As I’ve already said in this blog, I want to blog about as many places as possible, not just the swanky restaurant but also the chain restaurant you would visit on a Sunday afternoon. This is exactly what we did when we visited The Horwich Park Inn in Bolton. After visiting my brother and his family we wanted somewhere near by to get our dinner before heading home. Here seemed convenient and catered for children, which was perfect for what we were after.

The kids menu took in to account the different appetites you encounter with varying ages of children, and had plenty of choices without being over complicated. My two opted for their favourites, pasta for my daughter and burger for my son.

We skipped any starters and went straight for the mains. I decided on the ’83 Combo, a dish named for the year the first Harvester opened. Half a spit roast chicken with half a rack of BBQ ribs, triple cooked chips, speciality gravy and corn-on-the-cob. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. The chicken was tender, juicy and full of flavour. The ribs were nicely coated in a smokey, rich BBQ sauce and fell away from the bone at the slightest of touches. The chips were crispy whilst still having a fluffy centre. A sage & onion seasoning gave them an extra dimension and made them even more moreish.

As with all Harvesters, for the price of one glass of soft drink you got unlimited refills. This makes life so much easier when with small ones, and the different flavoured syrups add a little fun in choosing what to have next.

Again, as I have also said in previous blogs, I will always take in to account the price of any meals when passing my views. But The Howwich Park Inn is definitely value for money and indeed worth a visit. I may be calling in to see my brother a bit more in the future.

As part of my day job I often travel for work and stay over at various hotels up and down the country. Earlier this month one such trip took me to Potter’s Heron, a Hotel/Restaurant in Romsey near Southampton. The venue is currently undergoing a large renovation after suffering quite a severe fire. The renovation in the bar area is still on going, but the hotel and restaurant are fully open for business. Although I never saw the place before the fire, the renovation hasn’t done it any harm. A comfortable, homely feel is created with a warm mixture of wooden tables and soft, pale chairs with a splash of green and grey to accent the wood.

As this was a company dinner we had quite a large party of 10, and because of this we were asked to choose our meals a week beforehand. Not a problem if it makes things efficient. I had gone for the Devilled Whitebait to start, Cajun Chicken Burger for main and a Lemon Tart to finish off.

Considering we had pre ordered our food, and arrived on time, the wait for the starter was longer than it probably should have been. The wait for someone to take the drinks order wasn’t as prompt as you’d expect either, especially as the restaurant wasn’t that busy and they weren’t short of waiting staff. What became apparent early on in the meal was the lack of attentiveness from the staff, almost bordering on a complete lack of interest.

When it did arrive, my starter was a good portion of whitebait, lightly dusted in a seasoned flour and fried, accompanied by a pot of lemon mayo. Although it’s a dish that you can’t do much wrong with, when the menu says it is going to be devilled you’d expect a little kick. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case here. The whitebait was flavoursome enough but lacked anything resembling ‘devilled’.

Now, as I said earlier, if you are made to pre-order your food a week before you expect efficiency. One thing you don’t expect is for one of the party to be forgotten about. Unforgivably this happened when it came to the mains. As any group does, we all waited for us all to receive our meal before tucking in. It soon became apparent that our friends meal wasn’t going to come unless we said something. To add to the problem it took a lot longer than it should have to get any ones attention to inform them of the problem. By the time it did come the rest of us were over half way through our mains, and to make things worse the meal itself was way below par. There were two who ordered the slow cooked beef, both said it was like eating a tyre, so not worth the wait at all. As for my main I’d say it was decent. The onion rings were huge, the batter crispy, but sadly lacking in any kind of flavour. The fries were nice, seasoned well and had a lovely crunch with a fluffy centre. But, served in a mini bucket! Why? Will kitchens please stop doing this?! The burger itself was good. The chicken was coated in a tasty Cajun seasoning and was certainly a mouthful, but although flavoursome, it was dry and tough to get through. The aid of plenty of fluids are certainly needed here.

The lemon tart was a nice end to the meal. Zingy and refreshing with a tangy berry coulis. Possibly missing some clotted cream but still very pleasant without it.

All in all a meal that was let down by the service, and the quality of the food when it did eventually arrive certainly wasn’t worth the prices charged for them. I’ll say all the time that I will always take the cost of the meal in to account when writing my blog. I’ll expect a £14 burger to deliver more than a £6 burger and judge accordingly. If a place charges a high price and doesn’t deliver I will give an assessment worthy of what was produced.

