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| My meal at "The Rhubarb Shed" |
Almost everybody in the world loves eating. Whenever I hear statements like "I love my food" or "She loves her food", I think - so what? It's hardly worth saying. For almost everyone, eating good or tasty food is simply one of life's great pleasures.
Trip Advisor doesn't only collate hotel reviews, it also encourages independent reviews about restaurants and other eating places. Then, using calculations of ratings received, it ranks these eateries in order of popularity for just about every town or city in the western world and beyond.
On many occasions I have referred to Trip Advisor before visiting restaurants and almost always I have found this guidance both accurate and extremely helpful. If Trip Advisor tells you a place is brilliant then it very probably is and if other reviewers say it's awful then that will also be true.
With regard to the city of Sheffield, Trip Advisor lists 1,196 eating establishments. Currently, at the very top of the pile comes a humble cafe called "The Rhubarb Shed". It has attracted 147 reviews of which 132 have been "excellent" while the other 13 reviews were "very good".
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| Approaching "The Rhubarb Shed" |
I had been curious about "The Rhubarb Shed" for a while. It is located in one of the poorer parts of the city known as The Manor Estate but it is also close to the ruins of Sheffield Manor where Mary Queen of Scots spent a large period of her incarceration - from 1570 to 1584.
Finally, Shirley and I visited "The Rhubarb Shed" for the first time last Thursday lunchtime. It was very much non-corporate with a friendly, slightly chaotic atmosphere. As the cafe's name suggests, it was once a rhubarb shed where rhubarb was forced. There are seven tables downstairs and seven upstairs in the loft.
Shirley ordered a chicken wrap with salad and chips while I ordered a beef brisket sandwich on toasted ciabatta with salad and chips. It was simple fayre but very delicious, The chips (french fries) were especially yummy. We had a pot of tea with our meal and the final bill was only £15.50 ($19 US).
It was easy to see why so many other "Rhubarb Shed" visitors have submitted five star reviews to Trip Advisor even though this certainly wasn't what you would call fine dining. I think that the place's "rough and ready" character is part of its charm. Shirley and I will be very happy to return in the not too distant future.
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| Shirley's meal |
Looks very tasty. It's always nice to find a new place to eat that's actually good. I checked Trip Advisor for restaurants in our area. The reviews did not really correlate to our experience in many cases. So maybe you were lucky? Or maybe we are unlucky!
ReplyDeleteOh. That's surprising that you didn't discover a correlation Jenny. By the way I am always wary of reviewers who have only ever written 1 or 2 reviews. They may be in league with the establishment.
DeleteThat's very cheap...and if the food was good, even better.
ReplyDeleteI heard an interesting story only a couple of hours ago about someone who wrote a complaint on Trip Advisor, really panning a certain restaurant concerned.
The diner found a hair in her plate of food. The diner insisted the restaurant not charge her for her meal, and proceeded to make derogatory comments on Trip Adviser about the restaurant.
One of the astute staff recognised the hair didn't match any of that of the staff. Upon checking the security camera footage, they discovered the cunning dinner, halfway through eating her meal, pull out a hair from her own head and place it in the meal!!!
Word of mouth (by people you know), not hair of head seems the path to follow! ;)
I would try that hair trick but I am a very honest person. The Tamborine Mountain Bowls Club sounds like a good place to eat. Have you been there?
DeleteI wouldn't do the hair trick, either, Yorkie. I'm an honest person, too...and I wasn't in any suggesting you were otherwise.
DeleteI used the word "interesting"...not in a good, positive manner. If I'd discovered someone had done similar in a restaurant in which I was working, I, too, would have called her out just as the staff member in the story I related did. That diner deserves to be made an example of...people like that need to be called out. (I would've kicked her out if I'd caught her doing that. I'm glad she didn't get away with it).
No, I've not been to the Tamborine Mountain Bowls Club. I rarely go out to dine these days. The last time I dined in a restaurant or eatery/bistro of a commercial kind was in May last year when I lunched with good friends at "The Three Little Pigs"...I wrote a post about it at the time.
Is it now called "The Four Little Pigs" in recognition of your visit?
DeleteI forgot...I did go out to lunch in November last, too...to the Cedar Creek Estate Restaurant/Winery/Vineyard.
Deletehttp://cedarcreekestate.com.au/
Lovely surrounds etc., but I've not been overly impressed with the food the couple of times I've dined there. However, others are, so it's just my own opinion.
