Pack Your Trunk And Say Goodbye To The Circus

The Elephant, 118-120 Bedford Road. Kempston. Bedfordshire. MK42 8BG

Since the days of its conception and then through the days of its initial opening and on-going presence I’d always wondered what The Elephant was actually like. I remember that when it first opened it was impossible to get a booking at all, every time I passed by the place was heaving, that was a couple of years ago now and thankfully The Elephant is still around and even better we’d managed to get a bloody booking HAZZARRR!

The building is quite a nice sight in itself, what used to be a grotty hole is now an awesome looking place with a cool elephant drawn on to the side the building (thank god they didn’t call it “The Cock” and some nice wooden flowerbeds surrounding a small outside seating area.

Another bonus about this place is that it seems to have destroyed the Chinese take-away that was a few doors down, I can’t recall its name but I only went there the once and it was proper shitty! Mrs Belly had Chow Mein and there were burnt, manky bits of old egg in there as if they never cleaned the wok, sweet N’ sour chicken balls were pretty much frozen chicken nuggets. Dirty, dirty place!

The Elephant is a far cry from “the shit hole down the road” and rightly so, when you walk in you’re greeted to low lighting and a nice red interior. Lights that emulate candles are balanced on small shelves on the wall giving off a very pleasant atmosphere.

Mrs Belly and I were running late so we met all of our friends there, we sat down at our table (a rather large round table with a lazy Susan *or “bitch” as I call it*) and perused the menu. There’s quite a bit to choose from both Chinese and Thai food too (which neither of us were expecting).

I’d heard that the place was ok but a bit pricey, well to be fair some of the prices were on the high side and I did end up going for the cheapest dishes on the menu but that was because I had no idea of quality or portion size so didn’t want to go mental splashing eth cash when I may end up with a big bag of bollocks (not literally btw).

I ended up ordering the crispy duck pancake rolls to start and the stir fried mussels for mains with a portion of Jasmine rice as a side. The duck rolls came to the table, three rolls cut in half and placed on the plate like towers of deliciousness, enticing, inviting… If you can’t quite tell where I’m going with this I suggest you take some sort of IQ test as you’re obviously a bit of a jelly brain! The duck rolls were fantastic, I’ve had crispy duck at various places in the past but nothing as good as this.

The pancake roll was perfectly crispy while the duck was tender & juicy, I drizzled the hoi sin sauce over the rolls and they come alive even more.

A couple of JD & cokes to “cleanse” the pallet (ok, to help me get pissed) later and the main course came. The rice was enough for two and I did end up sharing it with Mrs Belly, the mussels were pretty damn good too. They came covered in a green pepper & black bean sauce and in fear of sounding like the long faced woman form that Sex/City thing “they were to die for” (I hate that phrase so please forgive me, I’ll smack myself now and bow my head in shame). If you’re not a fishy person then STAY AWAY FROM SEAFOOD! If, like me you’re quite partial to the salty shellfish then you really can’t go wrong with this order.

Just so I mention the rice… it was nice. One more time “the rice was nice”.

I think between myself and Mrs Belly our bill came to about £40 - £45 including the drinks.

Luckily I got to try some of my chums’ dishes too. Just so we’re all on the same page I did not (DID NOT) steal food from their plate, it was kindly donated freely by their own hand.

Mr B handed me some of his soft shell crab – excellent

MR & Mrs A passed over their Thai King Prawns with Mixed Vegetables + a Thai fish cake – also excellent

I cannot fault the food, it is in fact one of the best Chinese meals I’ve had in a long time, yes some of the prices are a little high but you’re paying for quality food and the service was also brilliant. The waiting staff were very friendly, helpful and chatty too, they made you feel comfortable and welcome (not something to often get these days).

If you fancy treating yourself and your pals then seriously get your ass to The Elephant, and if you can’t get in then Blue Ginger is right next door so you’ve always got a backup plan my friend!

BaJa-mbug (Not really)

Baja’s, Castle Quarter, Castle Lane, Bedford, MK40 3NT

It was the weekend of the Jubilee and what a hectic weekend it turned out to be! Mrs Belly and I had to drive up North on the Friday night to attend a friend’s wedding on the Saturday then rush back down again on Sunday for another friends birthday dinner then Monday was a gathering around Ma & Pa Belly’s with Tuesday being a day to actually ...relax!

This is obviously a review of the Sunday but let me just say a few words about the rest of the weekend first.

The wedding we attended was to be fair pretty damn awesome, ok it was all churchy & Godly (I’m an adult and don’t believe that an invisible man in the sky with an invisible beard created & controls everything, if he did then we should be cursing him rather than praising him because he really does quite frankly cause quite a shit!) but was a nice service all in all.

The reception was held on a farm in a barn that had been deckled out to look like a ball room (stunning!). As we arrived we were given drinks (that seemed to get topped up after you’d taken a mouthful) and staff were buzzing about with trays of tartlets, chicken & sausages on sticks. I did keep shouting over to the girl with the sausages “Oi sausage girl, come back!”… And she did and I ate all the sausage, Yum!

