Eating in Ealing Bill's, that Soup maker and Minimum Wage,

On Friday we visited Bill's in Ealing it's a new eatery that has been open nearly a week and is going head-to-head competition-wise with Maggie's which is just across the road (and which we visited the previous Friday).

Bill's was pretty full when we arrived and we were parked at the bar while we waited for a table to become available (about 10 minutes), we chose a Cumberland sausage starter and then both went for a main course burger, mine with a bacon addition and we sank a bottle of their house red. Service was very good and the 'beats' fitted well with the general ambiance.

The West Ealing
Papa Johns

The menu at Bill's  offered greater choice that Maggie's which is perhaps over reliant on Burgers and all told I would say we had a better experience at Bill's but I think it's still early days and hopefully the two establishments will survive and develop over the next few years.

Also on the streets of Ealing Papa Joe's have been campaigning hard to get people to know about their new place in West Ealing - not something I'm like to check out but if you've got feedback on it please let me know.

Good New Eatery

Minimum Wage

It's interesting that Gorgeous George has hit the headlines with a call for an above inflation rate increase in the UK's  minimum wage at just about the same time as (not gorgeous) Ed Milliband suggests ways to reform UK banking. Is the 'suggestion' from George coming from his n the role of the custodian of the UK economy or is more from his role as the tactician for the Conservatives' next election battles (don't forget the EU elections that are not so far off)?
How does an increase in the minimum wage impact arguments about limiting migration at the lower end of the skills spectrum, do we expect wage increases to impact prices or will greater efficiencies mean that the cost are absorbed?
 

Soup Maker time

A couple of weeks or so ago we bought a Morphy Richards Soup maker yesterday we christened it with a Chicken and Mushroom concoction, the machine's a lot of fun and once the ingredients are prepared the process for the steaming hot soup is just tit back and wait.
Hot and tasty although looking like a cross between porridge and mud we'll be experimenting further over the next weeks.

Late addition/edition

Just spotted this interesting piece on possibilities around volunteering and Linkedin.