6/10

We visited George’s Great British Kitchen in Liverpool for a family dinner on Sunday 9th December. We’d hoped to do a bit of shopping around Liverpool first but unfortunately the weather had different ideas, so we decided to get there early and have a drink before the rest of the party arrived. Nothing much to report for a house rose and a pint of cider, except that we were charged for a bottle of wine instead of a glass. The extra was eventually taken off the final food bill at the end of the meal.

The bar area was something of a squeeze, almost shoehorned in as an afterthought. It certainly wouldn’t fit more than half a dozen people in comfortably. The layout of the restaurant area itself tried to make the most of the space it has by leaving as little room between the tables as possible. This created a very thin line between intimate and intrusive. There are booths available in a raised area made up to look like beach huts named after various seaside resorts around Merseyside. These were a positive addition to the visual aspect of the restaurant.

Due to the size of our party we were sat on two separate tables in a more secluded area of the restaurant, although two other couples were sat quite close to us and were visibly unhappy at being sat near such a large group. Our drinks order was taken quickly and arrived in good time, especially given the size of the order. On perusal of the menu things seemed positive. There looked to be an effort to offer the familiar with a twist, ‘Wild Ocean Cod in an Onion Bhaji Batter’, ‘George’s Full English Pie’ & ‘Mushy Pea Fritters’. I went for the black pudding scotch egg with brown sauce. On arrival I was disappointed to see that it had been ‘deconstructed’, a sad modern fad only done well by the most creative and talented of chefs. A patty of sausage meat mixed with black pudding had been fried and worked as a bed for a fried egg and a small blob of brown sauce lay on the side of the plate. My overall experience was of salt, salt and a bit more salt for good luck. The patty was hugely over seasoned, taking away any chance of tasting the sausage meat or black budding. The egg was a fried egg, nothing more. A few drops of truffle oil could have elevated the ordinary to something a little more special. Tasting the brown sauce I got the impression of HP rather than homemade. In a place that is trying hard to be quirky I expected the brown sauce to at least be homemade, not a lot to ask really. If it is homemade then someone needs to put the vinegar bottle down when doing so. All in all a disappointing start to the meal.

For the main I ordered the ‘Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Pie’. This was served with a Yorkshire pudding, chips and peas. I had visions of a pie filled with all the ingredients of a Sunday lunch with a rich gravy cooked together. The reality was a pie case that had been filled with ingredients that had been cooked separately then placed in the pie case afterwards. Correct me if I’m wrong, but that is not how pies are cooked. The pie casing was incredibly dry, and whereas the starter was overly salty, this was devoid of any seasoning at all. Although the ingredients had been cooked well there was no flavour at all. The two small pieces of chicken were still quite moist but didn’t taste of anything. The gravy had a very Bisto vibe to it rather than a sauce made lovingly by the chef. The chips, like the pie, had no life in them at all. Even a sprinkle of salt and vinegar couldn’t revive them. All I can say about the peas is that they were cold when on arrival, more than just a rookie mistake, unforgivable. Nothing here to make up for the disappointing starter.

We didn’t stay for a pudding, electing instead to call in to the sweet shop further down the high street. All in all an underwhelming experience in a venue that needs to do more then just rely on it’s location. A special mention for our waiter who did an excellent job of looking after what was a difficult party to keep on top of due to it’s size. He was always on hand and took orders with efficiency and haste while maintaining a smile and plenty of humour.

£323 for 15 (4 children & 4 teenagers) including drinks.

6.5/10

First of all, thank you for visiting my blog. I started my blog to try to give a more accessible view of food reviews for the type of places most people would visit. Not everyone can eat in a Michelin Star restaurant, or even want to. My day job takes me all over the country and quite often I will find myself in a local pub or restaurant and have a great meal at a good price. These are the type of places I hope to review regularly. I will also look to review chain restaurants that I sometimes visit with my family. Although they are chain restaurants, the difference from one to the next can be quite large. So I hope to point you in the direction of those who don’t take things for granted and still take pride in what they serve up. My biggest bug bearer when it comes to eating out is when we visit somewhere that has all the bells and whistles when it comes to decoration, ambiance and pricing but fails to deliver in what matters most…the food. It is the experience of paying £80 a head for 3 course dinners to be completely underwhelmed and paying £25 a head for a 3 course meal to be very positively surprised which made me want to do this. Hopefully you will enjoy my musings, thank you again for visiting. Please feel free to leave any comments you may have.