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This restaurant
review was undertaken on June 20, 2009
My guests and I thoroughly enjoyed
our experience at ha ha last year and were therefore looking
forward to returning.
We booked at table at 8pm on a
Saturday evening and as always the bar in front of the
restaurant was buzzing with customers enjoying Saturday night
drinks. Before going through to our table the four of us
decided to indulge in drinks at the bar.
We ordered cocktails from Howard
who impressed us with his flare. He even made a special non
alcoholic concoction for my guest who is currently pregnant.
Décor
The restaurant and bar area is
spacious and has an American feel. There is a terrace outside
the front of the building where customers can enjoy drinks on a
sunny day or evening.
The restaurant mainly consists of
booths which are comfortable and adds to the atmosphere of the
restaurant.
Food
From our visits before we already
knew that ha ha have a massive menu that caters for everyone. We
were pleased to see some new options available.
To start we chose - Chicken satay
skewers. Grilled, marinated farm-assured chicken fillets, served
with a pot of peanut sauce, coriander and dressed seasonal
leaves. (£4.75). The chicken served with this dish was lovely
and tender and the peanut sauce rich and smooth.
My guest chose the Chicken liver,
pork & Scottish heather honey pate, served with sticky onion
relish and choice of bread (£4.95). They opted for the pumpkin
bread which was fresh and soft, the pate creamy and moreish.
Baked Camembert. Rich and creamy
baked Camembert, served with grapes, celery, sticky onion relish
and your choice of bread. £8.95 – very naughty but absolutely
delicious. We chose crunchy ciabatta bread which complemented
the creamy gooey camembert.
After much deliberation we chose
the following main courses…..
6oz British fillet. The tenderest
of steaks, grilled to your liking, served with green beans and
potato dauphinoise or skinny chips and 16oz British t-bone. This
fabulous meat lover’s steak offers the best of both, with fillet
steak on one side of the bone and sirloin on the other (£19.95).
We asked for one steak to be well done and one medium rare and
they were both cooked to absolute perfection. Not many
restaurants serve t –bone steak so this was nice to see on their
menu. A special treat!
Chicken breast with parma ham. Farm
– assured chicken breast, topped with melted mozzarella and
crispy parma ham, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and
pesto, served on seasonal potatoes and green beans, in a rich
tomato sauce £10.45. This dish was neatly presented, all the
flavours complimented each other and the chicken once again was
succulent.
Chicken and chorizo tortiglioni.
Farm-assured chicken breast and spicy chorizo, pan-fried with a
tomato and garlic sauce, tossed into tortigiloni pasta and grana
padano cheese shavings. This was a big portion which was very
filling, the chorizo added spice to the large pasta tubes and
tangy tomato sauce, although I would have liked to have had a
little bit more chicken served with this dish.
By this stage we were very full but
of course we still managed to find room for desserts.
Again, there is a huge choice of
desserts on the menu. We went for Warm chocolate brownies
(£4.50). Chocolate fondant – a rich, chocolate pudding with a
melting chocolate centre (£4.75) and sticky toffee pudding
(£4.50). All desserts are served with ice cream, cream or
custard.
The chocolate fondant was rich,
gooey and piping hot, the brownies were a little disappointing
as they were dry but I would definitely recommend the sticky
toffee pudding which was lovely and moist.
Service
Our waiter for the evening was Paul
Townsend who was very helpful and patient with us while we were
deliberating over the menu. He ensured our glasses were never
empty and checked that we were happy with our meals.
Atmosphere
The restaurant has a relaxed
atmosphere with the front bar area being a bit more lively.
Pleasant background music is played in both areas.
We utterly enjoyed ha ha once again
and will definitely returning, especially to enjoy a perfect
steak. |
