The Guardsman Inn - Maidenhead

We tried something different this month... We went to a pub for a curry! Yes we know that doesn't sound very different but it was ...

We were only discussing that in the last couple of months a lot of curry is getting bland - someone said "Some of this stuff takes just like last month's so..." action was required.

The solution : we popped in to the Guardsman's Inn in Maidenhead on Oldfield Road which boast a fabulous back room bar and better still a ex-Gurhka chef... Who apparently prepares a fabulous Nepalese curry … we tried a special arrangement. Set price curry with a selection of starters and choice of three currys.… Lamb, Beef and Chicken.

The starters were a Nepalese potato dish and Nepalese Bhajis and some vegetables - with a small order of very spicy red salsa style sauce. The starters were excellent.

The mains were excellent - the beef was voted most popular, closely followed chicken but the lamb curry was a bit bland. Overall jolly good and politely served by a proud Gurhka who was attentive and seemed very anxious to please. Which was frankly very endearing.

Seating arrangement was a little weird in being in two groups which we altered quickly, and the banter kicked off! Wide ranging from cancer patients regrets, The Killing TV series, Definition of Dubz-Step as a genre, and whether money makes you happy. The normal stuff!

This is a great little pub with a nice attitude and ambiance and a mix or regulars and new folk a well kept a pint, friendly and not without a nice military charm. Nice for a drink let alone a curry....

Voting this month was influenced by a definite warmth to ex-Service men, but the food was good and perhaps more importantly it was different from our normal fayre -but scoring puts curry house in to our top restaurants - at number 12.

Would we go back - YES! And probably let the chef go mad in his choices.

The Gaylord - Twyford

The Club were back in Twyford again this month (James has been banging on about The Gaylord for ages so we relented ) previously the trips to the Mitas & Haweli have been pretty successful so hopes were high... And we weren't disappointed.

Sadly despite booking for a full house Ian, Tom, Gavin, Nick were all fallers on the night - Clive was working so can be forgiven…

Meeting up in the Duke of Wellington
- which is just down the road and what I would call a proper pub, small and homely and two bars and a couple Sky sports TVs on the wall... Beer is good FortyNinner but it isn't a cheap pub at a £1 for crisps & £3.80 for a pint us too steep.

Anyway popping down The Gaylord we were welcomed by a pretty uninspiring entrance but inside its clean tidy and bright even is the wall art looks a little home drawn… but the people and food make this place. The waiting staff ate very smiley and friendly guys who make you relaxed from the off.

The Bangla Beer is best avoided really we all tried but to be honest wished we hadn't the local member stuck to Cobra - good move !? It's just got a weird after taste and is too sweet.

The menu is eclectic with some Persian dishes, lots of duck dishes and a Bengali speciality dish or two. The puri is good as a starter but the crab one is too much a product of the blender that it should be. But the mixed starter is excellent and bloody cheap too… the Bhaji are standard fare but a bit underwhelming so starters were pleasant but not the clincher.

The mains are very different - highlights were the Memsaab Favourite, the Captains Patilla and Shatkora all proving interesting and popular, and the duck dishes are a must try... The menu has the ability to vary the hotness to taste and the staff were really helpful explain the curry's heat levels and offering advice on tastes chillies and levels if pain likely from the hotness etc but not pushy or overbearing - funny how you notice good service as so many places these days practically throw food at you.

The bill ---- surprised us all coming in at only £29 a head so The Gaylord is one of the cheapest curry houses we have visited. Startling for the quality of the food.

The chat this month was great, and so good to see Juan back with us after recent trials and tribulations and the club is better for him back too. And as many think we just discuss sport and women we also discuss bigger grammatical questions like the irregular verb 'To Shear' and how it is properly declined and we agreed on it too (http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/irregular-verbs/shear.html)

Overall what can be said is The Gaylord - good ambiance, fabulous staff and tasty well priced food… says it all. We will be going back.

