Eat Out Review: Little Taste of Britain

Mr. Diner and I both love, love, love a good plate of fish & chips.  The only problem is that we’re constantly stumped at where to get good fish & chips in our area.  Although it’s still quite the trek for us to get there, we found a great fish & chips shop here in Utah!

We were up in Layton and discovered we were just a few minutes from Little Taste of Britain, which I heard great buzz about so we had to stop in and check it out for ourselves.  It’s a little unassuming shop (one of two – the other is in Roy).  Inside is a sweet little selection of British foods including lots of tantalizing chocolate, a counter, and a small dining area with Union Jack-covered tables. 

Of course we were there for the fish & chips, but they do have other traditional English foods.  (Pasties, Beans on Toast, or Mushy Peas, anyone?)  Also, the desserts are tempting; I so wanted a Battered Mars Bar now.  In fact, much of the menu is fried foods. 

Fish Bites & Chips ($7.99) – These “bites” are actually good sized pieces of cod (the regular fish & chips include a filet).  Everything was fresh out of the fryer, perfectly crisp on the outside and tender and flaky on the inside.  The fries had a good potato flavor, but were just okay.

Brit Platter ($9.99) – Includes Fish Bites, Battered Sausage, Chips, Onion Rings, & a Pineapple Fritter.  The Battered Sausage was surprisingly good…make sure you ask for a side of Brown Sauce to dip it in!  The onion rings were average and I was disappointed by the Pineapple Fritter.  Not sure, but it seemed like a canned pineapple ring.

Nick & Mandy are the owners of Little Taste of Britain.  The day we were there Nick was there and was a friendly host, going out of his way to make sure we were informed and happy customers.  He told us that they hand cut all their potatoes and onions every day and strive to prepare everything cooked to order and “just like they do in Britain.”  He walked us through the little market area and told us about Brown Sauce (a unique vinegar-based condiment…maybe like a combination of steak sauce, ketchup, & Worcestershire, maybe?).  Nick even offered us free treats on our way out the door.  And guess what?  He said they’re working on opening a location in Murray…cross your fingers ‘cause we thought they were the best fish & chips we’ve had in Utah and have great service! 

So, go for the fish & chips (and I’m definitely going to try some other things next time); go for the friendly faces & service.  We found our Utah fish & chips shop!

Little Taste of Britain
1095 N Main
Layton, UT 84041
(801) 543-5707

Entrée Price:  $
Average Fork Rating:  4.5
Mr. Diner:  5
Mrs. Diner:  4

Eat In Recipe: Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Lemons.  Is your mouth watering yet?  Mine is…just at the mention of them.  There’s something wonderful about these yellow, mouth-puckering globes that makes most anything taste a little brighter, a little fresher, and just a little bit more perfect.  In fact, just having some in my kitchen makes me feel a little brighter & fresher.  And that may be one of the reasons that this recipe by Lauren Brennan won first place in the 2011 LDS Living Best Cookie Contest. 

I’ve adapted Lauren’s recipe a bit for my own taste.  The original was wonderful, but tasted like a sugar cookie to me.  I wanted lemon (for all the reasons stated above).  If you want a fabulous sugar cookie with a bit of a sugary crust and a great chewy texture, use Lauren’s original recipe.  If you want all of the above with a deeper lemon flavor, give my adapted recipe a try.

Lemon Crinkle Cookies
(adapted from Lauren’s Latest)
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 teaspoon lemon zest
2 tablespoon lemon juice
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
⅛ teaspoon baking soda
1½ cups flour
½ cup powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla, egg, lemon zest, and juice and stir until well-mixed.
4. Stir in all dry ingredients (except powdered sugar) slowly until just combined.
5. Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.
6. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown. Remove from oven and cool about 3 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to cooling rack.

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies.

Average Fork Rating:  4
Mr. Diner:  4
Mrs. Diner:  4
Amazing Diner:  4
Sweet Diner:  4
Little Diner:  4

Food Holiday Link Party: National Salad Month

Summer is taking off around here.  The kids only have a couple weeks left in school and it’s getting hot.  That totally puts me in the mood for a good salad.  I could go for a fresh green salad right now with a fantastic vinaigrette, fruit, blue cheese, & some candied nuts – one of my favorite combinations.  What about you?  What’s your favorite salad?

