A Romantic Meal for Six

Chiquito Restaurant Review

The whole date night thing...I just can't do it!  The idea of sloping off with Ian to a restaurant, leaving our children at home just does not appeal to me.  If it's a special occasion I can just about be persuaded to have a date night, but otherwise, I am just as happy being with Ian along with our children.  In fact, the pleasure that the kids get spending quality time with us and eating quality food makes for a perfect evening.  One day when the kids are all grown-up we will have our time together, but for now, romantic meals out are for two + the kids!  I know it's not everyone's idea of fun, but it's how we roll and we love it!

When the opportunity to review Chiquito's new menu came up, we tied it in with a visit to see Megan in Manchester.  The Chiquito restaurant in Salford Quays is ideally placed with its own car park, near the waterfront.  It was warm and welcoming which was exactly what we needed on a cold winter's evening in Manchester!

I love the Mexican themed decor of the restaurant with its authentic artworks and cosy, wooden booths.  The atmosphere is very relaxed and informal, and the soundtrack gives a very cool vibe to the place.  Chiquito is definitely one of my favourite restaurant chains!

We were able to book our table online in advance to guarantee a table which is a really useful feature on their website.  The new menu features many old favourites alongside some brand new dishes. I was glad to see some good vegetarian options on offer for both adults and children.  We were given bowls of complementary seasoned popcorn to munch on while we perused the menu.

The kids ate from the children's menus which consisted of a main meal, a drink and a dessert.  Freddy had the £4.95 meal and chose the flatbread pizza.  Kizzy had the £7.95 Young Adult meal and chose roasted veggie fajitas that you make up yourself.

One of the new meals on the menu is the warm Goat's Cheese and Roasted Veg Wrap which I ordered.  It was absolutely delicious, packed with tasty veg and creamy goat's cheese.  It came with house fries, salad and coleslaw and cost £9.45.

Ella opted for the Veggie Burger topped with veggie chilli. again it came with fries and coleslaw and cost £9.95.

Ian picked his old favourite Baked Veggie Chilli Enchiladas for £10.95.  Megan went for a winter special of chimichangas with sweet potato fries.  The chimichangas were meant to be filled with veggie chilli but Megan requested a roasted vegetable filling instead.  They were happy to oblige. 

We had a delicious feast, all sampling each other's dishes.  

The food was plentiful and very delicious.  we couldn't leave without sampling the desserts so we ordered a selection to share between us.  We ordered the Banana Taquito which was a banana wrapped in a tortilla, deep fried and flavoured with cinnamon sugar.  It was amazing!

We also got the Churros which came with chocolate dipping sauce.

The ice cream that Ian ordered came in a cinnamon, tortilla bowl which was such a lovely touch.  Desserts start at £3.25 and round off the meal perfectly.  

Freddy and Kizzy had ice cream sundaes as part of their meal deal.  I was so impressed with the size and quality of their desserts.  Freddy's strawberry sauce was absolutely fab, made with real fruit and not like the synthetic sauces you normally get on a kids' pudding.  Freddy actually said to our waitress, completely unprompted "It's the best food I've ever eaten!"  For my fussy boy to say this, it must have been good!

The staff were very friendly and accommodating.  The food was great and we really enjoyed everything we ordered.  The atmosphere of the restaurant is very relaxed making Chiquito a great venue for family dining, eating out with friends or for a romantic meal for two (Valentine's Day is coming up!)  They also have a lunch time menu available until 5pm weekdays where you can eat a main for £5.95 and add on a dessert or starter for £2.50 each, which is excellent value.

We were there for over two hours as service wasn't very swift,  but as it was late afternoon the restaurant and kitchen wasn't fully staffed.  But as we were enjoying each other's company and making full use of the free wi-fi we were perfectly happy relaxing, chatting and having fun.

To find out more about Chiquito, to view the menus and to book a table, take a look at the website at www.chiquito.co.uk

We received a £50 voucher to put towards our meal for the purpose of doing this review.

Woo Woos, Martinis and Other Cocktails!!

