La Matelote
Two recent fish dinners offering diifferent values and different levels of enjoyment. Firstly a couple of weeks ago we went back to La Matelote in Boulogne, where we last ate some 20 years or more ago. During the 1980s we had several excellent meals at Tony Lestienne's La Matelote. Nowadays it is a very comfortable hotel where we spent a night. It is also well set up for people of reduced mobility.
Sadly the meal was somewhat of a let-down. Admittedly it was a Sunday night, rarely the best time to eat out. However as you still pay the same price for your meal one should expect the quality to be the same as, say, a Saturday night or Sunday lunch.
Sadly the meal was somewhat of a let-down. Admittedly it was a Sunday night, rarely the best time to eat out. However as you still pay the same price for your meal one should expect the quality to be the same as, say, a Saturday night or Sunday lunch.
We chose the Menu Saveurs de la Mer@55€. The meal started well with Le cocktail de crevettes mousseux d'huîtres à l'arôme de curry brunoise de légumes à la coriandre followed by les filets de racassé tartare de petits pois, vinaigrette de crustacés. Thereafter the meal went downhill: the médaillon de lotte, piment d'Espelette, minestone au basilic, tapenade d'olive verte was a mess – the tapenade far too strong for the dish. All in all the flavours competed and cancelled each other out. Then the cheese was ordinary as was the dessert – a citric trio: la tartelette citron, la crème glacée citron and the iced tea citronelle.
We drank an attractively crisp bottle of 2007 Riesling from Trimbach followed by a quite rich and complex 2006 Auxey-Duresses with hints of butter and a sufficient vein of acidity to cut the richness of the fruit.
2006 Auxey-Duresses, Pascal Prunier-Bonheur
We drank an attractively crisp bottle of 2007 Riesling from Trimbach followed by a quite rich and complex 2006 Auxey-Duresses with hints of butter and a sufficient vein of acidity to cut the richness of the fruit.
So overall a rather disappointing return to La Matelote restaurant, particularly in comparison to the couple of wonderful meals we had had in June at La Promenade (Le Petit Pressigny) and Le Lièvre Gourmand (Orléans).
Last night we went to Webbe's Rock-n-nore in the old part of Hastings close to the fishing huts and the sea for a family meal. We had an extremely good and enjoyable meal at pretty reasonable prices. It does not have the same ambitions as La Matelote, which has a Michelin star, but all the dishes we had were well prepared and cooked and the service was friendly and efficient. I had the Hastings Potted Crab with Toasted Sour Dough (£5.95) followed by a perfectly cooked Grilled Dover Sole with Brown Shrimp and Parsley Butter with Samphire (£14.00) ending with a seasonal dessert: Summer Pudding with Devonshire Clotted Cream (£5.00).
We drank a couple of bottles of Carr Taylor's Alexis which is a blend of '90% Wurzer, which provides fruity notes of green apple and lychee and a hint of spice, and 10% Ortega, adding weight and a hint of sweetness – from the Carr Taylor site. The Carr Taylor Vineyard is one of the oldest UK vineyards. It is at Westfield just five and half miles away from this restaurant. Carr Taylor claim that Alexis is like a Loire Sauvignon. I don't agree – I found it more like a refreshing and lemony Portuguese Vinho Verde with a spritz and relatively light alcohol – 11.5%.
I would certainly recommend Webbe's Rock-n-nore in Hastings. There is also a Webbe's in Rye and , also in the same group, The Wild Mushroom in Westfield.
I would certainly recommend Webbe's Rock-n-nore in Hastings. There is also a Webbe's in Rye and , also in the same group, The Wild Mushroom in Westfield.
Fishing boat and Hasting's traditional tall wooden fish huts
