Carnegie's - Food & Service

I had the pleasure of going to brunch on Friday, and I ordered the pancakes. Fantastic! They are two wholewheat pancakes, thinner than “normal” pancakes, and thicker than crepes, garnished with strawberries. One of them is rolled around an apple, raisin and cinnamon mixture and the other around banana and bacon. Yes, banana and bacon! It might sound like an unlikely pairing, but it works - actually it doesn’t just “work”, it quite surpasses expectations. And it comes with Lyles Golden Syrup! Not that there’s anything wrong with maple syrup, it was just nice to taste a proper golden syrup again. :lick:

Service was impeccable as always. Sitting on the deck, in the shade of the awning, temperature a perfect 24 degrees or so, drinking Bloody Mary’s - is there a finer way to spend a holiday noontime? If there is, I don’t know it! :sunglasses:

I too brunched at Carnegies on Friday. My mum is in town and she also had the pancakes. She is a picky old woman and she said they were divine!

Service was great as always… but the Stones at full volume was even a little much for this fan.

[quote=“AWOL”]I too brunched at Carnegies on Friday. My mum is in town and she also had the pancakes. She is a picky old woman and she said they were divine!

Service was great as always… [/quote]

Thanks AWOL; glad your mum enjoyed them (and yesterday’s ‘small one’).

We have also added a Ploughman’s Lunch to the Brunch menu replete with a complete individual Pork Pie, pickled onions, pickled egg, beetroot, a whole apple, salad with lettuce, tomato and spring onions, half a loaf of wholewheat bread, butter, salad cream, two different Cheddar cheeses, Stilton and of course, a hefty spoonful of that ever so English of garnishes, Branston Pickle. The bread and the pork pie are baked in-house. (For the uninitiated, pork pies are served cold). It’s a big feed and, in my humble opinion, very good value for money.

Cheers,

Bob

And a very nice addition it is, too. :beer:

Really, this was quite good. I had it at Carnegie’s the other day and it was a treat.

I also had the ‘Ploughman’s’ on Monday after Jonathan’s recommendation. He told me there had been one minor criticism- that they were too big. Nice sales patter I thought until I tried it. It’s pretty much 2 Ploughman’s- but thoroughly excellent!

[quote=“TpeBob”]We have also added a Ploughman’s Lunch to the Brunch menu replete with a complete individual Pork Pie, pickled onions, pickled egg, beetroot, a whole apple, salad with lettuce, tomato and spring onions, half a loaf of wholewheat bread, butter, salad cream, two different Cheddar cheeses, Stilton and of course, a hefty spoonful of that ever so English of garnishes, Branston Pickle. The bread and the pork pie are baked in-house. (For the uninitiated, pork pies are served cold). It’s a big feed and, in my humble opinion, very good value for money.

Cheers,

Bob[/quote]

Can vegetarians wanting to sample this dish swap the pork pie for a pint of Guinness?

I had the ploughman’s today. It bested me. And I was bloody well STARVING. Fresh warm wholewheat bread and plenty of it, a magnificent creamy lump of stilton, along with cheddar and maybe double Gloucester, a plethora of pickles, salad garnish that was a real salad and not a garnish at all, and… that pie.
That pie.
Oh yes, that pie.
It got an 87 percent from me – the filling was absolutely spot on and I mean really spot on, but if it had been up to me, I’d have added a tiny bit more seasoning into the pastry and a bit more shortening. I’d have baked it a bit higher and I’d have made the crust just a tiny bit thinner.
That said, I’m convinced that you would search far and wide in Britain for a pie of that standard, and probably in vain. It was absolutely fantastic, and if any of you Brits want a real pork pie for lunch, look no further. Pork pie and a nice bit of Branston. Hard to beat. For you lesser beings unfortunate enough not to come from Cool Britannia and who want to find out what kind of things those crazy and oh, so lucky Britlanders call comfort food, try a ploughman’s. But you better fast first.
One of these days I might sit down and try to figure out how the hell anyone can present food like that at prices like that and come even close to turning a profit.

Oh, and there was an apple too. Apple and stilton. Who would think you could forget such a combination?

Hats off to Carlisle and more to the point, the man in the kitchen. Great job. I hope someone passes that on to him. I was really impressed. And to Olivia for being just generally lovely.

Sounds FAB. I will definitely popping down for some pie.

Yes, I know I posted favourably about Carnegie’s last week, but dammit, they just keep doing a great job! Last night Vanessa wanted to have steak for her birthday dinner, so it was off to Carnegie’s. We started with a fantastic caesar salad, a basket of fresh, warm bread, followed by two wonderful steak dinners. I had the T-bone steak with red wine sauce on the side, and it was fantastic! The broccoli and cauliflower with the cheese sauce was wonderful, as were the roast potatos. Vanessa had the prime sirloin with mashed potatos and was also very happy with it. To finish off, coffee for me, milk tea for her and we shared a rich, creamy cheesecake. The dinner and the service was so good that we were still smiling about an hour later.