I don't often go out with my husband on our own.  Even though I have my older children who are willing and able to look after Freddy, I don't like seeing them as built-in babysitters.  I put their social lives above my own and anyway, we tend to do things together as a family more often than not, which I'm more than happy with. However, occasionally they insist that I take advantage of their kindness and so when I received the chance to go to Frankie and Benny's for dinner and cocktails, it was an opportunity they wanted us to take together.  So last night Ian and I headed off to our local F & B's without the kids in tow!

Frankie and Benny's have a new cocktail menu and although I am usually tee-total, I thought it was a chance to jump off the wagon for a couple of hours in order to sample their own brand of mixology!

Which One To Choose?

We started off with a WooWoo and an Espresso Martini which looked fabulous and were served with a smile by our waiter.

WooWoo

Archers Peach Schnapps, Eristoff Vodka and Cranberry Juice shaken with fresh lemon juice and sugar.

Espresso Martini

Fresh espresso, Eristoff Vodka and Kahlua Liquer.

My Woo Woo was very refreshing and very easy to drink!  It looked so very pretty in pink.  The Espresso Martini had a far more grown-up taste of strong coffee and alcohol.  It looked amazing with coffee beans floating on top.

Our main courses arrived very promptly and we had the Mediterranean Vegetable Burger and House Fries.  The veggie options are a bit limited, consisting of two pizza dishes, a pasta dish, a wrap, a calzone and a burger.  I'd love to see something a bit more fancy for vegetarians that would compete with the premium meat based dishes on the Specials menu.  However, the burger is really good especially with a side of onion rings!

We followed our dinner with a couple more cocktails.  I went for Strawberries and Cream and Ian had a non alcoholic smoothie.

Strawberries and Cream

Disarrano Amaretto and Strawberry Liquer blended with strawberries and cream.

My strawberry cocktail tasted like a cross between a strawberry milkshake and a bakewell tart with its hint of almond.  It was very creamy and fruity and presented beautifully.  The non-alcoholic version was just as good with a real authentically fruity flavour.  They were lovely.

We finished off our meal with dome delicious desserts; a Caramel and Pecan Cheesecake for me and an Apple Crumble and Custard for Ian.  The atmosphere in the restaurant was very relaxed, the staff were attentive and friendly and we loved the diner style decor.  It was nice to get away and spend a couple of hours together as grown-ups (even though we spent most of the night discussing the kids!)  We had a good experience 

The Aftermath

For more information and to view the menus, including the cocktail menu online, go to www.frankieandbennys.com

We received our meals and cocktails free of charge for the purpose of this review.

Happy Birthday - Project 52

This week we have celebrated Kizzy's 10th birthday.  We managed to cajole her Nana and Grandad in joining us for her birthday meal at a local restaurant, which totally delighted Kizzy.  They are usually creatures of habit so I was really pleased that they accepted the eleventh hour invitation! Kizzy had a lovely evening with her family.  Although Nana and Grandad left for home straight afterwards, the rest of us came back home for birthday cake.  Freddy 'designed' the cake, telling me exactly what he thought Kizzy would like.  She ended up with a green sponge, filled with orange buttercream, topped with blue glace icing and pink buttter icing, finished off with hundreds and thousands!  It was pretty bright but tasted just like vanilla if you shut your eyes!!

I still can't believe how grown-up Kizzy is getting.  She is a gorgeous young lady and we are so proud of her!  I'm glad she had such a good birthday.  She gets to do it all again with her friends in a few days as ten classmates descend on my house...should be fun!!

Here are some photos from Kizzy's special day.

Frankie & Benny's Restaurant Review

It was perfect timing to be asked to review the Frankie & Benny's restaurant chain at a time which coincided with my birthday.  So yesterday we headed off to the Telford branch to see how their food and service fared  up against the scrutiny of the Wendy House team!

Frankie & Benny's oozes pure Americana with great attention to detail ensuring that you feel immersed into a fun, 50's vibe that included authentic memorabilia and music.  The booth style seating adds to the American feel and the open plan kitchen area provides entertainment for the children as they watch the chefs at work.

