Restaurant Review.doc

restaurant reviewbentleys brasserie at the parklands hotelin the advertising world, awareness is a very important subject. there are two types of awareness - spontaneous and prompted. spontaneous awareness is something of a holy grail, as it means that your brand springs to mind when a need arises.for instance, if i ask you to think of a brand of cola, youll probably say coca-cola, or maybe pepsi, but can you name any others apart from supermarket own brands (virgin cola anyone?). this awareness gives you a better chance of being the product of choice when a purchasing decision is made, and is the reason why super brands like coca cola, nike, visa et al spend so much money splashing their name around everywhere from the olympic games to the two minute mini blockbuster movies (commercials) on tv.of course, there are many smaller brands that dont have the wherewithal to saturate the market with their brand image, and to do well they need to rely more on prompted awareness, which may involve packaging, more limited advertising and a clear brand personality (innocent smoothies spring to mind). in these cases a brand needs to build awareness over time and generate loyalty in its customers.whats this marketing tutorial got to do with this months restaurant review, no doubt you are asking? well, the train of thought was started by my companion at this months meal. her first comment to me when we arrived at the parklands hotel was, “i never think of this place when people ask me to suggest somewhere to stay, but it would be perfect.” a classic example of prompted awareness - you know about it, but it doesnt always come to mind. which is a shame, as the parklands, with its restaurant bentleys brasserie is a very nice place indeed.one of the things that makes a place somewhere you like to return is that indefinable quality “ambience”, its difficult to put your finger on what creates it, but you know immediately if a place has it. originally built in the 18th century, the parklands has recently undergone a complete refurbishment, and now has a fresh contemporary look, but retains its period charm. the restaurant has the usual upholstered leather chairs and oak tables, but what gives it its air of authenticity are the exposed brickwork and huge log fire (not lit on this warm autumn day). i immediately felt at home, helped by the warm greeting as we arrived.this month i decided to check out a week day lunch, and invited my friend cesca haskins (co-founder of www.marlborough-shopping.co.uk) to accompany me. she was equally impressed with the dcor, and we spent so long yakking about the place we had to ask nicky, the hotels co-owner to come back when she came to take our order.once we had finally chosen we were shown to a pleasant table in the sunshine. for the first course i chose linguini with garlic,plum tomato, parmesan and basil in a creamy sauce with pine kernels, and cesca decided on thai potato crab cake, with mixed leaf salad and strawberry vinegar dressing. the food arrived promptly, satisfyingly hot and well presented. my linguini was delicious, and i especially liked the use of pine kernels in the creamy sauce. the thai crab cakes had a very subtle flavour, crisp on the outside with a smooth texture inside, the strawberry vinegar dressing a pleasant accompaniment.for main course i selected salmon fillet on spinach, with sambuca sauce, a fairly predictable choice as i love salmon, although i was tempted by the barberie duck breast, spring onions and port and orange sauce. cesca chose savoury pancakes with tiger prawns and tomato chilli sauce on pak choi. the salmon was cooked well, with the flesh beautifully moist, the spinach tasty and wilted just right, and the sauce flavoursome with just a hint of sambuca. for the savoury pancakes you could choose small or large, and being a main course cesca selected large. her advice if you are also having a starter would be to go for small, as the plate that arrived had a very generous portion of two pancakes stuffed to the max with large meaty tiger prawns, and plenty of pak choi. extremely delicious, but probably a bit too much unless you have a very hearty appetite. the prawns come with shell on, so the finger bowl provided came in handy. despite being rather full, we felt it our duty in the interests of the review to have dessert. from the selection of traditional puddings we both chose apple crumble, me with ice cream, and cesca with a smidgeon each of ice cream and custard. suffice to say, although absolutely scrumptious, i could not quite finish, but did manage a follow up coffee.as cesca in her job as a lettings agent often gets asked for good places to stay we asked for a quick tour of the bedrooms (i was just being nosy). they were all furnished in the same style, with a lovely bronze/turquoise/taupe colour scheme, and to say each room and ensuite was pristine would be an understatement, a real credit to the hotel.parklands is a family run hotel owned and run by mark and nicky bentley. mark is the chef in bentleys. it is obvious that customer service is at the top of their list of priorities, and they make the hotel warm, welcoming and friendly. in the current economic climate value is important too, and at less than 25 per head for a 3 course meal with coffee, bentleys meets that requirement.going back to my opening com