FOOD | A LONG OVERDUE TRIP TO COGGINGS &CO

It's no secret that Joe and I are burger crazy, we have tried most of the top burgers in Brighton. One place I hadn't tried was Coggings & Co. It has been on Joe's radar for a while and he went with Mummy Goat (his mum) a few months ago and came home a very happy boy. We finally went a long for lunch back in November to celebrate Joe handing in his notice and getting ready to embark on his Barber training course.

Coggings & Co. is situated just off the Seven Dials, so is easy to get to from town and is equally a nice little walk along from central Hove. The menu consists solely of Burgers and sides (apart from the kids menu). The burger patties are made in-house from British beef that is ground daily and are gluten free. You can also request gluten free buns.

The only real problem being which burger to choose.

After much deliberating we made our decision, I went for the 6oz beef, mushroom tapenade, Harvey’s rarebit, English mustard mayonnaise burger. Just wow. When the burger arrived I cut it half (a habit to help me handle and eat burgers) and saw the the patty was nicely rare - I am a massive fan of rare meat - this came as standard, if you prefer yours medium/well done I'd recommend asking. The burger patty was well seasoned, which is so important and when I had a bite was lovely and juicy, not even remotely dry. The addition of the mushroom tapenade and rarebit really complimented the burger (I'm actually drooling as I write this).

Joe ordered the 6oz beef, coastal cheddar, dry-cured honey-glazed streaky bacon, mustard mayonnaise, salad. I asked him what he thought of it for this post, his response was "It was awesome as usual".

All the burgers come with triple-cooked house chips with rosemary salt, cooked in a choice of beef dripping. I'm not really a big fan of chunky chips, but as these were triple cooked they were perfect for me, not to crisp and not to soft, and I think the fact they were cooked in beef dripping just added to the flavour. However, you can have them cooked in vegetable oil if you prefer.

What made me especially happy about going to Coggings & Co was that while I left full and satisfied I didn't feel like I needed to be fork lifted home, which can happen with some of burger places.

If you are in Brighton, I could not recommend going to Cogging & Co enough. I would possibly rat this number 1 or 2 on my Brighton Burger list!

Are you a burger lover? Where did you eat your best ever burger?

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TRAVEL | La Alcaría de Ramos Restaurant, Estepona

We have been going to the family villa for about 15 years, ever since my granddad first moved in to his house. Now I'm not sure that La Alcaría de Ramos has been there the whole time, but I know it's been open at least seven/eight years. But, even though the restaurant is just 5 minutes up the road I didn't know it was there and had obviously never eaten there before.

We discovered it while we were staying at Casa Katanga for our wedding. A lot of our friends and family were staying the hotel next door and rather than eat at the hotel, they decided to go to La Alcaría de Ramos, as it is the only restaurant close by, otherwise you have to walk down the road to more bars and restaurants.

Every guest who went there said the food was amazing and that it was reasonably priced. The only downside being that they were often fully booked, so last year Hubs and I missed out. But we didn't forget and were very eager to go there.

The night my sisters were arriving Hubs and I decided to go for a little romantic dinner, while my parents relaxed in the villa. We didn't ring and book in advance, because we thought that as it was late September and the hotel was practically empty as it was end of the season that it wouldn't be busy.

We were wrong, but luckily there were three tables left, and the last two were gone shortly after we sat down. We immediately noticed a lot of the patrons were Spanish, which always a good sign, especially in areas of the Costa Del Sol that are loved by tourists.

When we sat down we were immediately given a complimentary glass of wine and bread rolls (a lot of the restaurants in Marbella will bring over bread but then charge you for it - often only a euro, but that's not the point).

Once we had ordered, they also brought us over a complimentary shot glass of their Gazpacho (a cold and refreshing tomato soup) and a cracker with melted cheese on it. For starter Hubs got the Iberico Ham and Melon, it was wise of him to start light. The melon was fresh and tasted wonderful, like all fruit and veg in Spain, it just tasted so much better than in the UK. The Jamon Iberico was great too, obviously as it is a Spanish cured me, Hubs was in the best place to try it.

I, on the other hand ordered their Homemade Pâté, which was lovely and tasted justly like my grandmas stuffing. It was plated up with a lovely cranberry coulis, which complimented the meaty flavour perfectly. The only thing that would have made it better would have been a few pieces of bread or toast, rather than the basket of assorted bread sticks.