We arrived at 4.50pm and the restaurant was very quiet allowing us to be quickly seated with an assortment of menus to hand.  The new Specials Menu was unfortunately not much use to us as there was only one vegetarian option on it.  However, although we were cutting it fine, we were allowed to order from the lunchtime menu that had much more choice and was much more reasonable than ordering from the Main Menu (a consideration when dining with the whole family) at only £8.25 for two courses.  The Children's Menu has offerings for children up to 11 so both Freddy and Kizzy ordered from that.  A Kids' main, dessert and drink costs £3.95.  The Junior version for larger appetites costs £7.55.  Both include a side of vegetables. We also got bottomless sodas for us grown-ups allowing free refills of fizzy drinks which proved great value.

After ordering, I inquired about the kids' activity packs to keep Freddy occupied while he waited for his meal, as no-one had mentioned them.  Unfortunately we were told that they were out of stock but instead gave him a colouring sheet and a handful of colouring pencils to use.  He was quite happy with that.

I started with the Garlic and Cheese Mushrooms with Garlic Ciabatta.  It was very nice but I ended up with bowl of sauce after I had eaten the mushrooms that was too much for the ciabatta to mop up.  I contemplated slurping it from the bowl but thought better of it!

My main was a Mediterranean Vegetable Burger which is a patty of peppers, tomatoes, olives and cheese in a bun served with garnish fries and a pot of relish.  The burger was very moist and tasty and I was impressed with the lettuce, onion, dill and tomato packed into the bun.  The fries were a very nice accompaniment and made for a very feeling and tasty vegetarian meal.

Meanwhile Freddy and Kizzy had their children's meals.  Freddy's Margherita was huge and he tucked into the freshly made pizza with gusto.  For £3.95 this was excellent value.  Kizzy's Junior meal was a Vegetable Pasta Bake which was some penne pasta with tomato sauce with a handful of carrots and broccoli thrown in.  Coincidentally, carrots and broccoli were the free side vegetable that the children received, so I felt that it was not really worth the extra money paid to get the upgraded kids' meal for her.  She did however really enjoy it.

We were really enjoying our meals and were receiving friendly and efficient service from the waiting staff who brought us refills of drinks and regularly asked if we needed anything.  We were very excited to test out the new dessert menu.  Freddy and Kizzy had their free ice creams from the Children's menu, but we ordered from the new range of sundaes.  I opted for Banoffee and Ian and Ella went for East Coast.  Having seen the photos on the front of the menu we were looking forward to tucking in to our sweet treat, which at £5.25 each promised to be good.  Sadly, this was not the case.

 My sundae was described as:

"To die for! Layers of toffee ice cream, banana, chocolate covered honeycomb and toffee sauce all topped with lashings of cream."

I  had visions of a delicious sundae, chockablock with good stuff.  Unfortunately, disappointment was all I felt when I received it.  One very small scoop of ice cream at the very bottom of the glass was topped with half a sliced banana and about 4" of aerosol cream.  Some toffee sauce was squeezed over the top, but it was really pitiful.  Not at all like the photos on the menu or posters advertising their new sundae range. The cream which constituted more than 50% of the dessert, virtually evaporated in seconds and the sundae was not worth the price at all.  In fact I can not believe that who ever made them up thought that the pathetic contents justified the price tag.  The East Coast sundae was no better.  Ella actually laughed at how little ice cream was in her ice-cream sundae!  I thought this was really unfortunate, sullying an otherwise very good meal.  As the sundaes are one of the new dishes being promoted, I would have hoped that Frankie & Benny's would have put effort into making them live up to the menu description.  It was a disappointing end to an otherwise good meal.

The bill came to £51.65 for five of us which is a reasonable price for a family meal including unlimited soft drinks  in a themed restaurant such as Frankie & Benny's.  I liked the ambience and the relaxed atmosphere; the lunch menu (available 11-5 Mon-Fri) is great value and there is a good choice for vegetarians on it....but seriously, forget the sundaes...what a let down!!

*We received a voucher in order to review the restaurant.*

Taybarns for Family Dining

Going out for a meal as a family can sometimes be a bit daunting!  Fussy eaters, troublesome toddlers and diverse tastes can create worries even before you've left home.  Deliberating over menu choices, waiting to be served and then waiting for the meal itself can make the children get a bit fed up.  I have to be honest, going to traditional restaurants with my brood often ends in someone throwing a tantrum!

However I was delighted to be invited along with the family to try out Taybarns "The Ultimate Eatery" offering an all-you-can-eat experience, giving amazing value, choice and convenience.  It sounded just perfect for us!  A relaxed restaurant geared up for family dining.

