Abra-Ca-Debora Pancakes & Recipe Ideas...

When I was younger, Pancake Day used to be all about those traditional pancakes with lemon and sugar, I wasn't a huge fan so could take them or leave them to be honest. More recently, me and Si have been loving the scotch pancake variety and have found a topping that we love! So much so that we don't just restrict ourselves to having them on Pancake Day, we have them as a dessert all year round - more about our favourite topping later!

I was recently given the opportunity to sample some pancakes from a company called Abra-Ca-Debora. They have three varieties, which are Original Dutch Pancakes, Sweet Dutch Pancakes and Diddy Sweet Dutch Pancakes. The pancakes look and taste home-made but offer a stress and mess free solution to Pancake Day. Sometimes it's not convenient for people to make loads of pancakes for their family and then try to come up with interesting fillings or toppings. Time, the stress of it and the mess of it can all get in the way. These pre-made pancakes put aside all of these factors so that Pancake Day can be a more enjoyable experience, leaving you to experiment with exciting fillings and toppings. They're also handy if you're a big fan of pancakes and want to have them throughout the year. They are ready to purchase from the chiller in Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Waitrose, with prices starting from £1.50.

The sweet pancake variety is the kind that everyone will be more familiar with, whereas the original variety gives you the chance to try out sweet or savoury fillings. The Diddy Sweet Dutch Pancakes have the light and fluffy texture of scotch pancakes - mine and Si's favourite kind.

The Abra-Ca-Debora website has an amazing amount of inspiration when it comes to fillings and toppings for pancakes. If you're one that likes to stick to the traditional lemon, sugar, golden syrup or honey, then take a look at the recipe section of their website, they have an endless amount of ideas to suit all moods and tastes, so you're sure to find something to suit you and/or your family.

I adapted a couple of their recipes and made up a couple of my own, so I thought I'd share them with you and hopefully they'll inspire you this Pancake Day :). If you're picking up some ingredients later on tonight or on Pancake Day itself, keep in mind Abra-Ca-Debora pancakes and my recipe ideas below...

Abra-Ca-Debora Diddy Pancakes With Strawberries & Vanilla Cream

This Vanilla Liqueur Cream from Asda is amazing! As I mentioned above, me and Si like the scotch variety of pancake and our favourite topping is this cream and strawberries. Simple but delicious! I re-created this topping with the Abra-Ca-Debora Diddy Sweet Dutch Pancakes. This combination goes really well together and is honestly scrumptious. The cream is a real treat! You can enjoy these pancakes warm or cold, but in this instance I used them straight out of the packet.

Abra-Ca-Debora Sweet Pancake With Biscuit Butter

Here I used an Abra-Ca-Debora Sweet Dutch Pancake with the equally amazing Biscuit Butter. This stuff is incredible. If you like biscuits then you'll definitely like this. It's a spread that tastes like biscuits! I thought this would be gorgeous spread on an Abra-Ca-Debora Sweet Dutch Pancake and warmed in a frying pan so it melted and became all gooey. I spread some of the Biscuit Butter over one half of one pancake and popped it in a non-stick frying pan, over a medium heat. The Biscuit Butter started to melt and so I folded the other side of the pancake over the Biscuit Butter half and left it to warm and crisp for about 30 seconds to a minute. I flipped the halved pancake over so the other side got warm and crisp too. I then folded the pancake again so it resembled a quarter of a circle and popped it onto a plate. I cut it in half to look like what you see in the image above. This is lovely eaten straight out of the pan or cold, but I'd definitely say it's a tad more yummy when warm! I got our Biscuit Butter from The Good Food Show Winter in Birmingham last year, but you can buy it online or see if one of your local stores stocks it here.

Abra-Ca-Debora Diddy Cake Pops

This was a recipe that I saw on the Abra-Ca-Debora website (I adapted it) and thought it was something a bit different. I think kids would absolutely love this! I used milk chocolate that I melted down in the microwave (in 30 second pangs) and a variety of sprinkles. I had these little sandwich sticks that I just put to use as I had them there, but I've seen cake pop sticks available at Poundland and I'm sure you'd be able to get some online, Amazon might be your best bet! As I said above, I melted the chocolate in the microwave and put the sticks on the Diddy's. When the chocolate was melted, I used a spoon to cover the pancakes on sticks. I made sure the Diddy's were covered in chocolate but not dripping and then I poured some sprinkles onto a plate and pressed the Diddy's on sticks into the sprinkles to cover both sides. I made a make-shift cake pop stand using an egg box and some decorative food wraps from Squire's Kitchen (I also used the food wraps for plate decoration as you can see in some of the other images. They would also be good to wrap up some of these items if you were to put them in a lunch-box or take them on a picnic) and popped the cake pops into the stand before putting them in the fridge to set. You could also put them on a plate if you don't have a cake pop stand.

Abra-Ca-Debora Quick Quesedilla

Last but not least is my chosen savoury pancake, which I have to say was my favourite! I've never made a savoury pancake before, but it was delicious and I'd definitely recommend giving it a go :). For this recipe, I used three Abra-Ca-Debora Original Dutch Pancakes. I prepared a mixture of cherry tomatoes, cheese, a red chilli, coriander, salt and pepper in a bowl. I was just making one so used my initiative when it came to deciding what to use (I just imagined I was making a toastie or a sandwich for one), but there is a recipe on the website that serves 6, so you can work out what you'd need from that. I put the three pancakes together and put the filling over one half (I tried using one pancake but realised it was too thin to hold all of the filling, hence why I used three) and folded the other half over, pressing down and trying to seal as much as possible at the open end. I put the filled triple pancake on a baking tray and into the oven on medium to warm and crisp for 10 minutes. When done, I put the pancake into a non-stick frying pan on a medium heat, just to crisp up even more. I flipped the pancake over so each side was cooked, warm and crisp and then put it onto a plate, cutting it in half. The picture above was taken about 10 minutes after it was out of the pan as my camera battery died, so I had to wait for it to charge a little. I tried taking pictures on my phone but the quality wasn't as good. I say this because when it was first cut, the cheese was oozing and it was amazing, but you can see from the image above that it had cooled a little by the time I took the photo. You'll also be able to tell that I tried a little before a picture was taken and oh my god, it was delicious! I honestly didn't have the highest hopes that I'd like it, I'm not sure why, probably because I've been brought up with pancakes being a sweet treat. It was extremely similar to a toastie, it's making my mouth water now just thinking about this, I might have to make another one later! The recipe that I saw online was a quick quesedilla recipe (I adapted it to make mine), but if you look at their recipe image and mine, mine is a lot less clean and not as thick. Their quesedilla looks more like an omelette, where as mine is more cheesy and oozy. Trust me, I'd give this a go!

I hope my ideas inspire you to keep it simple with the pancakes and to be a bit more experimental with fillings and toppings. I'd love to see if any of you carry out any of the recipe ideas above or from the Abra-Ca-Debora website. Let me know in the comments section below, on Twitter (@GemsGemz86) or Instagram your pancakes and add me (@GemsGemz86).

