Harley's Smokehouse - Kinver

I have wanted to go to Harleys since it opened, I keep seeing photos of lovely food on facebook.  However everyone seemed to say you needed to book and we are people who don't like to book and go out when we fancy it.  So I decided we should organise ourselves and I rang up Tuesday and was told they could squeeze us in at 6pm on Wednesday, they were having cocktail tastings ready for their new bar opening and were really busy so we needed to book.

We arrived and was told they hadn't got our booking but it was okay and they could fit us in, Mark looked over the waiter's shoulder and could see only four or five bookings!  Anyway we were shown to our table and another waitress brought our menus, forgot one for Macy and went off and brought hers along with a children's pack of things to do.  Inside were some cards with animals on to play snap or matching pairs, a colouring sheet, crayons and a mini board game too.  All of this fit into a little cardboard carry case.  Brilliant idea and it kept her entertained all evening.

There didn't seem to be any cocktail tasting going on but I could see a couple of cocktails on a tray which I thought must have been making their way to another table and they looked nice so I decided to have a mocktail (I was driving), they will do any of the cocktails in a non-alcoholic version which is great for those driving or youngsters.  Unfortunately those two cocktails were still sat on the table when we left so were obviously a bit of a marketing ploy to get you to buy a cocktail!

We ordered the Grazing Board to start which included lamb sausages, chipotle dip, sweet potato pieces, chicken wings, feta & red onion tostada and salsa rose.  We were a bit disappointed we didn't get a small plate each nor did we get any starter cutlery as we could have done with plates to cut the sausage up for example.  We did get wet wipes each.  Thinking back we did only get one dip also.  The food was lovely though, the lamb sausage was a bit lumpy and could have done with being minced a bit better as it made it quite chewy as lamb is fatty but otherwise the rest was nice.

For mains I had the Berthas Burnt End Dip (slow cooked warm sliced beef served on white farmhouse bread with our smokey gravy and fries).  I love slow cooked beef and this was the only item on the menu, I must admit I wasn’t overly enthralled at the idea of a sandwich for dinner but I wanted the beef so I ordered it.  The beef was really tasty and for the most part was nice, however there was the odd big lump of fat, which if it has been slow cooked properly it should have all melted away.  Also it being a sandwich there was just too much bread, they do need to think of another way to serve this, even a bun would be better.

Mark had the Bertha’s Best Burger (8oz beef burger, pulled pork, burnt ends, bacon, Monterey jack cheese, jalepenos, with BBQ relish and fries).  His opinion?  Not as good as TGI Fridays big burgers.  Macy had a fish finger sandwich and they were nice big fillets of fish.

For dessert we decided to go for the sharing platter and had mini portions of Key Lime Pie, Oreo Cheesecake, Brownie, filled Churros, mini doughnuts and ice cream.  What a fantastic idea, it came with three dips (strawberry, chocolate and peanut butter).  All of the desserts were fab and a great way to taste what is on offer.

So to sum it up we had a nice meal, a bit of a con going on re: booking as there were probably only seven tables in there including us when we left.  Perhaps at weekends it does get busy but during the week it was dead.  I think we probably both would say the food at TGI Fridays is better and the atmosphere is always good, it felt a bit flat at Harleys and the venue is just very large and open with wooden tables and chairs, just isn't a lot to look at - a bit like a school dining room!

The Cellarz, Spring Grove

We don't normally go out on Valentines night as it is our anniversary on 23rd so we normally go out for that instead.  It seems madness when I look at local restaurants they are charging an extra £20 just for one night and the menu is the same, it's the principal!  However when we went to Safari Park for the awards ceremony we saw The Cellarz advertised and thought it looked an amazing venue which only opens for private events and special nights, one of which was Valentines.  So we booked it.

Dinner was from 7pm and by the time we booked the earliest sitting was 7.45pm.  The menu is specially designed for Valentines with sharing platters and was £45 per person including a welcome glass of sparking wine:

Mezze: Share Platter of Continental Meats, Fish and Vegetarian items.
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Soup: Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper with Pesto
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Mains: Sirloin Steak with Hand-cut Chips, Flat Mushroom, Vine Tomatoes & Onion Rings
or
Open Celeriac and Tomato Lasagne served with a Kale and Truffle Dressing
or
Smoked Haddock with a Lemon and Pea Risotto
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Dessert: Pudding Platter to share.
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Cheeseboard
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Freshly Brewed Coffee and Tea with Home-made Sweetmeats

Arrival was very civilised as they really do stagger the sittings in order to make sure everyone doesn't turn up at the same time.  We were asked whether we would like to sit in the bar or go straight to the table so we choose to sit in the bar for 10 minutes and soak up the sound of Huw – a London based guitarist & singer who was excellent.

We were shown to our table and handed the menu so we could choose our main, I chose the lasagne (I find sirloin a bit fatty) and Mark chose the steak.  Our starter arrived presented on slate which consisted of some meats, olive tapenade, prawns, melon and strawberry, fish paste and crostini.  It was really tasty, even Mark who doesn't like olive liked the tapenade.

