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 :)

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 Hundred House, Norton - Game Night

The Hundred House is a local favourite of ours, it has 2 AA rosettes and prides itself for using local produce as well as herbs from their beautiful gardens.  We had gone in for a bite to eat earlier in the month and seen the game night advertised, being a big venison fan we booked it.  The price was £26.95 for three courses including bread.

Mark and I had the same starter of Mini Beef & Venison Burger, Moydens 1665 Smoked Cheese, Dill Pickle Relish served in a Brioche Bun.  The burger was really tasty and juicy, with a relish that complimented it perfectly, my only gripe about the burger was the brioche was a little dry.

For main course Mark had Wild Boar Faggots seasoned with Thyme & Parsley, Braised with White Wine Tomato, Beans & Bacon, as Mark said they weren't just faggots, they were really tasty and juicy with perfect accompaniments.  I went for Roast Hauch of Venison, Turnip & Prune Gratin, Cavolo Nero, Juniper & Port Wine Sauce - I know venison for starter and main, it is my favourite and you don't see it that often so I have to make the most of it when it's there!!  This was beautiful, the venison was cooked to perfection and sliced lovely and thinly, there was just enough sauce - quite often in some of these restaurants they just drizzle a little on to make it look pretty and there is never enough.  Here, there was enough to make it look good (ie not flooded in sauce) but also enough to taste good.

For dessert we both chose the same which was Rich Dark Chocolate & Blueberry Roulade with White Chocolate & Mint Ice Cream.  The desserts at The Hundred House have never excited me, we have probably been at least 10 times and never once have I seen a dessert that jumps out at me on the menu and I am a dessert person.  The choice was this, apple pie or pannacotta.  This was nice but it wasn't amazingly tasty like the starters and mains tend to be, the ice cream was very good and I am not normally keen on ice cream but the roulade was just a roulade and nothing special. 

It was a lovely night, nice food, cosy fires - looking forward to game season and another game night as we will be back again!

Cafe Rouge - Les Enfants

I love French food and have only ever dined at Café Rougeonce, only reason being that we don’t really have one particularly close, Birmingham is probably about 45 minutes on the train.  I also had never thought about taking Macy as it isn’t somewhere you really associate as being particularly child friendly, am not really sure why, you just don’t expect a nice restaurant to cater for children.  So when the opportunity came up to try their childrens’ menu via Mumsnet I was straight on to them to volunteer our services!

When we arrived at the Bullring restaurant for dinner on Friday night we were warmly welcomed and shown to our table, Macy was brought her highchair and straight away brought some stickers (which are her favourite things in the world!  Sorry the photos are a bit blurry she was just so excited!), a multi coloured colouring crayon and also the menu which doubled up as a colouring activity sheet.

The childrens menu is £6.95 for three courses and a drink which is good value, however for younger children like Macy it would have been nice to have been able to just have starter and main and drink for perhaps a couple of pounds less.  She just can’t manage three courses yet and dessert is normally the course she leaves the most of.  A spoonful of something we are having is enough.  So I do feel they could do with that option for perhaps under 5s.

There was a good choice of drinks, we always feel a little hard done to with things like this as Macy drinks water, she doesn’t have fizzy drinks or squash so when we saw milk on the menu we were really please, there was a good choice of juices and fizzy drinks also.  What we did like was that her starter was brought out straight away, before ours so that it kept her quiet and she wasn’t sitting there getting frustrated because she was hungry.  There wasn’t a choice for starter, it was artisan bread with cucumber, carrot, tomato and a tomato dip (the menu stated it came with butter but we didn’t get any?) – she loved it, she really enjoys little bits of different things so this was ideal for her and she polished it all off!

For main course there was a good choice of a couple of chicken dishes, burger, sausages and mash, fishcake, pasta, cheese toastie.  I didn’t feel it was a very French choice, would have been nice to have a bit of a better fish dish with some nice veg – Macy loves fish, it’s healthy and would have been lovely in some garlic butter.  We ended up ordering the breaded chicken because it was one of few dishes that came with some veg – in this case peas and sweetcorn.  However the meal arrived and there wasn’t any veg to be seen, only salad!  We spoke to the waiter and the bowl of veg arrived quickly. 

For dessert there was more of a ‘French’ choice including crepe, profiteroles, also fruit salad, ice cream and ice lolly.  It was a bit of a cold day so I didn’t fancy ordering any ice lolly or ice cream and she eats loads of fruit so we went for the very French profiteroles – also I knew she wouldn’t eat many and they are one of my favourites!  Lovely profiteroles filled with crème patisserie and a little dish to dip them into which was nice instead of drizzling the chocolate on top.  As I suspected Macy only really managed one so I had a couple and they were lovely.

I have to say they really looked after Macy, couldn’t do enough for her and our waiter was fantastic with her and she loved all the attention.  They brought her out her own cutlery on a napkin placed beside her and she thought that was great and felt very grown up!  The only reason I wouldn’t return is that she really doesn’t do the three courses justice just yet so I feel it is a bit of a waste, perhaps in a year’s time. 

 

An opportunity to learn a bit of French on the activity sheet

I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Network ResearchPanel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.

While I am reviewing I will say that the menu for adults was lovely also:

Champignons a l'ail - mushrooms in a cepe & garlic cream sauce on grilled rye & caraway bread - really tasty decent sized portion with plenty of sauce.

Crevettes - king prawns in garlic & smoked chilli butter with baked in house baguette - really tasty but it was a little tricky de-shelling the prawns in a very hot sticky butter.

10oz rib eye - this was served with garlic butter and cooked as required perfectly, just could have done with some veggies or grilled tomato?

Boeuf Bourguignon - slow-cooked beef in red wine with smoked bacon, mushrooms, baby onions, green beans, carrots and herb mash - this was beautiful, so rich and tasty, the beef melted in my mouth, however there just wasn't enough beef, I counted about 6 pieces!

We had the chocolate ganache to share for pudding and did find the chocolate, chilli and lime sorbet rather vile!  We have eaten at plenty of nice restaurants with Michelin stars etc so are not unaccustomed to unusual flavour combinations but this was really horrid, the ganache was lovely though!