Have a flippin (oh dear!) fab Pancake Day lovelies!

Thanks so much for reading!

Gem XxOo

* Pack shot images are courtesy of Abra-Ca-Debora.

Tesco Finest: Two Dine For £10 Meal Deal...

I was recently given the opportunity to sample Tesco's Finest meal deal, where two dine for £10. They actually have two meal deals on at the moment and you might have seen the one that has been advertised the most on TV, promoted for Valentine's Day where two can dine for £20. I did primarily go into my local Tesco to get the items for this £20 meal deal to sample and review for you. However, my local Tesco is a Tesco Express and I was told by a lady working there that the bigger stores have the £20 deal and the smaller stores have the £10 deal, hence why it's the £10 deal that I'm featuring today.

Me and Si are actually booked in at a local independent restaurant tonight, which I'm really looking forward to, but there have been times in the past where we haven't actually been able to get out on Valentine's Day night and something like this is a great alternative. Whether you have a partner or not, there may be many reasons why it's not convenient for you to go out on Valentine's Day, whether it's because you can't get a babysitter, you and your partner both have busy lifestyles and just want some time in alone at home or you don't fancy going out on that specific evening where everywhere is likely to be busy. The Tesco Finest £10 meal deal is running until the 3rd of March, so there is plenty of time to try it out. You could even share it with your mom, sister, best friend or flat mate, it doesn't have to be just for couples.

With this meal deal you get a main, a side, a dessert and a drink for £10. The meal deal is for two, so portions are based on two dining. There are meat and vegetarian options for the main meal, ranging from meatballs, fish cakes, pie, lasagne, chicken and paella. For sides you have a selection of vegetables, rice and potato options. For dessert you can choose from tarts, cheesecakes, profiteroles, a crumble and melt in the middle puddings. Lastly, for the drinks you can choose from several alcoholic wines, freshly squeezed lemonade or Coca Cola (in glass bottles!). They also had Bottle Green drinks as a choice in my local Tesco, but that doesn't seem to be on the website. You can buy any of these items individually if you wish. If you want to read more about the products in this meal deal, you can do so on the Tesco website.

So, onto what we chose...

For our main dish, we chose the Chicken In A White Wine Sauce With Leeks. This main meal consisted of two tender chicken breasts topped with fresh slices of leeks, finished with a creamy white wine sauce, with bacon and a hint of mustard. We fancied something with a bit of sauce, so this was an easy option for us. The chicken was really tender and a pleasure to eat. The sauce thickened slightly when cooked, so there wasn't a lot when it came to dividing the meal between the two of us, you can see this from the image below of the food plated up. It would have been nice to have a bit more sauce so it covered the chicken and so there would have been enough for dipping our potato wedges in. That's just our preference though. Also, when the chicken was being cooked, you could really smell the bacon, however, it was just bits of bacon within the sauce. Si doesn't really like bacon but there wasn't enough of it that it was a problem and he was easily able to push the bacon bits to one side. I thought I'd mention this as if you aren't a fan of bacon but like the sound of the dish aside from that, it is possible to avoid eating the bacon bits. It was only when finishing the meal that we both said that we didn't notice the leeks within the dish. On the front of the packaging, it seems that the leeks are a main part of the sauce, but like I said we didn't even notice eating any. I don't know what happened there as you can clearly see the green leeks in the image below :/. The overall taste of the dish was lovely though and I was pleased that the chicken wasn't dry and was tender, as it said on the packaging. The sauce was flavoursome but not too rich. I would definitely eat something like this again, it would just be nice for there to be more sauce and more leeks.

For our side option we fancied a potato dish, so we went for Sea Salt & Black Pepper Wedges. The wedges are baked in extra virgin olive oil until they're soft and fluffy in the middle, with deliciously crisp skins. The wedges were seasoned perfectly, they didn't need anything extra. I did notice that the skins were lovely and crisp, exactly as described, which I love! The crispier the skin the better in my opinion. There were definitely enough wedges to share between two people.

It doesn't look a lot when dished up, but if you add a side of veg it makes the meal more substantial. Plus, the dessert finishes it all off nicely.

The dessert option was another easy one for us as we are big lovers of cheesecake. We opted for the Madagascan Vanilla Cheesecake Slices. The cheesecake is made with creamy soft cheese and vanilla seeds, with a digestive biscuit base. These slices were huge! Vanilla might sound quite boring but it's actually one of my favourite cheesecake flavours, especially when vanilla seeds are used, rather than just flavouring. The cheesecake was very creamy and light, it wasn't heavy or sickly at all, so was a lovely end to our meal.

Note: the strawberries do not come with the cheesecakes. Si added a few to our plates, trying to rectify the bad with good probably, ha ha!

I'm not drinking alcohol at the moment as me and Si are trying for a baby, so we opted for a soft drink option. Si loves Coca Cola full stop but he prefers drinking it from the glass bottles when he can. They had a pack of Coca Cola Regular 6 x 330ml Bottles as part of the deal, so we chose those. I'm sure you all know what Coca Cola tastes like, but I thought it was a great option, especially because there were six glass bottles in the pack, which we knew would last beyond the meal.

If we would have bought all of these items separately it would have cost us £15.79. The meal deal was £10, so we saved £5.79. Not too shabby and always a bonus when you're saving money. I cook from scratch at home a lot, but we always keep our eye out for deals like this now and again. I pop into M&S to look at their meal deals now and again, but our local one never has any of the main meals left :/. It's funny though because the day before we went and picked up this meal deal, Si had been in town and he saw it in Tesco and came back quite excited that the glass Coca Cola bottles were in the deal, so we probably would have picked up this meal deal regardless.

Whatever you do today and whoever you're with, happy Valentine's Day lovelies!

What are your experiences with supermarket meal deals?

Thanks so much for reading lovelies!

Gem XxOo

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Healthy Living With Tesco...

Image courtesy of Tesco.

After Christmas and the beginning of the year is when the majority of people want to go on some sort of health kick, whether it be eating a bit better or starting to exercise and look after yourself a bit more. I felt the same at the start of the year and started exercising a bit more and in all honesty me and Si do eat quite healthily in general. I love cooking and cook from fresh a lot of the time at home and then we of course have our treat nights. When I saw Tesco were launching a 'healthy living' range, I thought it would be good to try out some products from the range and see exactly how 'healthy' they claim to be (as we all know some 'healthy' products actually aren't as healthy when you see the sugar content for example), how tasty they are and of course what the prices are like.

Now I will never convert to ready meals from cooking fresh at home because I love cooking and I love knowing what's going into my food and experimenting with different dishes, but I work from home so have the opportunity to do this as and when I want to. I know some people don't have this option and work away from home, some for a few hours a day and some for longer, then you may have some people who work and look after their children for example, so quick ready meals like this are good and convenient for those kind of people that don't have time or maybe even the energy after work or whatever their day involves, to be cooking from scratch at home and putting a lot of effort in. At the same time these people shouldn't have to compromise on taste and deserve the best when it comes to ready meals/quick meals, of course within their price range.

