Goodwins, Tettenhall

We visited Goodwins, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton a little before Christmas and I never did share our thoughts.  We walked in and had a warm welcome from a cheerful waitress who showed us to our table.  The décor inside is lovely, classy and modern.

We were surprised at the prices, we visited on a Sunday so we had the option of Sunday lunch.  The Roast Beef is £9.99 which I think is really good value compared to other upmarket pubs in the area whose service and food quality leave a lot to be desired!!

 I did go for the roast beef and it was amazing!  I don't normally go for beef as it is normally overcooked, chewy and dry, this was not.  It was beautiful and pink, so tender, lots of veg, home made Yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes that were so soft and fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside.  The waitress was happy to bring us a drop more gravy for our meals.

 For dessert we had the Cookie Dough Cheesecake and Cheesecake Bombe (a rich millionaire caramel rolled in choc chips, then surrounded with creamy buttermilk cheesecake, rolled in crunchy golden oat biscuit crumb. Served with chocolate pudding ice cream).  I do like something different rather than the usual run of the mill desserts, these were lovely and good portion sizes too.  Coming in both under £5, they were good value for money too. 

As a summary, I would really recommend Goodwins, they aren't overpriced for a nice pub/wine bar in the area.  I would say they are priced about right, the drinks were good value too.  Service was exceptional it really was, our waitress was really attentive and pleasant.  It is one we will be returning too :)

Rollercoaster Restaurant at Alton Towers

I didn't really intend to review the restaurant when we were there but having got back, lots of people have asked me about it so luckily I managed to grab some candid photos and a short video while we were there and here is a quick review.

We took Macy to Alton Towers for her 4th birthday, we went during the week on a sunny day.  The theme park was pretty packed.  I had looked online beforehand about booking the Rollercoaster Restaurant for lunch but you can't, only dinner can be booked.  We thought we would be in for a wait.  As it happened, we weren't, we got there about 1:30pm and were seated straight away, there were quite a few empty tables too. 

At first it sounds a bit complicated as you are passed an ipad to order on rather than speak to a waitress but you soon get the hang of it.  Each one of you has an individual number on the table and you order your drinks and food on the ipad via that number.  I will explain the setup (or at least try to!) imagine a flower - where the centre of the flower is the rollercoaster and there are petals which are the tables at which you are seated, each 'table/petal' seats 4 people.  As the drinks come down the rollercoaster they have your number attached so you know it doesn't belong to someone on another 'petal' as each rollercoaster serves several 'tables/petals' - if that makes sense?

Kid Starter - Veggie Sticks

The menu isn't overly exciting as it is still fast food at the end of the day and it is really fast service!  We had our meals in no time.  A burger meal was £14 which isn't cheap but I don't think it's a bad price seeing as you are inside the theme park and at a bit of a novelty restaurant.  The food comes down the rollercoaster in little tubs which you then empty out onto a plate (which sits under the rolercoaster). 

Quorn Burger Meal

The food was good, well it was a burger meal so nothing amazing but it was cooked fine and tasted nice enough.  So I would recommend it if you haven't been as it is a different dining experience.  Probably isn't somewhere you would go back to as it is the novelty of it that appeals, although when you have been walking round the park it is nice to have a sit down meal rather than queue at a burger bar.

Prezzo La Famiglia Challenge

I love Italian food, we visited the new Prezzo in Telford recently and were disappointed with the service. When I saw that Britmums were part of the #PrezzoLaFamiglia Challenge with Prezzo restaurants I jumped at the chance to be part of it and give Prezzo, Telford another chance.

Prezzo have a novel and affordable idea for eating out with the family – that is the new La Famiglia sharing dish which Prezzo say ‘depending on how hungry you are, can serve up to 4.’ You can choose one of four flavours: 
Penne Arrabiata - Crushed chillies, parsley and garlic in a pomodoro sauce. 
Spaghetti Bolognese - Traditional slow cooked beef ragù. 
Spaghetti Carbonara - Pancetta in a carbonara sauce with crispy prosciutto and parsley. 
Penne Alla Rusticana - Seasoned chicken, pancetta, peppers and rosemary in a creamy pomodoro sauce.

When you walk past Prezzo and look inside, it is very modern and minimalist inside, very smart however I have never thought of it as a family restaurant.  It always looks quite quiet and civilised, not that children can’t be quiet and civilised (I like to be able to take Macy to nice restaurants but not all parents share the same values!) but not necessarily where I would think of as being a family restaurant.  However, we were pleasantly surprised when we were welcomed in and Macy was given some colouring crayons and a colouring sheet to keep her entertained.  We decided to go for the Spaghetti Bolognese, however asked them to swap the spaghetti for penne pasta as we thought that sharing spaghetti could get a little messy! 

We ordered two portions of large garlic pizza bread with balsamic onions and mozzarella to go with our pasta.  I do think though that aiming this at a family there isn't an awful lot of choice for toppings - spag bol is a bit ordinary, the arrabiata has chillies in it so would be too spicy for my daughter and then none of us are keen on creamy sauces!  Lol, perhaps we are too fussy but I would have liked to have seen a pesto type sauce that would be a veggie option too.

I love the idea of having food in the centre of the table and all of us dipping in and sharing.  It also takes away the nagging at the children to finish their food before they can have dessert!  Macy can sit and eat her food really well or sometimes we have to go on and on at her to eat up!  Though it is also stressful when you have someone like my hubby who seems to inhale food and you are trying to get your fair share too, however I think this encouraged Macy to eat as she didn’t want daddy eating it all.  It was a fun way of sharing food.  I don’t know about having ‘no stress picking from the menu’ as we all like fairly different things so I think it’s more stressful arguing over what we all were going to compromise on. 

We were treated to dessert which was 2 scoops of gelato, ice cream or sorbet.  I am not a big ice cream fan to be quite honest, I usually ask them to leave it off when I have a dessert.  There is a choice of chocolate and sea salt gelato; vanilla, strawberry or chocolate ice cream; melon and lime or blood orange sorbet.  I thought there might be some more exciting flavours of gelato like honeycomb or caramel.  I ended up going for the blood orange sorbet and the chocolate, Macy had the sorbet and strawberry.  The chocolate and the orange went really nicely together, I actually really enjoyed it, Macy's strawberry had lovely chunks of fruit in too.

It was an enjoyable family night and the service this time was great, the food was really tasty and we felt closer when sharing the food.  Instead of sitting and eating our own dishes I did feel like we came together more so.  I also think of my niece who can never decide what to have and suffers from serious food envy - this would be ideal for her!

This post is an entry for the #PrezzoLaFamiglia Challenge, sponsored by Prezzo. https://www.prezzorestaurants.co.uk/LaFamiglia/

I have not been paid for this post, however I received vouchers for a free meal in order to review. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.