Link up any salad recipe (green, macaroni, potato, pasta, etc.).  Linky is open Monday through Friday.  On Saturday, we’ll feature our favorites and the most-clicked on post (all of which will be pinned on our Pinterest boards).  Each week, we’ll be back with a new food holiday celebration.  Here’s what’s coming up the rest of May:

May 20-24    National Strawberry Month
May 27-31    National Asparagus Month

A few rules:

• Please follow Rate the Plate Utah. To make sure you get future link party notifications in a timely manner, we recommend subscribing by email.
• Link to a specific post (not your home page) that is related to the theme (we reserve the right to delete any posts that are inappropriate, spam-like, or otherwise not related to the current link party theme). Can be a new or old post.
• Visit at least 2 other entries and leave comments or pin the ones you love.
• Please share by posting about our link party on Facebook, Twitter, and/or putting our party button anywhere on your blog.
• By submitting your post, you are giving permission to feature a link & picture from your blog on our features post, if chosen.  Please submit posts that feature your own photographs.

<a href=" http://www.ratetheplateutah.com/search/label/Food%20Holiday?updated-max=2012-02-21T12:45:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=8&by-date=false "><img src=" http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh84/jebond76/Public/Food-Holiday-Button2-300_zps6fa27e87.jpg " border="0" alt="Food Holiday Link Party" /></a>

Time for the fun!  Come back on Saturday to see the features!

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Food Holiday Features: National Raisin Week

We’re back with the features from National Raisin Week, and the Bath Buns that are the Click Pic Feature sound amazing!  Check out all the features from this week below.  If you’re following along, here’s what’s coming up the rest of the month: 

May 13-17   National Salad Month
May 20-24    National Strawberry Month
May 27-31    National Asparagus Month

I’m really excited about the summery themes coming up:  salad, strawberries, & asparagus!  Yum!  Here are our fabulous features from this week:

Click Pic Feature (most clicked on):  Bath Buns from Home Cooking with Sonya

My Picks:

Cream Cheese Marbled Carrot Bars by Dessert Now, Dinner Later

Chocolate Chip Raisin Cake from I Dig Pinterest

Thank You Bread from Java Cupcake

Eat Out Central California Review: Linn’s of Cambria

During our getaway to Cambria, California, the guy at our hotel’s front desk recommended Linn’s Restaurant as a great place for a meal…and pie. 

We went for a late lunch after our visit to Heart Castle.  Linn’s has a main street boutique feeling to it with a shop, bakery counter, & a small dining room.  The shop features gift items including Linn’s packaged food items.  The bakery counter is extremely tempting and we didn’t resist.  I’ll show you what we took home after our meal.

The server was friendly and recommended all his favorites.  Linn’s uses fresh local Hearst Beef in all their burgers and has a Hearst Burger, which our server said he loves and eats once a week.  They are also known for their own farm-grown olallieberries and pies (and, of course, olallieberry pie). 

Olallieberry Lemonade ($3) – Pretty, but fairly mild.  I would have liked more lemon flavor.

Seafood Pot Pie ($18) – The crust was amazingly flaky and filled with rock shrimp, bay scallops, cod & mushrooms in a thin, creamy sauce.  Served with a wonderfully delicious and sweet house salad with roasted tomatoes, gorgonzola crumbles, balsamic onions, & sundried tomato vinaigrette. 

Dungeness Crab Melt ($15) – A generous amount of sweet crab with Gruyere cheese, avocado, and sundried tomato pesto on local cracked wheat sourdough.  It really was a wonderful combination.  Served with Apple-Olallieberry Slaw.

Pasilla Pepper Jack Burger ($13) – 1/2 pound Hearst Beef burger with Pasilla peppers, pepper jack cheese, crisp bacon, grilled onions, and barbecue sauce.  The tomatoes were really tasty; they must have been locally grown, too.  Mr. Diner thought it was a great burger.

Hearst Burger ($13) – Smoked Gouda, red onion, garlic aioli, & avocado ($1 extra).  These hamburger patties were so good; they were like eating steak!