Tesco healthy living products have replaced Tesco Light Choices and the Tesco Eat Live Enjoy range. The range offers two choices to suit customers' needs. The first line of choices claim to be 'big on taste, lower in calories' and are for those looking to lose weight (but at the same time have a calorie controlled diet and an active lifestyle - so basically you won't lose weight eating these products and not doing exercise or if you eat anything else that you want for the rest of each day - but that's a given really). They contain 30% fewer calories than a comparison product (same meal from a normal/regular range). The second line of choices claim to be 'beautifully balanced' and are for those trying to maintain their weight or wanting to make healthier choices for themselves and their families. The products in the range have been created by Tesco expert nutritionists, especially for people who love great tasting food and want to control levels of sugar, salt, fat and saturates.

The nearest Tesco to me is an express Tesco and I was pleased to see they did have some products from the range but not all of them. Initially when I was sent the product list, a lot of the products that I liked the sound of, weren't sold in my nearest Tesco, which was disappointing but like I said it was an express, so the normal larger Tesco's should sell the whole range. The range has over 230 products and I chose a few products that we both generally tend to like, so I could get both of our views.

I chose the Sweet & Sour Chicken with Rice for me and the Sweet Chilli Chicken Noodles and the Sausage and Root Veg Mash for Si. The first thing I noticed was the packaging was of a good quality and it was bright and attractive, with the pictures of the food on the front looking quite appetising. On the front of the packaging the main ingredients that people want to look out for when going on a diet or wanting to generally eat healthier are stated. So the total calories, fat, saturates, sugars and salt content are stated in terms of grams and then as a percentage against your recommended daily allowance of each. I like these values being in your face and clear on the front of the packaging as it allows those that are working out what they are going to eat each day to properly work out their intake of such ingredients and balance them out accordingly with what else they are going to eat for the rest of the day. There is also a clear description of each dish on the front so you know exactly what you're getting and then of course the full list of ingredients is on the back. One thing that did stand out to me as being quite helpful is on the back of the packaging there is a little Weight Watchers Pro Points section where it tells you how many points the product is based on what you're allowed in your Weight Watchers diet :). I thought this was quite handy and those that are on that particular diet will agree I think.

Sausage and Root Veg Mash (£2.75) - This product is 320 calories and has 5.7g of fat (8% of the recommended daily allowance), 3.2g of saturates (16% RDA), 6.0g of sugars (7% RDA) and 1.8g of salt (30% RDA). I thought the salt content was quite high on this one, compared to the other two dishes but I suppose if you balance that out with what you eat for the rest of the day it isn't too bad. The Weight Watchers Pro Points on this one is 8. The dish itself Simon said was tasty. He really likes sausage and mash in general so he was quite impressed with the flavour in general of the sausages and especially the mash as it's made from root veg. He isn't really a vegetable person but he said it was really creamy and full of flavour. He said the same about the sausages and said the gravy was rich. It's like trying to get blood out of a stone getting Si to describe how something is for me ha ha but yeah put it this way he soon demolished it up and said he would eat that again. The one thing he did say was that it didn't take long to eat and he didn't really feel full afterwards. He did say that for those on a diet, where they are having a controlled diet of food, snacks etc it would probably be sufficient as they would probably be having breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and drinks. Sometimes we eat breakfast then won't eat until dinner, which is usually home-made and a good size (not over the top but a good enough size so it fills Si up). Other times we miss breakfast, have a small lunch and then a proper dinner, so we don't really have a controlled diet where we eat all three meals at a certain time each day.

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice (£2.75) - This product is 425 calories and has 4.5g of fat (6% RDA), 0.9g of saturates (5% RDA), 10.4g of sugars (12% RDA) and 1.7g of salt (28% RDA). So you can see the salt content is a little less with this dish but the sugars are a little higher, but again as long as it is balanced out with what else you eat during the day, it should be fine. Don't forget these ingredients have been controlled, so they aren't sky high as with some other ready meals you can get. Also you can get some of their products with these values being much lower so if you really have a highly controlled diet you can just look for the products with the lowest amounts that you still like the look/sound of. The Weight Watchers Pro Points for this dish is 11. I tried this dish and although I ate it all and enjoyed it, the sauce wasn't as strong as I tend to like. It was a very light dish which is obviously great for a healthy dish, but the sauce was thin rather than thick and didn't have as much flavour as I normally tend to like. This is a preferred taste though so for those of you who don't like a strong flavoured sauce, especially with sweet and sour, then this would be ideal. The rice was lovely and fluffy with egg and peas, I could have eaten more of that, but I love rice! It was the same in terms of how quickly the meal was gone and not exactly feeling full up after it, but again I'd say the same as I did above.

Sweet Chilli Chicken Noodles (£1.20) - This product is 271 calories so the lowest of the three we tried. It has 1.9g of fat (3% RDA), 0.6g of saturates (3% RDA), 16.2g of sugars (18% RDA) and 0.5g of salt (8% RDA). The Weight Watchers Pro Points value is 7. This was a frozen product, where as the other two were from the chilled section. Si tried this dish and at first he was saying it wasn't as nice as the same dish from downstairs (we live above a pub where he works). I said you have to just review it as it is as obviously most people won't know about the same dish from the pub downstairs which is more costly but surprisingly is in the lower calorie section of the pub menu at 480 calories. The brand of pub is Stonegate but that doesn't really help as some Stonegate pubs have the same menu but others don't. Anyway, with this Tesco one you are really controlling your calories at just 271 for this one meal. He did enjoy it and ate it all, it's just preference isn't it with some things, like me with the sauce in the dish above. Si thought the chicken was lovely and tender and there was enough of it in the dish, although the sauce wasn't that strong, but it does say 'mild' on the front of the packaging. I said it's probably because it's a healthy, light dish. The stronger the sauce, maybe the more calories are in the dish. Si had the same issue with the size of the dish and feeling full, but I think it's the same as I've mentioned above, these products are designed for people who are on a diet or generally trying to eat a calorie controlled diet, it's not going to be a really big portion. This will suit some people though as I've said above.

I think that if you are being so controlled as to check the salt, sugar, fat and saturates in each thing that you eat then you will be able to work with products like this, even if you have to choose the product with the lowest amount of everything every time. The values are plain and clear for you to see, so you can work out what to eat around these meals or choose these meals compared to what else you have already ate. I imagine if you are on a diet or just making healthy choices then you will probably prepare what you are going to eat at the start of each new week or every evening for the next day. I'm not going to lie I don't think these are the most flavoursome dishes, but we have only tried three of the over 230 that are available. It's a shame my local Tesco didn't have more options but like I said above it was an express Tesco. I don't think the prices are that bad but I suppose it depends how you buy the products. If you are buying enough for a whole week and especially if buying for more than one person then it will add up but healthy food/ingredients don't tend to be that cheap to be honest. It's sods law with the majority of junk food that it's cheaper than healthier alternatives.