On scoring The Gaylord jumped into our top 10 … no mean feat by our scoring...well done team getting in our Top 10 is praise indeed.

www.gaylordtandoori.co.uk

January FFCC

Gentlemen...the plans are as follows : we meet in The Duke of Wellington in Twyford around 7:30-7:45 for a merry catch up...you can't park at the pub unless you get there early but there is parking quite close by. Check out this link for details on the place... Http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/27/2715/Duke_of_Wellington/Twyford And we are popping along the road to ...wait for it....The Gaylord - yes James we are taking your advice...we have a table booked for 10 but already Ian has fallen out and Nick is a'maybe'.... See you all later

Last FFCC of 2011 is at Bawarchi, Gerrards Cross

The end of the year is rapidly approaching and our last gathering is in Gerrards Cross gentlemen... on the Friday 2nd December

...we are booked into The Bawarchi in GX for 8:30pm (so let's meet for a pint in The Packhorse pub,which is just around the corner... here's the post code for all your SAT NAVs : SL9 7QA)

Trip advisor has a few 'locals' review (see below) so it seems like a good little curry house...

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g499485-d2216551-Reviews-Bawarchi-Gerrards_Cross_Buckinghamshire_England.html

See you there chaps...

The Coriander : Bourne End..could do better

We were quite excited about going to the new Coriander freshly opened in Bourne End... especially as booking online via the Curries Online service was a first for us... ominous text messages backing up the service tell you that "you do not need to confirm this booking with the restaurant?!"

We met at The Firefly pub  nearby, which has had a bit of a lick of paint recently and is the better for it and enjoyed a rather good Marlow Breweries pint of IPA and then off into the cold night for a short wander to The Coriander.

With the Viceroy just 4 doors away (and a popular restaurant with the curry club - one of two we have returned to three times) so we all felt a little unfaithful popping into The Coriander...but we shouldn't have been as the Coriander got a very average vote from the members...6.85 which places this curry house in the bottom half of our league table.

It has to be said the ambiance and decor are good, the place does have a vide and they have a good location but the food was a real let down for the members with a few complaints of well presented but bland flavouring... and if you aren't a king prawn appreciator your choice gets pretty limited.  The service was sadly very slow, with a very long wait for us between course but the staff were helpful and didn't miss anything from the order so a tick there.

The problem was they allowed 8 guys in late on when they were clearly very busy and they seemingly only had 2 waiters on duty for 20 tables... a tough one for them ...which showed in the service.  All in all this led to a pretty slow evening.

The food... well in fairness mine personal dishes were absolutely fine but the vast consensus of members on the night was that the food was just bland and pretty ordinary. With local competition from the Last Viceroy so close that should impact them...but the place was busy.

Popular dishes were the Jhal Puri and many had the Noorjahani dishes which were very varied in flavouring... king prawn good, chicken bland.  But the sundries were good, nice bhajis and lentils, but that doesn't make up for the mains being pretty lower rent dishes.

Will we be going back ... probably only after we have tried a few others.  The Coriander Group has several outlets and one pretty near by in Amersham...we will try that and see if that (being a little longer established) is better...watch this space.

Fantasy Football - I don't know why?

Gentle Folk of the FFCC...

I don't know why I haven't thought of this before but it occurred to me this weekend that we should be participating in the Premierships Fantasy Football competition...?  We can have our own league and it is v. simple to participate (if you ignorami haven't played before) and we can start even though the season proper has of course begun...

I thought I would ask you all first if you want to play in our FFCC league...? but first a few thoughts ... don't worry it doesn't cost you money and we can start from next week and run through to the end of the season. For a bit more information check out the link below..we will post results on the blog and we can of course discuss at our monthly gatherings...embarras each other with our performance and take tips from the pros who attend...now who is in?

http://fantasy.premierleague.com/

Our audience - Alaska & beyond

I have just finished playing with my Google Analytics on the First Friday Club blog and have some interesting news...

Firstly more people in the USA visit our little blog than in Europe, and the majority of those visitors are from - wait for it Alaska?!

Secondly the vast majority of people find us through Google but for some inexplicable reason our readers are finding us from the Job Search sites - is there a correlation I am missing between looking for a job & curries?

And finally more people come to our site from Facebook & Twitter than from Google searches...but only just.  Now you can all get back on with your work... message ends!