking place over not one, but two weeks. That's right, you'll be able to enjoy these amazing specially curated, discounted menus for two weeks, meaning that there's even more time to to try different places, or head back to your favourite for a second helping. ARW will run from Monday 2nd - 15th November, and the list of participating restaurants can be found here. It's still to be confirmed where I'm going to be eating, but I've definitely got my eye on a few places. Be sure to check out my Instagram as I'll be sharing everything over there, as well as any restaurant reviews here on the blog. Of course, all participating venues will be following the appropriate Covid-19 safety measures and adhering to the relevant guidelines set out at the time, so you can put your mind at ease and dine safely. So, there you have it - everything you need to know about the new bumper edition of ARW. Do you have any questions? If so, please do let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.
Please show our restaurants the support they desperately need at this time, and get involved by sharing your pictures using the hashtags below! #arw #arw2020 #rediscoverABDN #supportlocal https://www.aberdeeninspired.com/festival/restaurant-week/ Aberdeen restaurant Week 2020Aberdeen Restaurant Week is almost here, and if you're still figuring out where you to go, then maybe I can be of some assistance... As I mentioned in my previous blog, as part of my duties as an Aberdeen Restaurant Week Brand Ambassador, I was asked to review Angus & Ale, ahead of ARW kicking off. On a similar theme to last year, where I previewed the Hop & Anchor - a beer and a burger seemed to be on the cards, which having been to Angus & Ale previously, I was more than happy about. Angus & Ale can be found in the Adelphi, on the Castlegate end of Union Street, operating out of the old Adelphi Kitchen premises, following their move from Schoolhill a while back. Angus & Ale is a haven for Aberdeen meat lovers, with them promising dry aged beef, on the bone for a minimum of 28 days, which guarantees melt-in-the-mouth, juicy burgers. Inside, we were greeted by our waiter (pardon me, for forgetting to ask his name!) and we were shown to our seats; a cosy booth beside the window. The restaurant already had a few occupied tables, with people eating and chatting away, which was good to see. The restaurant has a "traditional/rustic" feel with the decor consisting of tartan cushions and up-cycled wood panelling on the walls. After giving us our menus, our drinks order was then taken and I was able to choose from an expansive beer list, brimming with local beers. I opted for M'ango Unchained from my local favourites, Brew Toon - easily one of my favourite beers brewed in Aberdeen. If I had to pick up on one tiny fault, I think that the tables, certainly our one, could have done with a little TLC - the paint was kind of all flaked off and it felt slightly sticky. But that is a minor point, and even then, I'm probably just being picky. The FoodThe menu that Angus & Ale have put together for #ARW2020 is simple, but that doesn't take away from that fact of how appealing it looks. Offering 3 courses for £20, you can also opt for 2 courses for £17, although in my mind, £3 is small change when it comes to getting one of those starters or desserts. My eyes were instantly drawn to the Smoked Scotch Egg, and the Schoolhill Special. Kerry went for the tomato & parmesan soup, and the habanero chicken burger, and we opted to think about dessert later... The starters arrived shortly after, and I could not believe my eyes. The scotch egg looked absolutely incredible, and it was HUGE! I wasted no time in getting stuck in, and it did not disappoint one bit; the outside was crunchy, the filling (haggis and sausage meat) was full of flavour, and the egg itself was perfectly runny. Paired with the smoky, fruity HP sauce, it was the perfect starter - it was almost an entire meal in itself and I can't recommend this dish enough! Kerry's soup was packed full of flavour - it was creamy, wholesome, and the starter to choose for those wanting to save room for their main course. Starters out the way, it was now time for the main course. As I said earlier, I decided on the Schoolhill Special, which is a quiet nod to the old home on Schoolhill. Consisting of the signature 28 day dry aged beef, highland cheddar, bacon, onion rings, burger sauce, mustard mayo, lettuce & tomato, all sandwiched between a brioche bun and skewered with a sliced pickle - this burger was a towering sight to behold. Wow. Accompanied with a generous portion of the house rosemary fries, they were also kind enough to throw in a side of the gigantic onion rings for us... as if we didn't have enough food already! Kerry's habanero chicken burger, whilst not as immediately intimidating as my burger, still looked great - with perfectly charred, grilled chicken breast poking out the sides of the bun. I'm normally a pick up a burger and just go for it kind of guy, but I had to be sensible here, and opted to cut it in half to tackle it - which should you decide on this yourself, I'm sure you will agree was the right choice. With so much going on inside, it can sometimes be difficult to appreciate all the flavours, but that definitely wasn't the case here; the beef was cooked perfectly, and full of flavour, the burger sauce gave the right amount of tangy