For main Hubs and I both went for the Fillet Steak - I went medium-rare, while he went medium. I love steak, and for me the steak that always sticks out in my mind was one I had in Mexico over ten years ago. I never expect a steak to even come close, but this one was divine. It was cooked perfectly, practically melting in my mouth and it was swell seasoned - nothing too complicated so you could really taste the flavour of the meat. Also the potato served with it was delicious, slightly roasted on the outside, but fluffy and smooth as mash on the inside. 

Now quite full we decided to take the plunge and get dessert. Hubs looks sweet, but does not really have a sweet tooth, also he has a weakness for cheese (or maybe that's me!), so he ordered the cheese board, which actually defeated him. They were very generous with the portion, he had blue cheese, goats cheese, Brie and manchego. I on the other hand went for the sorbet - they had a great selection of cakes, pies and ice creams, but they all felt too heavy. The sorbet came in Lemon, Raspberry and Mango, all were very refreshing and the lemon was particularly tarte which I love.

When we asked for the bill they then gave us a complimentary lemon cake and a chocolate cup with a mint mousse as well as drink on the house.

 I was definitely not disappointed with our experience here, it really has lived up to our expectation and the hype created not only by our wedding guests, but also Tripadvisor. If you are ever in Estepona, Marbella or the surrounding areas I would say that a trip to La Alcaría de Ramos is a must.

Where is the best place you have eaten abroad?

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FOOD | Coast To Coast review

Coast to Coast is an American restaurant and bar in Brighton Marina, naturally this gives you images of TGI Fridays or Fatty Arbuckles. While both are perfectly good restaurant chains neither really scream fine dinning! Coast to Coast is on a completely different level.

Joe and I went to Coast to Coast a couple of weekends ago and were really surprised at how nice it was so we decided to go back and review it.

Both times we have been the staff have been great and really friendly, our waiter from our first visit even recognised us and said it was good to see us again!

Now there are two problems with Coast to Coast; the first is that everything on the menu looks so good it is nearly impossible to choose what you want, and the second problem is that once you have over ordered, and you will, everything tastes so good that you don't want to stop eating it.

Despite having previously eaten there and over ordered and been unable to finish everything we decided to start with a sharer platter of Nachos. I did take a picture but unfortunately the lighting was awful! We just got the plain Nachos but you can get them topped with BBQ Chicken or Chilli Beef. The Nachos were good, the guacamole was amazing and the potion size was more than enough. No need to say we demolished the whole plate!

I was finding it really hard to decided on the main, I previously had the Pulled Pork Burger which was divine, but I decided to choose something different this time and ended up ordering the Chilli Special which is one of their prime burger topped with beef chilli, mayonnaise, rocket, fresh tomato, red onion and dill pickle, I also added some Monterey Jack cheese. You can choose between chips or sweet potato chips (or a mix), I chose the later.

Joe went for the Philly Cheese a burger topped with Pepper Jack cheese sauce and crispy bacon. Served with mayonnaise, rocket, tomato, red onion and dill pickle with a mix of fries and I side of onion rings ( the onion rings were so good!).

The burgers are big, and these two were particularly messy so we ate them with a knife and fork! The burgers are made from prime angus beef and the quality of the meat can really be judged by how good they taste! What I also like is the soft burger buns that the are served in. Joe and I both agreed that these burgers are better than Gourmet Burger Kitchens. As for the sweet potato chips, well they are in a class of their own. In my personal experience sweet potatoes can be soggy or hard, where as the Coast to Coast ones are perfect especially when dipped in the Louisiana sauce that is served with the burger!

I did really enjoy my Chili Special but for me the Pulled Pork is the winner, although there is still a plethora of dishes on the menu that I need to try! 

Despite being full we were very easily persuaded to share a New York Cheese cake which was served with Blackcurrant cheesecake ice cream. I'm a big cheesecake eater and this New York cheesecake was not a disappointment and the ice cream was superb and the flavours really complimented each other.

I was really happy with both my trips to Coast to Coast, so much so that I am having a family birthday breakfast there later on in the month! Perfect opportunity to try out their amazing breakfasts!

So if you get the chance I would definitely recommend a visit.

Love Lilla xx