Jazz and Puddings

Had a quick return trip to The Almanack  in Leicester’s Highcross this weekend for their “Jazz and Puddings” evening on Sunday. It was a very pleasant way to finish a weekend – a lively but informal buzz with families  and groups of friends winding down, eating, chilling and in our case, playing jenga.

The impression of a stylish venue that is eager to please was confirmed, but so was a sense that not everything is running quite as smoothly as it should. Booking for the event was a little chaotic apparently, and there were a few slapdash things about the food.  Most seriously my slowcooked rib-eye of pork had not been sufficiently reheated and remained cold in the middle – it was edible and I didn’t make a fuss but it was not charged for  and my comment was dealt with swiftly and sympathetically. The buttterbean  and paprika stew that it came with was wonderful and most of the eight of us were broadly positive about their meals ranging from sausage and mash to a caeser salad to roast lamb.

For deserts we all shared three of the special deliboards – an assiette of puddings including ffuit salad trifle, rhubarb crumble, a chocolate brownie and a lemon meringue parfait kind of thing. They were presented with fireworks and in the main were totally delicious, the parfait in particular.  The trifle started off wonderfully with a tremendously boozy syllabubby topping but was let down  by some tasteless, seemingly tinned, fruit.  

They’ve  got the atmsophere right, and there’s plenty to like at The Almanack but the impression lingers the kitchen isn’t yet operating at maximim efficiency. (Thanks to Mike for the pictures – see his flickr site )