8 October - pork with mushroom sauce and mixed mash

With my parents visiting today, we wandered down to Riverstation for lunch. When we arrived, I think there was a flash of recognition from the waiter after the eggs florentine fiasco from last time we went! Thankfully, everything was fine today - we all had savoury tart and chips, and sat enjoying the lovely bright space, even on a day with only glimpses of sunshine.

For dinner, I'd bought some pork steaks from the butcher which I'd planned to serve with a big dollop of mushroom sauce. I had some nice big Portobello mushrooms from the vegbox and went up to the fancy veg shop in Clifton yesterday to get some wild mushrooms to go with them. To my disappointment, they didn't have any in, so I picked up a quince and a lovely string of shallots instead. I ended up getting some chestnut mushrooms from the supermarket - I cooked all the mushrooms up in butter, added a splash of balsamic and some white wine, then a blob of cream and lots of parsley. The idea was to have enough mushroomy stuff to make it more of a side vegetable than just a sauce and I think it worked quite well on top of the simply fried pork, with some mixed mash (potato, sweet potato and parsnip) on the side. I think it went down well, with the pork as the star - really wonderful and tasty.

29 August - lunch out and chicken risotto

We went out for a Bank Holiday lunch down by the harbourside. Riverstation has been a favourite for a long time, partly for it's location overlooking the water with it's lovely big windows and also for the usually reliable food. We don't seem to be having much luck eating out lately though. It was quite busy when we arrived, but no more than on a usual weekend. I ordered eggs Florentine and Tris ordered savoury tart. We happened to be right next to the kitchen, which is partially on view, so as time ticked by and I was feeling more and more hungry, I was watching the orders as they came out with an eye open for ours. I spotted what looked like our order appear and was waiting expectantly for a waitress to bring it over. There seemed to be some confusion about orders though and she kept taking other dishes, leaving ours sitting there.

If I don't eat regularly, I tend to get quite wobbly and irritable, so the longer things went on, the more annoyed I was getting. Then one of the chefs picked up the eggs from the top of the eggs florentine, dumped them somewhere out of sight, then a couple of minutes later, dumped another couple back on top (I really hope not the same ones just dunked back in boiling water to reheat them!) and drizzled more hollandaise sauce over the top. I was a bit taken aback, but by this point, I just needed something to eat asap. The plates sat there for another 10 minutes, before I finally managed to grab a waitress and she brought our order over -that had been sitting on the counter for around 20 mins by this point!

I did complain about the wait and what I'd seen, but was so hungry, I tucked into the eggs anyway. My hands were shaking so much by now, I could hardly even hold my knife and fork and the food went down so quickly, it hardly touched the sides! The eggs were pretty solid, the spinach was cold and the bread pretty soggy - all round, not up to the usual standard.

Unlike on Friday night at Cote though, the manager did come over to apologise. He immediately said that they'd take my meal off the bill and offered coffees. He was apologetic without being over-the-top and just generally dealt with the whole situation really well. He took the problem seriously, but was friendly and smiley so we didn't go away feeling negative. I'm happy to take it as a one-off and won't be put off going back.

At least we managed to get some fantastic coffee cake from Papadeli on the way back to go with an afternoon cup of tea!

Dinner was a simple, and to be honest not wildly tasty, chicken and pea risotto made from some of the leftover cold chicken. So all round not a great culinary day, only just saved by the cake!