Dinner consisted of Parma Ham & Mozzarella to start, a roast beef dinner for the main course & Crème Brule for desert.

 The wine kept flowing because… IT WAS A FREE BAR! I’ve never been to a wedding with a free bar before, it was awesome. There was a local beer on tap at the bar which was very VERY good.
To top off the evening there was a live band and in place of the buffet a frickin’ Fish N’ Chip van rocks up with free Fish N’ Chips for all… Hoorah! What got me though is that the food from the van was better than most chippies’!

Anyway, back in rainy Bedford on Sunday we headed out for a friend’s birthday to Baja’s which is a Mexican restaurant on the new Castle Quarter in between Spaghetti John’s & The Riverside Grill.

The first time I heard about this place is when the boyfriend of the birthday girl told me we were going to eat at a place called “Badgers”, now this seemed like a rather odd name to me the only reference I could think of was the line “Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges” (said in a thick Mexican accent in which case “Badges” can sound a bit like “Badgers”) from the book & film “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”.
Obviously a bit of a stretch so I asked how it was spelt. B-A-J-A.
Ah! Ok, I got it you’re pronouncing the “J” as a “J” and not as an “H” as it is in Spanish. So remember kids it is pronounce BaHa’s the same a Jalapeno is pronounced halepeno.

Now I only knew roughly where this place was an Mrs Belly and I walked around the main building twice without noticing it, I called a friend on the phone just to make sure I was where I was supposed to be (I was indeed). So why couldn’t I see the place? Well, turns out the sign is about the size of a postage stamp! Honestly it is so small, I was expecting something more in keeping with a sign above a shop, big, noticeable, inviting… nope. The reason we walked around the block twice is because, unless you know it’s there the windows are kind of dark and make it look like an empty building.

It’s actually at the back of The Lanes bar, there’s even an entrance to the restaraunt through the bar itself.
Wanting to make a good impression, being a little bit wet form eth rain and a bit irate that the sign was so pathetically small I burst through the door and instantly shouted at the manager “YOU NEED A BIGGER SIGN! HOW THE HELL IS ANYONE SUPPOSED TO SEE THAT BLOODY THING?”, this was met with a part frightened, part bemused smile and then a question “Er… have you got a reservation?”
 


Thankfully we did otherwise I have a feeling they may not have let me stay…

After everyone else arrived we were seated and had a scan through the menu. There’s some really good stuff on there and it’s already better than the Mexican that used to be on Tavistock Street where they didn’t sell Fajita’s or Burrito’s but did sell Enchilada’s (odd).

I opted for the cream cheese stuffed & breaded Jalapeno’s & Mushrooms for starters and then the beef Chimichanga (A deep fried Burrito) for mains.
When you order your main course you get a choice of filling, chicken, beef or the quite oddly and very un-Mexican lamb.
Mrs Belly and I also ordered a side of fries… (We did come to regret this!).

My mate and I were running low on beer so we ordered more with waitress who just went off to get a couple of pints, she then returned and my other mate ordered a beer for himself and she wandered off an brought back one more beer. Obviously the entire table was wanting drinks so someone else asked for a drink, the waitress went to turn again but someone piped up and said “Do you want to get everyone else’s drink orders too, might save yourself another 5 trips?”

The starters came and it was a positive reaction all round, the Jalapeno’s & mushrooms were excellent. Really crispy breadcrumbs but everything was moist inside, the jalapenos were not too hot either. I’m a big fan of spice but I know others aren’t so if you’re not then don’t be afraid to order these as they will not do you harm and are really tasty so you shouldn’t miss out!

It’s always a bit worrying when you’re in a new place as you don’t ever know what the portion sizes are like, have you ordered too little or have you gone overboard? Well in this case we had gone a little overboard. The main courses came and although it didn’t look like a lot boy oh boy can looks be deceiving!

That bad boy was packed to the brim with rice, beef strips, guacamole and vegetables and man was it filling! Mrs Belly and I had ordered a size of fries between us and we struggled with those and even offered them out to everyone else (which I never normally have to do).

The Chimichanga was excellent though, the beef was tender, the rice was perfectly cooked and although I’m not a big fan of guacamole even that tasted good. It was quite frankly perfect.
The actual restaurant was a little dead when we first arrived (most likley due to the fact that no one can find the bastard place!) but soon started to fill out, it’s clean, comfortable and not to expensive either.

My only issues I had were the sign problem (seriously guys you’ve got to get a bigger one) and the issue with the waitress getting drinks one at a time. These are a couple of minor niggles that can be easily fixed though.

All in all it’s nice to have somewhere new to go that isn’t an Indian, Chinese or Italian. We need more world food places in the town and this is a good start, hopefully they’ll do well and be around for years to come because there’s a great deal of food on the menu that I wish to try and it’s a place I definitely want to go back to in the future!