Giambrone's - Italian Deli and Cafe

 When Millets clothing and camping chain went into administration and was sold we feared another shop would lie empty in Hertford town centre. Thankfully, a family business stepped in and opened Giambrone's. Aimed fair and square at the lunchtime market, they have really gone in for the Italian theme, serving not only Italian food and coffee but also selling Italian ingredients and capturing the ambiance of a busy deli cafe, backed up with friendly service. 

They have a variable menu of lunchtime specials (lasagna, risotto etc), sandwiches, and a meat  or cheese platter (£7.00) but we opted for arancini with salad (£4.50), one meat and one veggie, and canoli for afters (£1.00 each). Caffe Americano was £2.00. Excellent arancini and a tasty and very fresh salad. The canoli are small but perfectly formed and available with a range of fillings. Nice!

Foodies will love this place as there is an array of store cupboard items for sale (brands you might not find in the supermarkets) and there is a large tv playing the food network channel. You can eat good food and watch good food at the same time! 

The Grandison - pub and dining - Bramfield

Formerly The Grandison Arms, this recently renovated pub has gone decidedly upmarket, aiming at the 'gastropub' and corporate demographic. Not a village pub in the traditional sense but rather a gentrified model of one. I doubt if unwashed farm labourers would be welcome and, indeed, the middle class prices seem designed to deter such custom. Having said that, The Grandison is well situated, the service

is excellent and the food is of a high standard.

We tried the Sunday Lunch menu, which can vary (see sample). I had 'Trio of Mackerel' (£6.50), followed by Roasted Sirloin of Bridget B's Galloway Beef (£16.95). The mackerel dish comprised small portions of mackerel paste (rillette), mackerel fillet (soused) and mackerel sauce (veloute). All were excellent, the sauce having a very strong flavour indeed and the paste perhaps a little indifferent by comparison. But the portions only amounted to a tasting rather than a serving. The roast beef was very good and served with parsnip puree, carrots, roast potatoes, gravy and Yorkshire pudding. Excellent quality but, again, not a large serving - I could have done with three rather than two slices of beef and the roast 'potatoes' if put together might amount to only one potato in total. 

Overall then, high quality but not great value for money in terms of quantity.

Note: dogs are permitted in the dining area. 

Crave - coffee and deli - St Andrew's Street, Hertford

On my first visit to the tiny coffee and sandwich shop that is Crave on St Andrews Street, I was amazed at how much tasty stuff they had managed to squeeze into such a small space. On one side of the shop is the deli and coffee counter and on the other side are shelves stacked with interesting preserves and fair trade coffees and teas, not to mention the fresh loaves of bread and pastries.

One very cool thing about Crave is that it makes sandwiches named after local places. For example, The Cowbridge, The Bluecoat, The Hartham and The Haileybury. The chalk board behind the counter has descriptions or all sandwiches and if you don't fancy any of these ones you can make your own, choosing bread and fillings (a bit like Subway).

I had The Cowbridge. "Warm salt beef, sliced pickle and French's mustard on light rye and caraway bread" and very tasty too!

This sandwich was brilliant. Plenty of filling, moist and full of flavour. Thin slices of beef actually melted in my mouth! A bit pricy at £4.75 (this is their most expensive sandwich), but on this particularly awful work day it was worth it.

Customer service was good, the staff are very friendly and cheerful. On subsequent visit, they even put up with my dad making awkward conversation with them about the Marvin Gaye CD that was playing, they get extra points for that.

The only negative about Crave is that they need to make sure that ALL the staff know how to make the advertised sandwiches. The second Cowbridge I ordered as significantly smaller with less filling. A little more consistency please.

Follow Crave on twitter @CRAVEhertford

Welcome to Hertford Eats!

Hello! Welcome to my new blog, Hertford Eats.

Everyone who knows me, knows I like food and knows that I am proud to be from Hertford. So what else is there to do but write a blog about the food you can eat Hertford?!

Here goes...

The idea of this blog is to give reviews and recommendations of places to eat and drink. Recently there have been a fair few new eateries open in the town. My aim is to try them out and let you know if they are any good.

Cafes, restaurants, sandwich shops, bars and coffee shops will be reviewed on how good their food is (flavour, quality, portion size, freshness), customer service and price.

Hopefully it will give you a few ideas of where to eat out and maybe try some new things!

Happy eating!