Taybarns philosophy is fresh, fun and different, providing good food at an all in one price, all under one roof.

We arrived to be warmly greeted and shown to our table in the spacious dining area. The decor and furnishings were bright, funky and modern.  Everything was clean and tidy.  We had a great view of the impressive 34 metre food line.  

The food line is divided into counters : Soups, Salads, Chip Shop, Grill, Kitchen Italia, Carvery and Desserts.

There was an area for collecting plates, bowls and cutlery, which was kept well stocked.  You could then help yourself to as much or as little as you liked from the range of over 100 freshly prepared dishes.  

Everyone was able to tuck in at their own speed, enjoying what they liked, when they wanted.

Everything was well labelled so you could see exactly what was what.  The food was well attended to and the areas were kept clean and tidy.  We are vegetarian so we were looking closely at the suitability of the choices for us.  We were also looking to see if there was cross contamination of meat into the veggie options, and also the provision of separate serving utensils.  I have to say I was impressed with both of these issues.  I had no worries eating at Taybarns as a vegetarian family. 

 Behind the scenes you could see the chefs hard at work preparing pizzas and salads.  Food was baking fresh in the ovens.  It was very interesting to be able to see so much of the "behind the scenes" operation.  It is an incredibly busy, bustling restaurant but it is managed incredibly well and efficiently.

As you can go up as often as you liked, the used plates and bowls on tables could easily mount up.  However, a team of friendly staff stay on top of it.  They were polite, unobtrusive and always asked whether you had finished with your crockery before taking it away. (I once had a bowl of soup whisked away from me in a restaurant when I put my spoon down for a second...so I was very pleased that Taybarns adopted a much more considerate approach!)

As for the food itself, it was good.  Between us we sampled Spicy Mediterranean Bake, Cheesey Pasta Bake, Doughballs, Garlic Bread, Potato Wedges, Mushroom and Thyme Pizza, Mediterranean Pizza, Grilled Corn, Tomato Soup, Roasted Vegetables, Chips, lots of different vegetables and salads.  It was all well cooked and hot.  The Handmade Pizzas were actually fantastic...on a par with a Pizzeria and with a range of different toppings.  The Kitchen Italia counter boasted a big selection of pasta dishes and accompaniments...the veggie options were very well received by my children.

A mini flip-over sign on the tables made it easy to request a drink at your table.  Flipping it to FILL saw a member of staff come swiftly to take my drinks order.  Very attentive!

The Desserts were wonderful!  I am a sucker for a cake and I was spoilt for choice with Chocolate Fudge Cake, Carrot Cake, Bakewell Tart, Victoria Sponge and Cheesecake.  There was also Profiteroles, Hot Lemon Sponge, Apple Crumble, An Ice Cream Machine and for the healthier diners, a Fruit Salad!

The place is so family friendly supplying high chairs and booster seats as well as colouring sheets and crayons for the little ones.  There is baby changing facilities in both the Gents' and Ladies' toilets.  While we were there a Chef Character came round to meet and greet the children.  The relaxed nature of the restaurant kept children happy and the atmosphere was perfect for family dining.

Prices for weekdays are £6.20 between 11.30pm and 5pm and £8.25 from 5pm to late.  At weekends it costs £8.75 per head.  Children under 10 are charged £4.15.  A bottomless soda costs £2.30 and can be refilled at the Drinks Station.  OAP's and Students can get special deals. This represents such good value for money.

                                        

Taybarns caters for the whole family, providing a diverse range of good quality food at one all inclusive price. It is friendly, fun and relaxed.  It is definitely a great venue for a family meal out.  As vegetarians we were well catered for with plenty of good choices for even the fussiest eaters!  It's a "Cheap and cheerful" family restaurant where we felt completely at ease and unhurried.

It does get incredibly busy at peak times.  Some diners had to wait up to 45 minutes for a table, but there is a bar area with TV to accommodate them.  People can't get enough of the Taybarns' Experience!!

For more information and to find a Taybarns near you check out their website.  Sign up to their newsletter for exclusive news and offers.

*Our meal was complimentary but the opinions expressed are my own.*