Kids Burger – The hamburger was good, but look at how small it was compared to the bun!  I know many kids don’t like things on their burgers, but it would be nice to have more than just a burger & bun.

Kids Chicken Fingers – Real chicken, thank goodness!  Sweet Diner thought these were just average, though.

The food was really good and seemed to be made from fresh, high quality ingredients.  If you’re in the area, I would definitely recommend stopping in at Linn’s for a meal.  If you don’t have room for a treat, be sure to get something to go, too.  Check out the bakery counter (and this is only half of it):

We got a few treats to enjoy at home.

Cinnamon Roll – Delicious with a vanilla frosting, but not gooey as I like my cinnamon rolls

Olallieberry Cream Muffins – I loved these the best.  They were moist and cake-like with large spots of berries and little swirls of cream cheese.

Olallieberry Pie ($5.50/slice) – Featured on Food Network’s “Best Thing I Ever Ate by the Slice”, the Olallieberry Pie is slightly tart with a nice thick & flaky crust.

Linn’s also has several other area shops including their Easy as Pie Café, Linn’s Gourmet Goods, Linn’s Homestyle Gifts & Sale Loft, and Linn’s Original Farmstore.  Some of their products are also available in Central California stores and are available to ship across the country from their online store.  I hope to make it back to their Farmstore sometime.

Linn’s Restaurant
2277 Main Street
Cambria, California
(805) 927-0371

Entrée Price:  $$
Average Fork Rating:  4
Mr. Diner:  4.5
Mrs. Diner: 4.5
Amazing Diner:  4.5
Sweet Diner:  3
Little Diner:  3
Guest Diner M:  4
Guest Diner D:  4.5

Food Holiday Link Party: National Raisin Week

When I think of raisins, I think of a little box of snacks, oatmeal raisin cookies, cinnamon-raisin bread, cinnamon rolls, Trader Joes bag of amazing assorted raisins (addictive!), and the California Raisin commercials.  Who else remembers…

Link up any recipes with raisins as an ingredient.  Linky is open Monday through Friday.  On Saturday, we’ll feature our favorites and the most-clicked on post (all of which will be pinned on our Pinterest boards).  Each week, we’ll be back with a new food holiday celebration.  For those of you who want to plan ahead, here’s what’s ahead:

May 13-17   National Salad Month
May 20-24    National Strawberry Month
May 27-31    National Asparagus Month

A few rules:

• Please follow Rate the Plate Utah. To make sure you get future link party notifications in a timely manner, we recommend subscribing by email.
• Link to a specific post (not your home page) that is related to the theme (we reserve the right to delete any posts that are inappropriate, spam-like, or otherwise not related to the current link party theme). Can be a new or old post.
• Visit at least 2 other entries and leave comments or pin the ones you love.
• Please share by posting about our link party on Facebook, Twitter, and/or putting our party button anywhere on your blog.
• By submitting your post, you are giving permission to feature a link & picture from your blog on our features post, if chosen.  Please submit posts that feature your own photographs.

<a href=" http://www.ratetheplateutah.com/search/label/Food%20Holiday?updated-max=2012-02-21T12:45:00-07:00&max-results=20&start=8&by-date=false "><img src=" http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh84/jebond76/Public/Food-Holiday-Button2-300_zps6fa27e87.jpg " border="0" alt="Food Holiday Link Party" /></a>

Time for the fun!  Come back on Saturday to see the features!

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Food Holiday Features: National BBQ Month

The features are a day late this weekend; it’s been one of those weeks.  But, we did enjoy a neighborhood barbecue last night thanks to some nice neighbors who invited us over for some fabulous food!  I just love food cooked over a flame and am excited to share the features from this week’s BBQ Month Link Party!  If you’re following along, here’s what’s coming up the rest of the month: 

May 6-10     National Raisin Week
May 13-17   National Salad Month
May 20-24    National Strawberry Month
May 27-31    National Asparagus Month

Here are our fabulous features from this week:

Click Pic Feature (most clicked on):  The Best Pulled Pork Sandwiches from Schaffer Sisters

My Picks:

Grilled Avocados from Jani Serendipity

East-West Grilled Tenderloin from Fish Food Favorites

BBQ Meatball Sliders from Dessert Now, Dinner Later

National Raisin Week is coming up next!