Tonight we joined some friends at a restaurant called Rhubarb, in Leamington. A few of us decided to have Tapas for starters: I had the calamari and Emma had the breaded prawns. Both were very good. The calamari were piping hot, tender, and quite a generous bowlful.

For main course, Emma chose the prawns and monkfish in a thick slightly curried broth, which was ordered from the specials board. I chose the braised lamb shank and chorizo cassoulet, also from the specials. Some people's meals seemed to be a bit on the small side and came without vegetables but I couldn't complain about mine. There was a decent amount of meat, which was very tender and fell off the bone with minimum effort. The cassoulet was very similar to a spanish chorizo and vegetable casserole I used to do years ago, which was based around chicken stock, herbs (oregano and mint if I remember correctly), paprika and chorizo.

Overall, the restaurant was ok but the lack of vegetables, side dishes or accompaniments was a bit strange. For example, no bread rolls were served with the starters, even for the people who ordered soup. Prices were reasonable but food quality and serving size appeared to be a bit variable.

We were in Leicester doing some Christmas shopping, which included a walk around John Lewis. We had lunch at Carluccio's. We started with the Pasta Fritta, which was deep fried squares of herby pasta, and Focaccia All'aglio which was a really nice cheesy garlic bread.

For main course we decided to try the Tasting Trio from the pasta menu, for £20. We had the Penne Giardiniera, with courgette, chilli and deep fried spinach balls, and the Linguini al frutti di mare. Finally, I had the Gnocchi al ragu d'angello (lamb ragu) to myself. The food was good and impressive value.

Last time we went to the Bear Inn, I had a starter which consisted of an entire wheel of brie. This time I skipped the starter and went straight for the Winter Pie Platter for my main course.

The platter consisted of a tiny cornish pasty and 3 little pies (venison, chicken & mushroom and steak & ale), along with mash and mushy peas.

Today was a rare warm bank holiday monday and we decided to go to Kenilworth. We started off with a pub lunch at the Queen & Castle (which is a Beefeater chain pub but has a better atmosphere than most other chain pubs). We then had a walk around the outside of the castle.

We passed this ruined barn on our walk. It looked like there might have been a barn on the site for quite a long time. Some of the stones were suspiciously castle coloured and were probably 'borrowed' from the castle before such things were frowned upon.

Tonight we ate at Bombay Joe's on Walsgrave Road. We were walking up the road looking at the different restaurants looking for one to eat in.

We started with the traditional poppadoms with chutneys. For the main course we shared a South Indian Garlic Chilli with chicken and a Chicken Dansak. For side dishes we had pilau rice, chilli naan bread and Tarka Dahl. The curries were both very nice - the first was one of the restaurant 'specials' and had huge pieces of garlic in the sauce. The Dansak was described as 'sour and sweet and fairly hot' and we hoped the heat would offset any sweetness. The end result was well balanced without any obvious sweet or sour flavours. The Dahl was very smooth and buttery - we would never dare to add that much ghee into a meal but somehow when you eat out it seems ok.

As usual in Indian restaurants, the portions were well sized and we were both feeling rather full when we left. Recommended and worth visiting again.

We have been to the 'old' Pizza Express restaurant in the city centre but this was the first time we'd been to the new one in Belgrade Plaza, next to the theatre. We tried two of their new pizzas: I had the Da Morire Romana which was the winner of the competition where customers could invent a new pizza. It was quite a brave pizza, with a lot of strong flavours including pancetta, blue cheese and rosemary. The flavours worked well together and didn't clash or overpower it. Emma had the Monte Bianco which was a chicken pizza using bechamel sauce instead of tomato. We both enjoyed our pizzas.

For dessert we had the new Doughballs with Nutella. Although the menu didn't describe it as such, this was more suitable for sharing than individual servings.

The food was good, the service was friendly. I felt a bit guilty ordering dessert and asking for the bill at the same time but we had tickets for the theatre and only had a few minutes to finish eating and leave.

The Open Arms pub in Coventry held a food and drink tasting evening tonight to show off their new menu. We found out about it from their mailing list. It sounded too good to miss so we went along to see what the new food was like.

I'll have to admit that I liked everything I tried. They brought the food out, cut into bite-sized portions, and we were allowed to help ourselves. The first taster was an 'onion ring loaf' which came with a goats cheese dip. We managed to have a few pieces of this, both the onion loaf and the dip were tasty.

Beer-battered mushrooms were next. The batter was slightly peppery and it worked well. The next starter was pate, which was nice but was just a normal pate. The hummous which followed was much better - there were two kinds: spinach and piri-piri. Both were good but the piri-piri hummous was the better of the two.

The main courses were represented by a root vegetable pie, which was nice for vegetarian food, and slow-cooked lamb, which was very tender and fell off the bone very easily. There were also pieces of sausage on sticks, to give a taste of the sausage and mash. The sausages were slightly smokey, probably from the bacon, but they also tastes slightly salty.

The desserts were particularly nice. The carrot cake cheesecake was slightly crunchy and could have done with slightly more defrosting but it tasted great. The chocolate orange truffle tart was very rich and solid. It tasted slightly spicy which worked well and balanced the sweetness.