zing, the mustard mayo giving a hint of heat, the bacon added a smoky layer and the onion rings added a nice crunch to it all. I'll be honest - it was hard to eat, and I didn't finish it all, but I really enjoyed it. It was delicious. I really enjoyed the rosemary fries, they tasted great, and I finished the lot. The onion rings were also excellent, but proved to be slightly too much for us - the were gigantic after all. I didn't taste the habanero chicken burger myself, but Kerry assured me it was super tasty, and thankfully, wasn't quite as spicy as the name suggested. Finally, it was time for dessert. After a mammoth two courses so far, we decided that we'd probably only just about manage to share one dessert between us. So we opted for the Banoffee Sunday - because that was right up our street. It arrived fairly promptly, and looking rather delightful - a mason jar, filled with layers of whipped cream, caramel & vanilla ice cream, banana sauce, sliced banana and shortbread, topped off with a sprig of fresh mint. It was absolutely as delicious as it looked, but ultimately it was too much for us, and we never quite managed to finish it off... We were offered a tea/coffee/hot chocolate to finish the night off, but we politely declined and decided to be on our way, after a fantastic meal. Thanks to Angus & Ale for a great evening! The VerdictOverall, I was really impressed with what Angus & Ale had to offer. For £20, I think that their menu is absolutely phenomenal value for money - with huge portions, and great flavours, combined with a fantastic selection of local beers. As far as burgers go, Angus & ale are right up there with the best in the city, and in my opinion, they are well worth parting with your hard earned cash for. Be sure to check out the rest of the ARW Brand Ambassadors blog posts and get yourselves booked up! #ARW2020 #comedinewithus https://aberdeenrestaurantweek.com/ Guess Who's Back...Like Phil Mitchell making a dramatic return to Albert Square, Aberdeen Restaurant Week is back, and better than ever for 2020. I had SUCH a blast being part of the Aberdeen Restaurant Week Brand Ambassador team last time, and I was absolutely delighted to be asked back again this year to be part of such an awesome team of bloggers. I'm sure most of you know the deal by now, but in case you have a foggy memory, and need reminding - I am here to give you all the details. There's also some new aspects to ARW this time round, so if you were planning on stopping reading here... then think again! What?Easily one of the most anticipated events of the Aberdeen City social calendar, Aberdeen Restaurant Week (ARW) is back for its fifth iteration. Coordinated by Aberdeen Inspired, ARW is a week long celebration of the amazing food scene that we have here in Aberdeen (don’t try and tell me we’re not spoilt for choice!). The restaurants that chose to take part, offer up specially curated menus at discounted, affordable prices throughout the week. When?ARW will run from Monday 24 February to Sunday 1 March 2020 - so there's still plenty of time to invest in a new pair of eating jeans... Who?With almost 50 venues taking part, you really are spoilt for choice. Regulars such as Cafe Boheme and Chaophraya are joined by newcomers such as The Esselmont, Mac's Pizzeria and Namaste Delhi. There really is something for everyone. You can check out the full list of restaurants taking part here. How Much?Menus will range from £10 for a two course lunch, and £20 for a three course dinner - so everything is extremely affordable. There are also tasting menus and afternoon tea options available. What's New?You may have seen a sneak peek of this on my Instagram last week, but in a new addition for 2020, ARW has teamed up with Grampian Escapes & Tours to bring exclusive food tours to the event. These tours will offer a unique insight into Aberdeen's street food scene, as well as offering up a little of Aberdeen's food history. Each tour will last around two hours, and will cost £34, and will need to be booked in advance. Check out the ARW website for more info, as well as tour times and dates. Also new for 2020 is cookery classes. Alongside established favourites such as Chaophraya and Namaste Delhi, Pasta at Aberdeen Indoor Market are also offering you the chance to hone your pasta making skills. The prices, and times for these prices vary, so head on over to the website to grab all the details. Any Recommendations?Last year, I had an awesome meal at both The Hop & Anchor, and McGinty's Meal an' Ale and both of their menus are looking just as good this year. For a bit of a twist, the Hop & Anchor have gone full plant based with their £20 menu, which is again paired with a flight of beers. I also really like the look of Melt's menus, and you can't go wrong with pizza at Mac's. Shahbaaz Tandoori and Shri Bheema's are also both sure to offer up fantastic Indian meals too. I'm going to be eating at local favourite Angus & Ale, which I'm rather excited about because their menu looks great. Keep an eye out on my Instagram this Thursday for a sneak peek, as well as my full review next week. So there you have it - everything you need to know about #ARW2020 in bite sized chunks. Do you have any more questions? If so leave them in the comments below. Feel free to let me know where you're planning on eating too 🍽
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