Starter followed and to be honest we weren't overly impressed, the bread didn't seem warm and fresh - it was cold and quite dry.  The soup was lovely with the pesto but once you got under the drizzle of pesto, it wasn't very tasty at all and quite bland, for homemade tomato soup I expected something really tasty.

Mains, well what can I say, the steak was just steak piled high with chips and onion rings, it wasn't anything special - for a venue like this I expected more, it was just a steak you could order in your local pub.  My lasagne wasn't very warm at all and I did mention it to the waitress who said she would feedback to the chef.  It was just a bit disappointing though, literally a piece of lasagne, a bit of lambs lettuce and two pieces of crispy kale on top - it needed more accompaniments.

We were looking forward to dessert but again we were disappointed - the chocolate brownie was lovely however the other two 'things' were awful, the tart was completely tasteless and the other thing just tasted like overly sweet synthetic cream coated in coconut.  You could see other couples weren't impressed by the taste either.

Cheeseboard again wasn't brilliant, onion marmalade, small piece of brie, small piece of blue cheese and a large piece of cheddar accompanied by shop bought crackers and rather over ripe grapes.

Coffee arrived with a couple of shop bought mints and a small éclair and small cheesecake bite which had a lot of gelatine in it!

Service - well this started of really good.  However it fell apart at the mains - we weren't offered any sauces (another table had been taken a platter of sauces, we weren't) not did anyone come to check to see if our meals were okay mid way through.  The other thing that disappointed me was our platters weren't explained to us - when you are presented with a platter of food when you don't know what it consists of, it is common sense that the waiter should explain what each piece of food it.  That way we may have known what the desserts should have been.

Drinks - on the website it mentions cocktails so I was looking forward to a nice cocktail however they only offer three and they are all just three different flavoured vodkas.

This could be a fantastic night out for Valentines, the venue is AMAZING, truly is stunning.  However the food is a massive disappointment, paying £45 and expecting a civilised night out we expected some really nice tasty food.  It isn't somewhere we will be going again nor is it somewhere we would recommend which is such a shame as it really could be something special.

West Midlands Safari Park

It’s Macy’s 2^nd birthday on Monday and as she will be at Nursery and us at work we thought we would take her out for her birthday treat today while the weather was nice.  It turned out to be the hottest July day on record, when we got back into the car at 4pm it was still reading a whopping 32 degrees C!  Anyway she loves animals, so what better way to spend a day than to go to West Midlands Safari Park.  Under 3s are free but adults are £19.99 each however it does include a free return so really it’s £10 a visit – we are only 40mins away so it’s local enough to return again.

I was grateful to be in an air conditioned car round the safari otherwise it would have been too hot!  We bought a box of food for the animals for £3 and started off on our safari feeding some sort of deer.  It would be nice to have the different animals listed in order by the map as not all of them are.  Macy thought it was funny having a deer put its head through the window!

Then onto some cheetahs who we caught a glimpse of as they were hiding in the shade.  Some buffalos were cooling down in the water and some rhinos were in the same enclosure.  We couldn’t find the lions, they must have been hiding somewhere but we saw the white lions and the white tigers.  We didn’t see the wild dogs either, again they must have been hiding in the shade somewhere. 

We drove through the Zebras which you could feed and they were lovely, put their heads right through the car window and Macy thought that was funny!

On to the Elephants and we were in for a treat as there was a baby elephant playing ball in a pool, it’s mum came up to it to make sure it was okay, so sweet.

Finally onto the giraffes and we had saved some food for them.  They didn’t seem overly comfortable eating from the window with their big long necks so I decided to open the sunroof for them!  Macy thought this was hilarious and it was brilliant!  Such a fantastic experience, we loved that and Macy will talk about it for ages.

We even had two giraffes through at one point, you can only just see the nose of the other one behind the one.  The one giraffe loved it and kept following us to poke his head in lol.

We finished the safari just in time for the sea lion show which was great but we were a bit disappointed that we didn’t get splashed as the screens are too high, would have been nice on a hot day but I guess we don’t have many hot days.  There also wasn’t anyway shaded to sit so Macy did get a bit hot and grumpy so I can't say she enjoyed it that much - quite a few people with children left as they must have had the same problem.

Finally we had a wander round the rides and there was a little area with rides for the younger ones, there were probably about 10 rides for 0.8m and above.  When they get to a metre there is a lot more choice as to be honest quite a lot of the toddler rides are the same sort of thing - just different variations of things to sit in going round in circles.  I don't know whether she will make a metre before we go back but it would be good if she does as it means she can go on a lot more such as the log flume and rapids.  I hate rides that go round in circles as it just makes me feel dizzy!  You also had to pay extra for the rides so it could work out an expensive day, we bought 4 rides for £6 and you can buy wristbands which probably works out cheaper when she is older.

I was a little disappointed in the food choices, there was a restaurant that did sit down meals but it wasn't air conditioned and although there were fans in there it was very hot so we ended up eating burgers outside.  It would be nice if they had somewhere doing paninis or something like that - something a bit healthier than greasy food.

Here's a little video of the giraffe!