We pre-booked a table and arrived on time. At the entrance were 3 25+ stone bouncers – which was a bit odd and not very welcoming. We were immediately greeted by a waitress who took us upstairs to our table.

The restaurant itself looks okay – nothing ‘special’, but nice.

Once we were seated, we were given menus. After a few minutes, a waiter took our drinks order and shortly returned with our drinks (he had forgotten who ordered which drink, so we had to remind him).

Then we ordered the food. I ordered French Onion soup as a starter, a venison pie (a ‘chef’s plate’ speciality dish – made with local ingredients) as a main meal and mashed potato as a side dish.

The 4 starters we ordered were brought by 4 waiters, which was unusual, but kind of good I guess. They had to ask who had ordered which starter…

The French Onion Soup I had was basically:

• A bowl full of cut up onion (by the even cuttings it was obvious that the onions were cut by a machine and not by hand). There was a lot of onion in there – excessive if anything
• A liquid substance that was supposed to be soup but had virtually no flavour
• 4 squares of bread (larger than croutons) with melted cheese on top

Once we had finished, our plates were cleared and the main meal was delivered in a good time-frame. The main meal was brought by just 2 waiters this time instead of 4 (and they managed okay). Again we were asked who had ordered what (and a waiter gave my dish to my mother before I corrected him).

The Venison Pie:

• The pastry was very thin, plain, looked ready-made and just not great
• The pie filling was pretty flavourless and the consistency was too runny
• It only came with runner beans – and nothing else

I’m not a trained chef and I’ve only ever made 1 pie before, but my chicken and mushroom pie was a hundred times better than theirs.

The Mashed Potato:

• Was very small for the price
• It was smooth (which is a good thing)
• I could taste that it was buttery, but it was plain and boring. How about adding some herbs to make I a bit more interesting? Plus it needed some seasoning (I doubt it had any salt in it, let alone pepper)

The food that my parents and my brother had were all just as disappointing, with the possible exception of my brothers cheeseburger which was apparently quite nice.

Once they took away the main courses, they simply handed us the dessert menu’s. We had a quick look but we didn’t want to experience any more food there, so we decided to pop over to Sainsbury’s on the way home and get something from there instead.

Other things to note are:

Some of the meals were very over-priced. For example, my brother had the Teriyaki chicken Skewers with a Satay sauce for a starter. This was £5.95 and comprised of just 3 thin strips of chicken, a small pot of satay sauce and a small portion of greens. This was a rip off!

The music throughout the night was loud, making it difficult to talk to the person opposite. At around 8.30pm/9pm they had a pianist play the piano and sing. This was even louder than the recorded music, the audio equipment used was of poor quality so the sound was slightly distorted and sounded bad and he was downstairs (so people eating couldn’t see him) and in the corner (so most people in the bar downstairs couldn’t see him either!).

On the way out we again had to squeeze part the three 25+ stone bouncers – which made it feel like a nightclub, not an up-market bar/restaurant.

Summary:

• Poor service (in terms of they had to ask which of us had ordered which dish at every course)
• Very poor quality food
• Overpriced food
• Noisy atmosphere (and poor quality audio equipment for the pianist)
• Intimidating bouncers

I will not be going back.

My 2 favourite restaurants in the Hub, Milton Keynes remain as:

• Ha Ha Bar and Grill
• Las Iguanas

Then in the evening I met up with Martin, Emma, Time and Louise as they walked to the hotel and on the way there we saw Vernon Tomlin from Coronation Street walk past us! Only Emma and I recognised him – the others Obviously aren’t Coronation Street fans!

Then we got changed into our superhero costumes (I was the Flash), got into a taxi and made our way to the Verve club.

The Verve Bar/Club

We couldn’t even get into the club without getting stopped by people outside asking us to pose with them and taking photos of us! It was really funny.

Then we went into the club and went into the private room at the back – but that didn’t stop some people sneakily coming back there and asking us to pose! Lots of photos of everyone on Paul and Nat’s website.

After a night of fun and frollics, 5 of us walked (yes walked!) back to the hotel – still in costume and getting a lot of attention at 2.30am!

Then in the morning I got up nice and early (well, 10am) and looked around Leicester Square, China Town and Covent Garden which was really nice. The others slept in until they were just about to be thrown out of the hotel at 12pm lol.

Last wekend was a lot more relaxing. I took a day off of work on Friday and I completed laying the gravel in the front of my house – that looks much better now. On Saturday I watched the first half of Sweeny Todd (and I fell asleep so didn’t see the 2nd half). On Sunday afternoon I went to the gym (Birmingham Half Marathon in 2 weeks time!).

At least I’ve been able to relax and also get the 2 gravel areas in front of my house dug out and replaced – mostly anyway as 750kg’s of gravel wasn’t enough so I’m getting more delivered on Friday, I’m sure my manager will let me work from home on Friday so I can be there for the delivery).

Next weekend I’m going to Paul and Olly’s 30th birthday party in London and we are all going in fancy dress. I was going to go as the Punisher (I had even bought the t-shirt and a belt with bullets around it)

The Punisher

but as everyone else is going in more elaborate costumes I decided to change my mind and go as the Flash!

The Flash

The only problem now is that I don’t know how I’m going to hold my phone, wallet and camera! Emma has offered to hold them for me in her bag

The party is at the Verve club on Saturday night and some of us are staying at a Travelodge near Leicester Square. So right now I am looking for things that I could do in London (not while dressed as the Flash!) on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe I’ll have a look at the Tate Modern gallery, a look around Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Tottenem Court Road…? Any sugestions?