The range doesn't just consist of main meals, they sell quite a large range, for example you can buy cooking sauces, desserts, cheese, snacks, side dishes, tinned and packet foods, salad dressings, sandwich fillings and lunches. Often they are sold as two for a certain amount or three for two which was the case when I got the products we tried. They also cater for vegetarians. You can see their range here.

As I've explained above I love cooking at home from fresh and will always choose to do that over buying anything in as we prefer it. However, we all have the days when we don't feel like cooking or simply need something quickly to eat as we have somewhere to be. So don't get me wrong we do eat ready meals, but it's very rare. Si said he would have the Sausage and Root Veg Mash again but not the Sweet Chilli Chicken Noodles and to be honest I wouldn't have the Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice again because it wasn't strong enough in flavour for me. I wouldn't say no to trying some of the other products from the range though, especially if reduced.

Have you tried anything from this range? If so, what did you think?

What are your go to products for healthy living or do you prefer to cook from fresh too?

Thanks so much for reading! I look forward to your comments - I always reply :).

Gem XxOo

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The Most Important Meal Of The Day...

Ever since I was little I have always heard people around me saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. To be honest, I'm not one of those that has breakfast every single morning, I never have and I wonder if I'd feel any different if I grew up eating breakfast every single morning :/.

I don't often feel hungry first thing in the morning, I manage to have a cuppa most mornings but that's about it. If I do eat breakfast in the morning it usually takes me ages to eat (it's taken me about 20 minutes to eat a piece of toast before). Also, if I do eat breakfast I'm either at one end of the scale or the other...granola, muesli or fruit or a full English breakfast. I do eat breakfast cereal or bars as a snack though if I'm hungry throughout the day and strangely, sometimes I just fancy it, over anything else. I also want to know what the novelty is in eating breakfast when you're away on holiday, there's something different about it, the wanting to get up for breakfast before you start your day. Is anyone else like this? I know my mum is the same, but not everyone I know is.

The point of this post is that I wanted to feature one of my favourite breakfast brands...Jordans Cereals! They have cereals and cereal bars, but if you like muesli, granola and oat based cereals, they have a fab variety to choose from, including Super Granola, Crunchy Oat Granola, Muesli, Country Crisp, Porridge, Wheat Germ and Wheat Bran, Breakfast Bars, Luxury Breakfast Bars, Frusli Breakfast Bars and Original Crunchy Breakfast Bars.

My favourites are the Super Fruity Granola (honey baked wholegrain British oats mixed with raspberries, redcurrants and pomegranate) and Country Crisp Real Strawberry (crunchy cereal clusters made from British wholegrain oats with chopped hazelnuts, crispy rice, coconut and silky smooth strawberries). I have tried several of their range, but these are my definite favourites! I always feel healthy and like I have eaten well after I've finished. The fruity varieties are definitely my faves rather than the nutty or chocolate varieties.

Pictures courtesy of Jordans.

I love how their cereals and cereal bars don't contain artificial colours, flavours, preservatives, salt or genetically modified organisms. Their products are also grown to high environmental standards and the company is strict on using as many natural ingredients as they can. You can read more about how Jordans came to be here.

I usually buy Jordans from Morrisons but most of the major supermarkets stock the cereal including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Co-Op, Waitrose, Somerfield and Budgens.

I'd love to know your breakfast habits...do you reach for the healthy options or the not so healthy options?

Have you ever tried Jordans? Let me know what you think of their varieties and your fave, if you have one!

Thanks so much for reading!
Gem XxOo

Table Table Pub Restaurants: Winter Menu...

As this is my first post of the New Year, before I start...Happy New Year! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year :).

One of my favourite things to do in my spare time is...eat out. Me and Si love going out somewhere nice to eat when we can, in a chilled out atmosphere, with a bottle of wine and each others company. It's a lovely treat for us and something we look forward to.

We have been to many different brands of restaurants, but one of our favourites is 'Table Table'. Table Table pub restaurants have a bar where you can just go in and drink, but they also have a lovely restaurant area, where the decor is really stylish and makes you feel really comfy and cozy. Our local Table Table has some bricked decor, with logs and fires, like you're at home. We have been to a few of their pub restaurants and it is a lovely chilled out place to be and they have the same kind of feel throughout all of their pub restaurants.

We went to our local Table Table pub restaurant not long ago and found that they had a new Autumn/Winter menu. I love it when you go to a restaurant and the menu is different from when you went last time. It gets boring when the menu is always the same, so we were thrilled to be able to have a look at something different. We had three courses, one to share, so I thought I'd let you know how the food we had was.

For starters, I had the Seasonal Soup (what I always tend to have to start), which was carrot and coriander. It came served with half a baguette and some butter. The soup was lovely, really warming and it had a lovely mild spice to it, which may have been a bit of pepper within the soup. It was quite a generous portion and was really well presented on a board, rather than just in a bowl. Si had the Sticky Chicken Goujons (you get five, Si sneaked one before I could take the picture ha), which we have actually had before to share, so this is the second time Si had them, which says something when you go back again and again for a dish :). These were battered chicken strips, coated in a spiced caramel glaze and served with lightly dressed rocket leaves. I ate the rocket leaves, as Si isn't really a salad person, but I love a good salad, the leaves were nicely dressed and perky (by this I mean they looked nice enough to eat, rather than drooping leaves with no life in them...I just couldn't think of a better word ha ha). Like I said, Si has had these before, so he loved them and they are extremely moreish!! I don't normally like sweet and savoury together, but if you are usually the same, I'd recommend giving these a try, they are gorgeous! The chickens lush, the batters crispy and the glaze is soooo nice!

For mains, I decided to go for something a little different. I am funny with fish and only tend to like cod, skinless and without bones. However, I saw the Oven Baked Cod and it looked really tasty, so I decided to go for it. I was so glad I did, I thoroughly enjoyed it! It's finished with a lemon and black pepper topping, served with crushed baby potatoes, seasonal veg (leeks and cabbage) and a tomato and caper sauce. The fish was cooked lovely, just pure white fish, no skin and no bones, just how I like it. The topping was crunchy and the tomato and caper sauce went lovely with it. I liked that I had leeks in the seasonal veg, as they are one of my faves and not something you usually have in regular vegetable sides. Put it this way, I would definitely have this again. I asked for a little more butter for my potatoes as they looked a little dry, but everything else was lovely. Excuse the half eaten fish in my picture below. I get carried away sometimes and tuck straight in, forgetting to take a picture when I want to. Then all of a sudden I'm like 'Oh gosh, I need to take a picture!', in the middle of a restaurant...that's me ha ha! Si had the Cajun Vegetable Burger (the picked off bit of bread was Si's doing on the top of his bun ha ha...I'm so good with these food pics aren't I!) and he doubled up, meaning he had another burger put in for an extra £1.49. The burger is packed full of spices, kidney beans and peppers amongst other vegetables and comes with cheddar cheese, grilled red pepper, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and red onion. Si had his without cheese and mayo cause he doesn't like them, but he loves this burger and has had different versions in other pubs. He said the burger was slightly spicy but not too much, it just has a subtle tang. He isn't a vegetarian, but if you are this would be a perfect dish (without the cheese and mayo for some) and it doesn't lack in flavour. This dish also comes with skinny cut fries and burger relish.

