All orders are taken at the counter. The first counter fridge had the savoury items including sandwiches, salads, quiches, savoury rolls and pizza! The second fridge had all the tempting sweet pastries, cakes, cookies and pies!

Euphorium Bakery serves Teapigs teas and I chose the English Breakfast. It was served in a tall mug and not by the pot. It came with a small jug of milk on the side, balanced carefully on the saucer!

The spinach and ricotta roll was tasty and very moreish. Not one of those items where you can just have one bite! Once you’ve tried it, you want to finish the whole roll! The spinach and ricotta filling was encased in a lovely buttery flaky pastry!

The vegetarian quiche was a big portion. It was jam packed with broccoli florets, button mushrooms and tomato! The taste of the creamy cheesy filling went well with all the vegetables! The pastry was quite dense and slightly harder than I like.

There is a long wooden table with small plastic Perspex like stools as the main seating area. There is also some outdoor seating.

The staff are efficient and friendly. All the tables are constantly being cleaned, ready for more customers.

Euphorium Bakery is a good place to come for tea and a bite to eat!

Euphorium Bakery, 79 Upper Street, Islington, London, N1 0NU

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

On this occasion, we were seated on the ground level, near the bar. Bouga also has an upper level with an equal amount of wooden and cosy seating!

A lovely start to our meal was some fresh mint tea! Bouga did have variations on the mint tea such as mint and roasted almond tea, but we had the plain one this time! A tall silver teapot contained the tea and we were served the tea in small painted glasses!

For the starters, the classic falafel were great! These falafel were made from chickpeas and broad beans. They were lovely and moist with a crispy outer!

Another starter was the vegetarian kibbeth. This was the first time that I had tried these and they had to be my favourite! The oval shaped kibbeth were similar to the falafel but were made from cracked wheat and pumpkin. They were filled with spiced spinach and onion.

The halloumi meshoue were grilled slices of halloumi on salad leaves, tomatoes and olives. We were also given a big bowl of salad to accompany our meal. The warm flat bread was light, fresh and hot, straight from the oven!

First we were accidentally given the kibbe lamhe which was the lamb version of the kibbeth. As soon as we cut into it and realised that it was meat, we let the staff know. The staff were really professional and apologised about the mix up and swiftly brought us our vegetarian kibbeth.

The wonderful, tasty, melt in the mouth, chunks of tender aubergine, tomatoes and onion made up my main dish of moussaka. It was delicately spiced and went well with the side of saffron rice. I was glad that this moussaka was more like a vegetable stew compared to a cheesy topped baked aubergine dish. This portion could have easily served two people!

Surprisingly, even though the pumpkin tagine contained apricots and figs, it was not overly sweet. There were plenty of soft cubes of steamed pumpkin and it was a hearty dish. The tagine was served with couscous and was brought to the table in the traditional tagine cooking vessel.

One of my friends had the mixed grill. This was a selection of lamb chops, lamb fillet, chicken cubes with a dome of saffron rice in the middle. It did not disappoint and would be perfect for any person fancying some barbecued meat!

The staff were really nice and friendly and it felt like they valued our custom. They made sure that everything was ok with our meal.

Bouga provides great food, great service in a lovely atmospheric environment!

Bouga, 1 Park Road, Crouch End, London, N8 8TE

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

From the outside, ASK looked inviting with its spacious restaurant area, white and green theme and it looked like it had had a makeover. It also had some outdoor seating.

As we were pretty hungry, we felt the need for a starter. The Bruschetta Classica was two thin slices of crisp bread, topped with chopped tomatoes, onions and basil. It had quite a tang to it, as if there was too much vinegar in the dressing. Also the dressing had made the bread slightly softer than it should have been.

While we were still eating the bruschetta, the waitress came over and said that our main dishes were ready. This was strange as normally the main dishes are not served until diners have finished their starters. As we were seated right next to the open kitchen, we could see our pizza and pasta dishes. We told the waitress that we were not ready for the main meal. All we could see was our food by the kitchen, just sitting there getting cold for a while.

When the food was served to us, it was warm. So we’re not sure if it had been placed back in the oven. As we were sharing the food, the waitress gave us side plates. Some of our plates were dirty and it was hard to get the attention of the waitress so that we could get them changed.

Even when we were given new plates, some of them weren’t clean. We had to get them changed yet again. We were quickly losing confidence with ASK.

The Caprina pizza was an oval shaped pizza served on a wooden board. The pizza base tasted slightly doughy as if it was undercooked. It had a strange taste to it. The pizza was topped with rocket, tomatoes, mozzarella and oregano. We asked for it not to have the goat’s cheese and the olive tapenade.

For the pasta, the Spaghetti al Pomodoro was chosen. Instead of spaghetti, we had it made with penne pasta. The dish was topped with buffalo mozzarella. We were given parmesan but the waitress just piled it all onto one place instead of grating it all over the pasta. The pasta in the tomato and garlic sauce was actually quite tasty!

Rustic chips were ordered to accompany our meal. But when our food was served, the waitress told us that we had not ordered the chips. So we had to wait for them to be cooked. As for the chips being rustic, they were far from it. The chips were more like oven chips and some were undercooked.

Dessert was the best part of the meal. The Profiteroles al Cioccolato filled with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce did not disappoint. It was served in a silver ice cream sundae like bowl.

ASK is not a place that I would speak highly of. Disappointing food, bad service and an unclean restaurant do not make for a nice evening dinner out. The waitress was consistently unhelpful and she told us that she was very busy with serving other diners. But whenever we looked, the restaurant was not that busy. It looked like the waitress kept wandering from one place to another, unnecessarily.  Hence, when we required her attention, we were waiting quite a while.

This ASK restaurant seems to have taken for granted that it will constantly be busy due to its location in a leisure park. It feels that they don’t care about their customers, or the quality of their food or the level of service. They know that they will continue to get customers, no matter how bad their restaurant is.

A disappointing restaurant and it would definitely be better to go to any of the other eateries in the leisure park next time. At least that way, a bad experience at ASK could be avoided.

ASK, Great North Leisure Park, Chaplin Square, North Finchley, London, N12 0GL

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars