Love At 1st Bites

17/03/2024

Go On Have A Little Read…
📍 Guinea Grill
📍 The Punchbowl
📍 The Audley

📝 As it’s St Paddy’s day, it’s only fair I share my favourite pubs of Mayfair where you can find some perfectly poured Guinnesses. These three are our favourites when it comes to finding a proper Landan Boozer, you can’t go far wrong & the amount of people that you’ll find in these places cements the fact they are clearly popular not only with the weekend crowd but also with the tourists.

🍺 The selection on draught extends beyond a Guinness of course & you’ll find your favourites such as Asahi, Neck Oil, Estella, Young’s & Aspall at The Guinea. Moretti, Amstel, Neck Oil, Orchard Thieves, Heineken & Butcombe Ales at The Punchbowl. Orchard Pig, Camden Hells, 1936, Helles Larger Braybrooke, Happy Cloudwater Brew & Lord Marples Bitter. I’m sure I’ve missed quite a few as in know they all do an array of ales too. Essentially you won’t be short for choices!

🖼️ When it comes to atmosphere & decor The Audley takes the edge for me with the piano man bringing a lovely atmosphere & warmth to the place. The Guinea you’ll likely need to stand up as it gets busy but it’s really quaint & has an old school feel to it which I loved. The Punchbowl has a very inviting fireplace & the staff are very accomplishing & go out of their way.

🍽️ Although we’ve only sampled the Scotch Egg at The Guinea these places all serve food & everything we saw coming out looked exceptional. Good hearty pub grub that would go perfectly with a refreshing pint. Pies in the Guinea looked delicious & the fish and chips at The Audley seemed to go down a treat with the crowd.

🧾 Obviously this is Mayfair so you’re not going to be paying less than £7 a pint however with the quality you’re at least not going to be left feeling disappointed.

☘️ Get yourselves down there if you’re not already on it that is & make sure you have one for me!

27/02/2024

📍 Ye Olde Bridge Inn, Oxton.
📝 8/10
💷 ££/£
🦉 4/5- 2/2
GF ✔️

📝 The Bridge Inn is only ten minutes down the road from us & we are lucky to have this lovely pub so close by. In the summer it transforms into an outdoor sun trap with plenty of field space for kids & dogs to enjoy too. They are also working on their stables where we’ve hosted a Baby Shower for one of my friends too, so I’m excited to see what they do with the place! Also in winter they have their famous pods which make a change from the usual pub dining too.

🍔 We made a last minute decision to not cook at home so popped in for a quick meal of scampi & a chicken burger. This was the good pub grub we were craving. Tim was hugely impressed by his scampi & practically inhaled it. Same goes for the fries, these were very well cooked & seasoned perfectly. My panko fried chicken parmiagana burger was what I had been pining for & it was a really good portion, smothered in melted mozzarella & tomato sauce to make it extra indulgent.

🍽️ I’ve included some photos from when I’d popped here over Christmas but hadn’t posted on the grid yet. This meal included starters of crispy chicken, tandoori chicken skewer & mushroom crostini. Then the sausage & mash, duck and steak. The starters were fab-u-lous but I remember thinking we’ve had better sausages here before as these seemed pretty dense in their consistency but I still thoroughly enjoyed the mash & gravy. The others enjoyed their dishes and I recall the steak was very well cooked.

🧾 The meal on this occasion was bang on for what we were after & we were served quickly by lovely staff who were accommodating in fitting us in last minute with a pooch in tow too.

🙋‍♀️ If you’ve not been yet, I highly recommend trying this place out, there’s so many great options on the menu to choose from as well as an array of beers on draught.

25/02/2024

📍 The Hay Barn Cafe, Kneesall.
📝 9/10
💷 ££/£
🦉 5/5 - 1/1
GF ✔️

📝 This hidden gem is 20 miles north of Notts, nestled in a village called Kneesall. Luckily I live 20 mins away! However give yourself plenty of time as this place doesn’t take bookings & you will have to wait with a buzzer…

⏰ …& we had to wait just under an hour for our table. Now the weather was lovely so we got to sit out in the sunshine with some coffees but on a rainy day that wouldn’t have been much fun especially with having my friends baby with us as well. Poll query below ⬇️

🍽️ The cafe is in a rustic barn with roughly 8 tables so hence the long wait times. But it is clear why this place is packed & that’s the amazing quality of the food & the friendly service from the staff. It is a shame that you can’t book though & I’m not sure many people would have been able to wait as long as we did.

🍳 The menu options are vast & everything is made fresh to order. There’s specials such as a hot roast pork cob & rarebit but we went with the Hay Barn Breakfast with fried bread, Eggs Benedict & Cheese & Onion Quiche. I honestly couldn’t fault a thing & nor could the others. The quiche was beautifully fluffy & a large slice. The breakfast was the perfect portion (I went minus mushrooms), the Benedict was beautifully cooked. The bacon & sausages were very tasty & eggs served runny. All in all a hugely satisfying feast.

🍰 However we couldn’t leave without having the cakes as these looked insanely delish. Luckily they also tasted as good as they looked. The coffee & walnut cake was by far the favourite of the group but the lemon & blueberry wasn’t far behind & the vanilla cheesecake with blueberry compote was rich & creamy. All 10/10. They ran out of scones but we saw another table have these & they looked 😋.

🧾 The only downside is they didn’t provide a receipt & I was in too much of a food coma to question the £95 cost until I got home - having counted it up, they’d overcharged us by £25. So the fact we all still agreed that we thoroughly enjoyed it enough to let the extra charge slide probably tells you everything you need to know. Just maybe double check before you pay up!

23/02/2024

23/02/2024

23/02/2024