For dessert, we shared a Mouth-Watering Strawberry Sundae. I'm not normally a dessert person, but fancied something small, hence why we decided to share. Apart from the wafer (not a fan), it was delish! It had strawberry ice cream, real strawberries, whipped cream and raspberry sauce in it...yum yum yum! For me it was enough to share though, not sure if I could have eaten it all myself, but that's just me. Now, like I've mentioned above, my track record with taking pictures before eating something isn't proving to be that great and unfortunately we had already demolished this dessert before I remembered...don't ask! I will get better I promise ha ha, but if you have a look at the current menu, in the dessert section you will see a picture of this dessert.

Regarding our total bill, two starters, two mains, one dessert, two Jack Daniel cocktails and one bottle of rose wine came to just over £50.

I love how they serve Costa drinks (what they serve can be seen on the main food menu). I mean I love a Starbucks, but Costa is second best :). So after your meal or even just on it's own you can have a lovely coffee, latte, hot chocolate or coffee liqueur. I always want one, but never get to have one cause I'm too full, especially with drinking throughout the meal aswell. They have a lovely drinks menu and a wide range in each section. The cocktails and mocktails section is my fave :). I love the strawberry and elderflower cordial with lemonade.

Their menu has food to suit all budgets. They have main meals starting from £4.99 (Monday to Friday 11:30am-5:00pm), but after this time there is sure to still be something to suit a small budget. It has definitely catered for this. I love how they have classic pub dishes, but also some dishes that are a little bit more bistro-like. They have various items to choose from in each section of starters, salads, light bites, gourmet burgers, classics, fish, grills, sides, Sunday lunch, and of course desserts. The menu also states which dishes are suitable for vegetarians, which may contain bones or alcohol etc, so it is really well thought out. Although you will be spoilt for choice! They also have a kids menu with starters from 99p, main meals from £3.99 and desserts from 99p...bargain prices but still lots of choice!

On their website, they often have promotions, so if you are thinking of going to one of their pub restaurants and have a printer, I'd have a quick look on their website and see what offers they have as you could save a fair deal of money. Currently they have a 50% off your total food bill voucher that you can print off and use Monday-Friday before the 18th January. You can also book a table from their website.

Also...as a little extra for all you bloggers or business people, they have free Wi-Fi, which is always a bonus anywhere :).

I may not go into as much detail in the future, but I may feature their new menu as and when they come out and review anything that we may have from it, so look out for more food posts from Table Table...

Have you ever been to a Table Table pub restaurant? If so, what was your opinion? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for reading lovelies :).

Gem XxOo

National Curry Week 2012 (8-14th October)...

Me and Si love a good curry. It's definitely our first choice of takeaway and I must say over the years I have become more experimental and realised I like more things that I first thought. There was a time where I always used to have a Chicken Tikka Masala, but now I love a good Chicken Balti or a Chicken Dhansak and don't get me started on poppadoms. They are like a necessity to my Indian meal ha, with mango chutney and onion salad...yum! Oh dear, making my mouth water. I love Indian all you can eat restaurants because you can try out things you wouldn't usually have and it won't cost you a fortune ordering lots of different dishes. Then if you really like something you can order it next time you have a takeaway...I've done this before.

You're probably wondering why I have decided to do a post on Indian food. Well this week is National Curry Week and an event is held to find the curry capital of Britain. You can find out more about this here and you can also vote for your favourite Indian restaurant.

You may have noticed in past posts that I do some food sampling for Tesco and they have a lovely restaurant inspired 'Taste of India' range that has a variety of main dishes, side dishes, snacks and it also caters for vegetarians. The prices are incredibly reasonable with each dish being £2.50. You can also get 3 dishes for £6 or 5 dishes for £9.

You could indulge in starters or side dishes of 6 Spinach Bhajis with Tomato and Chilli Dip, 6 Red Pepper Pakoras with Mango Chutney Dip, 4 Chicken Tikka Samosas, Gobi Aloo, Saag Bhajee and/or Pilau Rice with Roti Bread. Then you can get stuck into mains of a Chicken Sizzler, Tandoori Chicken Masala, Chicken Pathia, Chicken Dhansak, Prawns with Chilli and Garlic, Beef Madras, Butter Chicken, Chicken Saag, Mushroom and Pea Masala and/or Aubergine Masala.

My favourites are Gobi Aloo and Pilau Rice with Roti Bread as side dishes and Chicken Dhansak as a main. Chicken Dhansak has a sweet and sour taste. This curry is sometimes served with pineapple (which Si loves), but I love the lentils that are within the sauce...yum! Pilau rice is pretty self explanatory but Gobi Aloo is roasted potato and cauliflower with onions, spices, curry leaves, cumin and mustard seeds.

(Examples of the 'Taste of India' range from Tesco. Pictures courtesy of Tesco).

You can pop into your local Tesco to see what they have available from this range or you can purchase items from the range online.

If you like Indian food, what's your favourite dish?

My mouth has been watering throughout writing this post...I can feel an Indian takeaway coming on this week ha ha.

Gem XxOo

Smartbox: Table For Two...

A while back now I was given the opportunity to review a 'Smartbox: Table for Two' voucher. Me and Si have been trying to find the perfect time to redeem it, what with the distance of the locations, work and everything else. The voucher could be used in 100 restaurants across the UK and was valid until the 31st December 2013. We live in the West Midlands, where there are five restaurants we could have chosen from (Coventry, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Brierley Hill, Shrewsbury and Hereford), so we chose the nearest one to us in Brierley Hill, as it was quite easy to get to and wouldn't cost us a fortune (we don't drive). We decided to have a night away, which was lovely to be honest and we were really looking forward to having a nice meal. The restaurant in Brierley Hill was Faradays Restaurant, which was part of the Copthorne Hotel (lovely chain of hotels). So we decided to stay at the hotel for the night, where the restaurant already was...perfect!

With any Smartbox voucher, you receive a box with the voucher in and a glossy booklet, which states all the experiences you can choose to redeem, based upon whether you have a culinary, well being, activity or escape Smartbox. These vouchers are available to buy for many countries around the world, so it's not just the UK, which is fab! So, in terms of the glossy booklet I received with the table for two Smartbox, it gives a brief description about each restaurant available, gives you practical info, for example whether the restaurant has wi-fi, car parking facilities etc. It also tells you what is on-site at each restaurant, for example a bar/lounge. It tells you the opening times of each restaurant and gives you brief instructions as to how to get there. It also tells you what the voucher entitles you to at each restaurant. This is different for each restaurant, the one we chose allowed us to have a three course meal each, some also offer a glass of wine, a cup of tea/coffee etc. Lastly, it gives you booking details, so you have contact info that will allow you to book your reservation and redeem your voucher. You have to fill in a few details on the voucher enclosed within the box, for example name, address, the restaurant you have chosen etc. Some restaurants will require the codes on the voucher to be relayed over the phone, others will just ask you to bring the voucher along with you...that's what we had to do. It does say within the box that it is best to book in advance, but we decided to go at the last minute (as Si had a few days off work), so we decided last Sunday (2nd Sept 2012) to ring up and try and book for the Monday (3rd Sept 2012). Our reservation was accepted and so we went on our merry way on Monday. I think it is probably to do with the day you want to go in terms of booking in advance.