We don't eat out very often but the new Ember Inns menu looks good. Unfortunately none of their pubs are within easy walking distance which means if we go out, I can't drink with the meal. We'll probably go back again, either for their new menu or their sunday menu which also sounds good.

The food was a bit more expensive than we're used to - 3 courses cost £56 for the two of us, without wine. I think it was probably worth it though. Everything was well cooked and well presented.

I started with the Chilli Squid (from the weekly specials) and Emma had the potted prawns. My squid came with a couple of 'baby' octopuses which I wouldn't normally eat but I decided to give them a go.

My main course was the Pork Tenderloin, which came with sweet potato mash and a 'black pudding scotch egg' which had a tiny quail egg in the centre. For dessert I chose the pistachio and chocolate tart, pictured below.

We ate out at Frankie & Benny's in Coventry tonight. The restaurant was a bit noisy but the food was good. We shared two pizzas: Top - Chicken Caesar Salad. Bottom - Seafood Supreme.
The Seafood Supreme had anchovies, prawns and clams. The other pizza was a chicken pizza topped with tomato and lettuce in a caesar dressing. It was unusual to have a dressed salad on top of a pizza - we have often topped a pizza with a strong leafy salad such as rocket or watercress but we'd not thought of using a dressed salad. It was a surprisingly good combination.

My boss took a few of us out to dinner last night, to Sunam in Kenilworth. The restaurant was very busy and apparently is crowded on most nights. The food was good. The portions didn't seem huge (apart from the massive naan bread which was shared between the 5 of us) but I was feeling very full afterwards.

Sabai-Sabai is a Thai restaurant in Leamington Spa. The food was good but a little on the expensive side. When we saw the deep fried ice cream on the dessert menu, we knew we had to try it otherwise we would be forever wondering what it was like.

The ice cream was encased in a thick doughnut style batter and covered in a kind of crispy breadcrumb. The ice cream inside was still quite frozen. It was unusual but definitely worth trying. The photo below was taken shortly after we'd started eating. The yellow ice cream inside make it look a bit like a scotch egg.

The restaurant opened in the city centre a few weeks ago but we didn't get around to going until today. The '2 eat for the price of one' offer had ended but it only costs £6.50 to eat at lunchtime which is still good value.

The food is billed as 'pan asian' and it is fairly varied. In addition to the expected (sesame toast, crispy seaweed, various curries) there was also something called 'mongolian lamb'. This appeared to chunks of tender slow-cooked lamb in a sauce which resembled hoisin.

The dessert section featured assorted 'mousse with leaves', such as a lime mousse with cream, a blackberry and a sprig of parsley. This reminded me of the jam tart with parsley I had at Wing Wah. I would have taken a photo of it but there were various signs up in the restaurant insisting that cameras were banned. This seems to be a strange move - if you are on a night out with friends, it is fairly common to take a couple of photos. People might not be happy if they are told they can't take photos.

The food was good and varied. The prices are good. The 'no photography' rule seems a bit strange.

The 'Woktastic Noodle and Sushi Bar' in Birmingham does an all you can eat sushi bar at certain times of the day, including all day at weekends. We've had sushi a few times before but I'd never been to a place where you pick it from the conveyor belt before. It was also the first time I had eaten so much raw fish.

(To build up an appetite first we went round the Sea Life centre to look at the fish. There was also a 3D 'Spongebob' film being shown, which was a bit of fun.)

The range of sushi is impressive - a wide variety of the different rolls and nigri. Noodles and vegetables were also available. The spices soy beans were very soft and tender. The pods were a bit tough but I soon realised you weren't supposed to eat them.

For £12.99 it is definitely good value. Since most of the bowls contain 2 of each type of sushi, we usually shared so that we could try a bit of everything. We managed to try most types before we got to full and had to stop. Next time we're in Birmingham we might return and see if we can try what we missed this time around.

The Sunday Buffet wasn't running so we ordered from the normal menu. We started with poppadoms and chutneys for starters. The poppadoms were large and crunchy and pretty much what you expect.

For the main course, Emma ordered Chicken Jalfrezi and a chilli naan. The jalfrezi was classed as medium but had a couple of whole chillies decorating the dish. The naan was surprisingly spicy. I ordered the Chicken Bangladesh, medium spiciness. There were huge chunks of chicken in it, along with a hard boiled egg. I chose Nasi Goreng Rice as the side dish.

The curries were full of flavour without being too hot. The rice was almost like a meal in itself. It contained herbs, onion, chilli, egg and prawns and was very nice.

The restaurant was empty while we were there. This may have had something to do with the weather - it had been raining all morning and the streets were empty of people. The food was good and at good prices. We spent less than £22 in total, which included a drink each. Definitely worth re-visiting. We intend to go back when the buffet is on.

The title isn't strictly accurate. The Han Dynasty in the city centre is handy but certainly not nasty. The buffet might be a bit more expensive than last year (now £5.99) but there is a decent choice of food and what I had was consistently tasty.

The buffet foods were a mixture of things either deep fried or stir fried. My first plate had prawn toast, spring rolls, stir fried cauliflower & broccoli, noodles, mushrooms (stir fried and deep fried). The second plate was a selection of stir fried and curried meat dishes.

The restaurant interior is a bit more basic than China Red but the food was of a similar quality.