Review: Kalm Kitchen Café

The Café That Does Everything

Waffles with fresh fruit, berry coulis, maple syrup and sour cream

Kalm Kitchen is the café that does everything I need a café to do. The coffee is good, the selection of teas acceptable, and cold teas are stocked throughout the year. They do breakfast, lunch and Sunday brunch, and maintain a well-stocked counter of muffins, brownies and other tray bakes for the times in-between. Most items are reasonably priced (you can have a decent lunch here for £6) and the staff are always friendly and helpful (except the boss, who is friendly and helpful and scary). The place started life as Glutton and Glee, before changing ownership and rebranding to Kalm Kitchen. A brief dark period followed – the cakes on the counter disappeared and extras on sandwiches became miserly – but that period has passed now. I don’t know the story behind the takeover, but I have come to like the changes. The new owners added some counter style seats, which may not be all that comfy but it means the café (which is tiny!) can now serve more people. The elaborate cream cakes are no longer regular fixtures, but tray bakes, cupcakes and brownies have taken their place. Early on during the switch these would run out too quickly, but nowadays they seem to stock enough to keep them going till closing time. My favourites are the richer options (of course), such as the peanut butter brownie or orange cannoli. 

Review: Britten's

Guildford Familiarisation

Inside Britten's

Guildford is a strange place. Overrun by Thai restaurants, I've found many a place where I quite like to eat in the town (village?), but none yet that I love. However, since I'm going to be spending a considerable amount of my time here over the coming year, I've decided I need to fix this particular problem. I visited Britten's as part of this mission - a restaurant I've often walked or driven past. Some quick research revealed the chef and owner to be a past Masterchef contestant, so earlier this week we dropped by for an early evening dinner with the expectation of some fancy food. 

Roasted root vegetable press, basil, truffle emulsion

And I can say fancy food is indeed what we were served. We normally dine early on weekdays, so we arrived for a pre-7pm table with the intention of ordering from the pre-theatre menu. The restaurant was unsurprisingly all but empty when we entered, though it filled up somewhat over the course of the evening. A waiter took us to our table, from where we had a good view of the ground floor as seen from the first photo in this post. The décor is minimal and clean, and I imagine this is the kind of space that works well both during the day and at night. We were handed menus before orders for drinks were taken, followed by orders for food. Decisions weren't difficult to make given pre-theatre menus are usually short, though I should mention Britten's offers a relatively generous selection of 4 starters and 4 mains despite this trend.

Review: Thai Terrace

Car Park Luxury

I wasn’t particularly thrilled when my partner suggested dinner at a restaurant inside a car park. I immediately thought of a petrol station fast food joint, although I quickly realised my mistake as we arrived at Thai Terrace. The restaurant has a street-facing ground floor entrance, where a lift whisks you directly to a dining area above a multi-storied car park. The setting allows for great panoramic views of Guildford, probably unrivalled by any other restaurant in the town. 

The terrace, which I imagine is only open
during the warmer months

On the left, seating area by the bar. On the left, the dining space as you walk

further in past the bar.  

The first word that comes to mind as I write about Thai Terrace is grand. There's a generous footprint for the reception and bar area, which is all natural wood and Thai decorations. Beyond this is a bigger and more European dining space in brown and gold, with odd pieces of modern sculpture dotted around the room. The number of staff rushing around may be surprising, but as the restaurant filled up to capacity I was grateful for how many of them were about. There's a an outdoor terrace (surprise!), but it was closed during our winter visits. Staff at reception greeted us in a mixture of Thai and English, before enquiring about our reservation. We've always made a booking, but given the size of the restaurant I imagine you'd have a reasonable chance of getting a table without one. Expect a well dressed but rowdy, energetic crowd - couples, families as well as larger groups and office parties