There isn't a price on the voucher, all it said for the restaurant we chose was that we were entitled to a three course meal each. Simon obviously said we had this voucher on the phone when we rang and booked, so when we arrived the lady who greeted us mentioned our voucher and we chose our seat. She provided us with the general a la carte menu and then the set menu, along with the bar menu in-case we wanted bar food like burgers etc. We gathered we were aloud to mix and match with our three course meal, so we spent a few minutes deciding what we fancied. The food consists of British and international cuisine and the ambiance is warm and inviting. We sat on the bottom part of the restaurant where you can overlook the canal and see the bars that sit on the opposite side of the canal, it really was a nice, relaxing setting.

After a while we had decided what we wanted but thought we would just double check because although we knew we had to pay for our own drinks we didn't want to over order what we were allowed to eat (we weren't that sure whether we could mix or match from the menu's and the prices were different) and end up paying quite a lot more than what the voucher actually allowed us to have. We probably wouldn't have been thinking this if I hadn't overheard another couple who were taken to their table by the same waitress as us. The waitress told them that their voucher entitled them to three courses, where they could choose from the set menu or if they wanted food from the a la carte menu, they were allowed up to the value of £20 each. So then this got me thinking of what we were entitled to with our voucher. Hence me asking her just before we ordered (as she didn't say anything like that to us when we sat down). She said she thought the voucher was up to the value of £60 between us, but she wanted to check to make sure. When she returned, she said it was up to the value of £59.95 between us. We thought this was a strange amount and why not just round it up but upon looking at the Smartbox website, we saw that to purchase the voucher it is £59.95, so that's where the limit of what you are allowed to order comes from. So it's not as simple as just ordering any three course meal that you like, if you don't want to pay extra, keep your eye on the price of what you are ordering :-).

We managed to have three courses each. We don't usually have desserts when we have a restaurant meal, but we had money still to spend and you could only spend it on food, so we thought why not and ordered desserts aswell. They were pretty nice to be honest!

I had a tomato and basil home-made soup with warm bread for my starter and Simon had a cold meat platter. I always love having soup for a starter and you could tell it was home-made and very hot, it took me a while to eat it. It was really thick and wholesome and the bread it came with was lovely and warm. Si's cold meat platter consisted of a leafy salad, some brown bread triangles, turkey, parma ham, salami, chorizo and beef. He enjoyed the range of different meats, but enjoyed the turkey the best. We waited about ten mins from when we ordered for our starters.

Our main meals consisted of grilled chicken with a creamed leek, cheese, onion and chive sauce with steamed broccoli for me and haddock with Indian spices, hand-cut chips, masala dip and a side chopped salad for Si. I thoroughly enjoyed mine, the sauce was so cheesy and creamy which is right up my street and the chicken was juicy, mmm, it's making my mouth water thinking about it now ha, ha. I am also not usually a fan of broccoli, but the steamed broccoli I had was really nice, tasted fresh, and had a nice bite to it. I had a couple of stems of broccoli, but I probably could have eaten more it was that nice. Si also enjoyed his main, he said the fish melted in the mouth and the chips were really moreish. The spices on the fish weren't spicy hot, which he usually likes, but they were flavoursome spices, so I thought that was worth mentioning, for those that want to try the fish but are worried about it being too spicy. I also had some beer battered chips as a side dish to my meal. I love beer battered chips, chicken, onion rings etc, so was looking forward to these. However, they were a little too oily for me. They were ok to start with, but after a couple I could feel that I was started to feel a bit 'bleurgh' so to say, cause I could taste the oiliness. You could taste the beer, but the oiliness overpowered this. I was umming and ahhing over these, the butter mash or the garlic and rosemary new potatoes for a side dish, so I wish I would have gone for another option now, but oh well, at least I tried them, they just weren't to my taste. There was only probably about 6 or 7 chips within the bowl, but they were big, home-made, home-battered ones, so they were 'enough'. The amount of food you get is that what a more upmarket, posher restaurant might serve to you. So it's not like a pub meal where the chips and piled up and you can't see the edges of your plate, it is more like fine cuisine. We felt that it was enough food though, it filled us up :-). I'd say we waited about 20-25 mins for our mains after our starters, which wasn't too bad considering the food is hand-cooked/made and not just shoved in a microwave.

                           My Chicken.                                                        Si's Fish.

My Beer Battered Chips.

Lastly for dessert (excuse the no pictures, we were in deep conversation playing a game when they arrived, so it completely slipped my mind to take a pic at the time :-/ oopsy!) I had a Bailey's cheesecake with cinnamon cream and Si had baked Alaska with toffee sauce. I said to Si that there didn't seem to be anything 'light' on the menu's for dessert. I'm not a dessert person usually, so if I ever do have dessert it's usually something like sorbet. They didn't have any sorbet though, they had ice-cream but I didn't fancy that. So the Bailey's cheesecake was the only other thing I thought I'd like and not feel sick after eating. It was actually quite 'light', the cheesecake was lovely and creamy although I wouldn't be like 'oh yeah, this really tastes like Bailey's'. The cinnamon cream was lush and there was a mango and strawberry coulis sauce swiped on the side of the plate, which was nice aswell. There were also some little bits of fruit (strawberries, slices of kiwi and slices of orange) on the side which I enjoyed. Simon also enjoyed his dessert, he said it wasn't like a baked Alaska he had had before, but that doesn't mean the other baked Alaska was right...were his words! He said the top bit was more like meringue than cake, but the ice cream inside was lovely and the toffee sauce was even better. I'm a fan of toffee sauce to be honest, I like the toffee sundae's from McDonald's...just to change the subject ha! We ordered our desserts after our plates had been cleared from our mains, whereas we ordered our starters and mains at the start. We waited about 10 mins for our desserts after ordering.

The presentation of all of the food was lovely. Excuse some of the pictures, because these were taken after a couple of bites, so the presentation doesn't look as nice as it did when it first came to us. You won't be disappointed though and we didn't have any dirty mark or hair mishaps, so all was good!

We didn't add up what we had to the penny, as we didn't mind it going a little bit over and we knew the average amount of what we had. Our starters and mains came to about £24-£25 each, so that left us with about £9 between us for the desserts which was plenty. I have looked on the restaurants website to see if I could link the menu's we got to look at but they aren't the same. When we asked for the bill we only had to pay for our drinks, so we knew we hadn't gone over the voucher amount with the food. The staff were really nice and friendly, always on hand asking if you wanted more drinks, were ready to order, to ask for the bill etc. We didn't have to wait very long for anything so overall it was a lovely experience and the customer service and friendliness of the staff added to this.