Hats off to Rebecca and Jonathan for a wonderful evening! :notworthy:

[quote=“Maoman”]Yes, I know I posted favourably about Carnegie’s last week, but dammit, they just keep doing a great job! Last night Vanessa wanted to have steak for her birthday dinner, so it was off to Carnegie’s. We started with a fantastic caesar salad, a basket of fresh, warm bread, followed by two wonderful steak dinners. I had the T-bone steak with red wine sauce on the side, and it was fantastic! The broccoli and cauliflower with the cheese sauce was wonderful, as were the roast potatos. Vanessa had the prime sirloin with mashed potatos and was also very happy with it. To finish off, coffee for me, milk tea for her and we shared a rich, creamy cheesecake. The dinner and the service was so good that we were still smiling about an hour later.

Hats off to Rebecca and Jonathan for a wonderful evening! :notworthy:[/quote]

Don’t feel too self-conscious about posting favourably in less than a week. :slight_smile: Anyway, both Jonathan and Rebecca do read this forum, so I am sure they will appreciate the positive sentiments. If I may, the crew in the kitchen perhaps also deserve a mention as it is they, under Richard’s stewardship, that consistently come up with quality food time and time again.

Cheers for the feedback; it is always a pleasure to feed Vanessa, especially with the amount she is eating at the moment! :wink:

Best Regards,

Bob

Absolutely! I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting Richard or any of the kitchen crew, but I’d love to shake their hands and tell them in person how much Vanessa and I enjoy their creations! :thumbsup:

My friend had the Ploughmen’s the other day. They call it manS because you need 2 to eat it.
I had the omelette (yummy and huge) but I would like proper hashbrowns, not the bread (though it was good bread).

We went for lunch, but for some reason they thought it was Saturday, so we got brunch. The only good thing about the odd Saturday working swap day.

[quote=“Chicken”]My friend had the Ploughmen’s the other day. They call it manS because you need 2 to eat it.
I had the omelette (yummy and huge) but I would like proper hashbrowns, not the bread (though it was good bread).

We went for lunch, but for some reason they thought it was Saturday, so we got brunch. The only good thing about the odd Saturday working swap day.[/quote]

Thanks for the positive feedback. On the hashbrowns: without wanting to denegrate the hashbrown as a food item, we serve bread (all of which is baked in house each day) as our origins are British/European rather than North American. None our brunch offerings contain hashbrowns and the full English breakfasts don’t either. It’s a small area of differentiation.

As for the working swap day…my opinion on the stupidity of that last-minute decision by the government is probably unprintable but we decided to carry on as if it was a regular weekend; there had already been enough disruption to everybody’s week.

Best Regards,

Bob

Me and the Mrs came by today for my xmas/birthday lunch. Cheers Bob, very good indeed

Yes, indeed was it good. Turkey :lick: After 3 years of chicken, beef, chicken, lamb, and chicken. It was nice to have a good American meal. :wink: And great company!

Cheers Tpe Bob it was truly good.

The hamburgers ARE nice, though…

The last yummy thing I had at Carnoogies was the ‘Bacon and Banana Pancake’. I know it sounds shite but it’s AMAZING.

Thanks be to Bob, for another excellent meal and top quality service. The fillet mignon was perfect and the garlic carrots a real treat.

Had an excellent dinner on Friday night. I recommended my friend, who had never eaten at C. before, the Grilled Pork Medallions, one of my favorite dishes especially since it comes with mashed potatoes and red cabbage. For myself I ordered the Schnitzel (c/w potatoes and a big plate of salad), which must be the biggest in town if not all of Taiwan.
The food was just excellent and the servings are very generous (read: big), in fact we both felt stuffed afterwards.

So far I have never been disappointed at Carnegies, the food is consistently good and service is always fast, efficient and friendly.

Many thanks for the kind words, Rascal. I’ll make sure that the kitchen and serving staff receive the praise.

Cheers,

Bob

[quote=“Connel”]Just had to say big thumbs up ! :thumbsup: on Sunday me, my missus & our baby daughter went to Carnegies for brunch…

We managed to get out usual comfy seat right in the corner (with the no smoking sign). For us the corner is great as we can sandwich our baby between us, staff & service were fantastic, we were very appreciative of the staff getting us hot water for the babies bottle & keeping smokers at least an empty table away. :bravo: :bravo: [/quote]

TpeBob,

I’d love to come in and dine. But one question: is Carnegie’s still set up this way in regards to a “non-smoking” section? If I were seated in a non-smoking section, I would be pretty upset if I could still smell neighboring smokers. That would ruin the dining experience. Smokers seated 2 tables away doesn’t do the trick for me, as I’m very sensitive to smoke.

Thanks for reading.