And, no - the name "Three Little Pigs" has not been altered to four, Porkie...oops, sorry...Yorkie! I never make a pig of myself when dining out...or when dining in, for that matter...nor when dining al fresco; not that I've dined with Al often lately! :)
Al Fresco had this at Cedar Creek Estates - "broccolini and balsamic blistered cherry tomatoes with red wine jus" which translated means broccoli, small roasted tomatoes and some red wine gravy. Prices at Cedar Creek seem quite reasonable.
DeleteThe food prices are pretty reasonable, Yorkie, I agree...but I choked a bit when I bought a bottle of their wine when I arrived at the venue for us to have with our lunch.
DeleteI was being taken to lunch, but as I always prefer to pay my own way, to counter-balance, I bought a bottle of white wine from the cellar door to be served during our lunch.
The folk shouting me lunch are white wine drinkers, so I chose white. The bottle of wine cost me $30.00!
I thought that was pretty steep, but I just gulped, said nothing and paid for it before my co-diners arrived. My meal, that they paid for, cost them $16.00 or thereabouts! lol
I should've stayed home...it would've been cheaper for me! :)
Good tip about tripadvisor. There are lots of chains here but independent restaurants are hard to find.
ReplyDeleteRoosters Wood Fire & Smoke is listed as No 1 in Red Deer - out of 320 eating places but The Micro Manager might prefer Boulevard Restaurant and Lounge.
DeleteI knew you'd research this before I got there. I've never heard of roosters and wood fire. I have heard of boulevard but have never been there. I guess I'm too bust going to the fast food places.
DeleteBoth of those meals look delicious. Speaking of delicious, my meal at Tubbs (the Florence restaurant you looked up on Trip Advisor) the other day was wonderful! Their fried flounder is the best I've ever eaten, as is their shrimp n grits. Yum!!!
ReplyDeleteWas that the first time you have been there Jennifer?
DeleteNo, I've been several times. It's close to my house (walking distance) and I love seafood.
DeleteRough and ready, more fashionably known as "rustic" is probably my favourite dining style and two of my favourite cafes are in old factories, barely altered from the original building with concrete floors, factory style lighting and exposed air-con ducts.
ReplyDeleteI hope you soon return to the Rhubarb Shed, well priced, well made grub is always a good thing :)
Grub? Didn't aboriginals enjoy grubs?
DeleteIt sounds and looks good, although I must admit I don't care all that much for a chaotic atmosphere when I'm eating. I don't mind rough and ready, but I expect a certain cleanliness and efficiency, for instance that my hot food does not arrive lukewarm.
ReplyDeletePosh restaurants who only pretend to be posh but have waiters lacking manners, with little attention to detail, are much worse than any rough and ready, though!
I guess I would have really liked both your meals. The chips look home-made, and you got excellent value for money there, I think.
Posh restaurants can be very dull so that eating becomes something akin to a laboratory experience. I hate all that silly fussiness about making dishes look like pieces of art.
DeleteGood that you've found somewhere with enjoyable food, and at a very reasonable price. Will you be adding your comments on Trip Advisor?
ReplyDeleteI have put 234 reviews on Trip Advisor CG.
Delete2One man's meat is another man's poison" is a very apt saying here. I have took a chance and gone to restaurants with poor Trip Advisor comments and found them to be excellent. For me, the quality of the food is the main thing, a bit of chaos going on isn't that important and the Rhubarb Shed would definitely be my kind of place.
ReplyDeleteTrouble is there's a sign on the door saying "No Southerners". Is that racist? I could bring out a plate to you if you agreed to sit at one of the picnic tables outside.
DeleteMy next visit i am going, bloody hell, it looks lovely
ReplyDeleteOnly open for breakfast and lunch. I think it closes around 3pm.
DeleteI'd probably prefer that YP if inside was full of northerners talking funny and me having to trip over whippets.
ReplyDeleteYou won't be tripping over whippets Derek because they are on the menu. Braised whippet in flat caps. Mmmmm - delicious.
DeleteIt looks delicious and has got my taste buds working overtime. Off to prepare some lunch asap.
ReplyDeleteasap? Aniseed salad and pineapple? Aardvark steaks and pomegranate?...I should have been a stand-up comedian!
DeleteYes, and you'd probably end up being stood up!
ReplyDeleteStood up? Hell. I wasn't asking you on a date Derek. You're not my type.
DeleteThose chips look good enough to eat. If only I could figure out how to get them off the screen...
ReplyDeleteAlphie
When we were kids we could never have imagined the internet. Twenty years from now folk will probably be able to do what you suggest Alphie.
DeleteSounds like a very good place to eat YP. Trip Advisor often leaves me with a difficulty. "Was that the best meal you ever had?" No. But it was far an away the best meal I ever had in that sort of establishment and for that price.
ReplyDelete