If we hadn't of had the voucher, two three course meals, one half pint of coke, one pint of coke, one glass of cranberry and lime and a pint would have cost about £70. You get what you pay for though with the food, like I said above it's not microwave food it's home-made, wholesome, moreish food. The hotel is a 4 star and I think the restaurant and food served reflects this. If we stayed in this hotel again we would definitely choose to eat in this restaurant, but it would probably be for a special occasion as two mains would still be about £35-£40, without starters (which we usually like), desserts or drinks. So it's not really somewhere you would go for in-expensive, casual dining, although the bar menu is a little cheaper. The sandwiches are still approx £7-£8 though, with the mains ranging from approx £12-£20.

Check out the Smartbox website for more gift ideas that you may wish to buy your loved ones :-). They have a range of experiences to choose from, at different prices, for a range of locations. With Christmas coming up, this could be a possible gift idea :-).

Have any of you ever bought or received a Smartbox? 

If you've received one, what did you do and how was your experience?

Thanks so much for reading my review, if you choose to buy a Smartbox or choose to go to Faradays Restaurant, I hope my review has helped with your choice!

Gem XxOo

*

Frankie & Benny's Blackpool (July 2012)...

When I was offered a £50 voucher to try out a Frankie & Benny's restaurant and their food, I jumped at the chance. I knew me and Si were going to Blackpool at the beginning of July and I knew they had a restaurant there, so I thought this would be the perfect chance to use it, whilst we are away enjoying ourselves anyway :-). I have never been to a Frankie & Benny's restaurant, but knew that it was American themed. I have been to Planet Hollywood before, which is the same kind of theme and thought it was great there, so I was excited to see what this restaurant and their food was like. You can find out a bit more about the history of Frankie and Benny's, on their website. I think it's always interesting with big chain restaurants to find out a bit more about their background and how they began.


Before I begin, I think it's important to let you know that a voucher was sent to me through the post. So a table wasn't booked by the company that sent me the voucher, the restaurant didn't know I was coming at all, let alone what day or time. I always feel totally comfortable when I am carrying out restaurant reviews this way. I have turned down companies who wanted me to review a restaurant/pub food in the past because they said they would have to book me in so that the restaurant/pub knew I was coming and that I didn't have to pay. I don't feel comfortable doing this as obviously they know I am coming and it is more than likely that the PR company or the company that has booked me in has said that I don't have to pay and am carrying out a review. If I did a review like this, I wouldn't know whether the people serving me were genuine in their customer service or just putting it on because they know I am doing a review, let alone if they had made the food perfect just for the purpose of my review etc and they obviously don't want a bad one.


Frankie and Benny's in Blackpool is a little bit behind the main promenade and isn't immediately visible whilst walking, so I would suggest finding out where it is before you set off. We used a map on our phones to find out where it was and then after getting a tram to the central pier, we walked there. It took us about 15 minutes to actually walk there because we weren't initially sure where it was, so we ended up walking down side streets etc (where the map was directing us) and then when we came out, we saw the promenade/sea straight ahead, so we just walked straight up and it took us less time, probably about 5-10 minutes. It is located in Festival Park, which also has a cinema, a spa and car parking facilities. You can view a map on their website, to find out how to get there yourself :-).

The restaurant is open from 9am every morning for breakfast and closes at 11pm every night, apart from Sunday when it closes at 10:30pm. The first thing I noticed when we walked in was the American memorabilia on the walls and the fact that most of the seats were comfy booths, so that people could feel like they have their own privacy. It looked clean and welcoming and within our first few steps into the restaurant we were greeted by the manager, who clearly saw there were two of us and asked if we wanted a table for two. We of course said yes and a waiter came over to her and asked if she wanted him to direct us to our table. She agreed and so he greeted us and asked how we were and if we had ever been there before. We hadn't, so we told him this. He took us over to a table for two (the booths were big enough for families, so prob too big for us, although I'm sure if we would have asked to sit in a booth, he would have let us), which we were perfectly happy with. He asked if the table was ok and we said yes. There were no other people around us, so we felt comfortable sitting there. As we hadn't been there before, he showed us the menu's and the special menu's and asked if we wanted any garlic bread/dough balls to start us off. We weren't too sure at first what to go for as we had literally just sat down, but we both like garlic bread so we went for that. He also asked us if we wanted any drinks, but I said can we have a few mins to look at the cocktail menu, in which he replied of course and that he would be back with us soon to take our drink orders. The waiter was very happy, chirpy and it felt like it wasn't a chore for him to serve us and make us feel welcome.

We had a look at the cocktail menu and there was a lot to choose from, the prices were average. We are used to seeing cocktails priced around £4-5 (which these were), but noticed you could get some cocktail pitchers for £11.45, which is a great price, considering what we are used to. The waiter gave us enough time to have a proper look at the menu (about 5-10 mins), so when he came to take our order we went for a Mai Tai (which we remember drinking in LA when we went in 2010), we never seem to find them when we are out drinking where we live, so it was nice to see it on a menu. We ended up having two pitchers of this throughout the night ha...well we were there to enjoy ourselves! It was so tasty and reminded us of LA so much, so it definitely bought back some memories. Our garlic bread came before our pitcher (it was with us in about 10 mins from when we were first asked if we wanted it) and it was bought to us by a waitress (who then remained with us throughout the night), Alex her name was. So, I don't know what happened to our waiter, he was probably told to swap areas or something, but it wasn't a big deal. Anyway, we told her we had ordered a pitcher aswell, reminded her what it was and she said she would go and see how it was getting on. It then arrived with us about 5 mins later. The garlic bread was delicious. We are used to having garlic bread on ciabatta in restaurants/pubs at home, this one was like a pizza, on a thin crispy base, with loads of flavour! It was a little bit greasy, but definitely full of flavour.

After Alex could see that we had finished our garlic bread, she came and asked us if we had decided what to order. We were looking at the main menu/specials menu whilst we were eating our garlic bread, so we were deciding, but we asked for a few more minutes because there was so much on the menu and I didn't know what I fancied to be honest, so I was being awkward and taking a while lol, but not on purpose...I promise! Ha. I must say that again Alex was happy and chirpy and made us feel welcome and not a bother at all. After she had asked us twice if we were ready to order (which we weren't lol), the third time was lucky and we had finally decided. We decided to go for the specials menu and choose two courses for £10.95, which we thought was a really good price! You could also top up to three courses for an extra £2.25, but we weren't sure if we wanted dessert yet, so we left it at two courses. There are only a number of things on the specials menu though and if you're feeling picky and not sure what you fancy, there might not be enough choice on there for you. It took me a while to decide what I wanted! So, I went for the Southern Blue Mushroom to start with and the New Yorker Pasta for my main. Si went for the Buffalo Chicken Wings to start and the Double Pepperoni Pizza for his main. I'd say our starters were with us in about 20 mins and when we had finished our plates were collected almost immediately and she said she would give our main meals the go ahead. It then took about 10-15 mins for those to come. Overall, we didn't have to wait long for our food at all, but it was enough time to let our previous food go down, allow us to relax and chat some more. We never felt like they were rushing to get our food out to get us out of the restaurant and our food was always delivered nicely presented (apologies for some of the half-eaten food pictures, we couldn't resist the food and sometimes forgot to take a pic straight away, oops!) and hot!

                              My Starter.                                                      Si's Starter.

                                My Main.                                                           Si's Main.

My mushrooms were to die for! This is one of my favourite starters, wherever I go to eat. It might not be the exact same thing, but I love mushrooms with cheese...so yummy! The balsamic glaze added a bit of sweetness to the dish aswell, so the savoury-ness of the cheese with the sweetness of the balsamic was a perfect match. Si enjoyed his Buffalo Chicken Wings. They came tossed in a Louisiana hot sauce, which Si said wasn't too hot (but he does have a palette for hot/spicy foods), so something I think is hot, he wouldn't think is. He asked for the wings to come with sweet chilli sauce, instead of the blue cheese dip and they changed that for him no problem. My main was ok and nice at the time but I don't think I'd have it again if I were to go there. That's nothing against the dish itself or anything they did to make me not like it, I think it's just to do with my palette/preferences etc. I mean I love chicken breast, pasta and cheese sauce, but I think this dish had other ingredients that I didn't think would be so prominent in the dish. The chilli that was tossed with the pasta and cheese sauce for example was actually jalapeno chillies and the sauce had a pepper taste to it (it was described like this on the menu), which I thought was going to be like bell peppers cut up into the sauce, but it wasn't, so the taste was a little hot and peppery for my liking. However, the chillies were easy to pick out as were the pasta and chicken (to eat with less sauce on them). Si really enjoyed his pizza, he said it was very New York style, loaded with flavour and whilst he said it was a little greasy, he enjoyed this aspect of the pizza.

After we had finished our mains, our dishes were taken from us within 5-10 mins of us finishing. We then started looking at the dessert menu, as we both decided we wanted something fresh and light. So, Alex could see we were looking at the dessert menu and after about 10 mins of us looking at it, she came over to see if we wanted anything. We both went for lighter option sorbets (I went for Lemon, whilst Si went for Mango), which were two scoops of our chosen sorbet, with a sprig of mint on top. At this point we also ordered another Mai Tai pitcher :-). We waited about 10 mins for our sorbet and 15 mins for our pitcher. Considering our sorbets were lighter options (which to me means smaller portions), they still came in tall glasses and looked full.

                                              Lemon Sorbet and Mango Sorbet.

                                  (Apologies about the half eaten desserts :-/).

They were really refreshing though and cleansed our palettes. The thing with sorbet is that once I start eating it, I could just keep eating it lol sooo nice! My lemon one wasn't too bitter, which was good. Si said his was a little bit sickly after a while, so I let him have some of mine, cause I'm nice like that he, he.

After we had finished our desserts, again our glasses were taken from us within about 5 mins and we were asked if we would like anything else. At this point we were ok, we were just going to chill for a bit and finish our second Mai Tai :-). We took a bit of time to look around the restaurant whilst we were relaxing and noticed that the place was full of mainly couples like me and Si or families with kids. When we first arrived there weren't many people there, it was a weekday (10th July...ignore the date on the camera, it's set wrong) and about 5pm, so most people were probably finishing work etc. By this time, the restaurant was pretty full and there were a lot of birthdays in. Every so often, the waiters/waitresses would take a lit cake over to a table where it was someones birthday, sing Happy Birthday (whilst clapping), some people in the restaurant would also join in and then Congratulations by Cliff Richard would come on. This happened a few times within the night, but it's always nice to see people out celebrating their special occasions. Throughout our meal, 1950's classic songs were played and even though we were born in the 80's, we still found ourselves having a little sing to ourselves/bopping along to the tunes haha. It wasn't depressing, boring music, it was quite uplifting and not so loud, so we could still hear ourselves talk. We also noticed a waitress going around with balloons for the kids, so this is something that probably happens in all F&B's, or if not, I'm sure they can be asked for :-). The table, chairs, menu's, glasses, cutlery etc were nice and clean and the table wasn't sticky. They had a nice American style bar area, with all the spirits stacked up at the back and bar stools, so you could just go in and have a drink if you wanted to. I personally didn't go to the toilet whilst we were there, but Si did and he said the men's toilets had chequered walls and floors and were nice and clean (surprising for a men's toilet). I also noticed aswell, whilst I was waiting for Si to come back from the toilet, just before we were about to leave that there was a little taxi intercom thing where you could call a taxi for free.

After we had finished our Mai Tai, we got Alex's attention and asked for the bill. Another thing to add is that we didn't have to show our voucher when we first arrived, so just another little disclaimer to say that they didn't know we were there to do a review/had a voucher...sometimes these things need to be said lol. She bought it over to us and originally it came to £60.35. This could be considered pricey for one meal and had we not had the voucher, we prob would have thought it a little expensive. However, we did have a 3 course meal and two cocktail pitchers. So, there was always room to make it cheaper if we wanted to and had we not had the voucher we prob would have had a main and dessert each and just one pitcher. We gave Alex our voucher and she said she would just go and take it off the bill and bring another one back with what we had to pay. Si noticed she went and asked the manager about something with our voucher, but it was probably how to put it into the till or balance our items out minus the £50. Anyway, Alex came back after a few mins and gave us our new bill which was £10.35. She said in a chirpy, happy manner that it was a cheap one for us tonight (due to the voucher) and we had a laugh about it, when she asked if I had won it, I said no I had been sent it to review the restaurant/food/service etc she said 'ooh, that's good, you'll have to get some of these more often'. I just felt so good knowing that her service/manner was 100% true and honest. We gave her the money for our bill and left her a £3 tip. We like leaving tips if we feel we have been treated well whilst out for food, if our food was nice, service was good etc and it all was, so we felt she deserved it :-).

This is definitely a restaurant that I would go back to again. We don't have one in our town, but we have one not far from us. I think it's a nice place to go for someones birthday as the atmosphere is lovely, there is a LARGE selection of food and drink (I forgot to mention they do of course sell soft drinks and beers/ciders and wines), especially if you want to have a few cocktails to celebrate! The service, cleanliness and waiting times could be different in all Frankie and Benny's restaurants, but I do know that in this one, we had nothing to complain about :-).

Sometimes with restaurant reviews it can be easy to forget to mention something, so if there is anything you would like to know about the restaurant we went to, feel free to ask. In terms of basic info, you can find out a lot on the website. If you want to find your nearest Frankie and Benny's, you can do here and all menu's are available to download online, so you can have a look before you go :-).

Have you ever been to a Frankie and Benny's restaurant? What did you think?

Thanks so much for reading my post...don't forget to like, comment and follow my blog for more posts :-).

Gem XxOo

Disclaimer: As stated above, I received a £50 voucher (to use at any Frankie and Benny's restaurant), to consider doing a review of the above restaurant and their food. I can't guarantee that every Frankie and Benny's restaurant will be the same as what I have described above. The restaurant weren't aware that I was coming and so this review isn't biased at all. My opinions are 100% honest as always.