The Nottingham Food Blog

July 15, 2017

The Boathouse Cafe at Beeston Marina – BLT and a Toasted tea cake … nice!

The BoatHouse café at Beeston Marina is one great spot to find if you have been on a big bimble along the River from Bridgford to Attenborough Nature Reserve.

On their website they say that it is:

“Run by Sandie and the (completely!) irrepressible Tony, the Boathouse Café offers
a great place to stop and refuel! Try one of their full breakfasts & you’ll be back!”

Sadly though we arrived a bit late in the day so we could only get something from the Bagels / Sandwich menu and / or some chips. Fair enough it was about 3.45pm and they were closing at 4.30pm. We had thought that there were open later, but I think that was just walkers hopeful imagination.

I really wanted a breakfast so I will be back to try one of those for sure, especially when I saw you could get a small one of ‘Egg, Bacon, Sausage, Beans, Tomato, Toast or Fried Bread AND a free drink refill ( I assume a mug of Tea) for £5. I might mention it later down the bottom of the post, but you know I have my eye on bigger plates than that 🙂

Anyway we picked ourselves up and chose some stuff from what we could. That was a BLT sandwich and a mug of tea for me, and a Toasted Teacake and a mug of Coffee for Mum. All in this came to the bargain price of £5. Maybe Sandie and Tony did my wallet a right good favour here 🙂

BLT sandwich

So as I said I had the Bacon. Lettuce and Tomato sandwich or the BLT or as we like to say these days. I was pleasantly surprised as I really was not expecting too much perhaps just a sandwich made up with pre-prepared stuff from out back?

Oh no, I was very wrong, it was some nice white sliced bread filled with freshly cooked hot bacon, some freshly chopped up tomato, and some chopped up lettuce. It looked like someone had just made it up quickly all rustic like and that was probably what had happened.

I really liked it and not just because I was hungry from that walk along the river to get here. It really hit the spot, so much so that I didn’t miss my dream choice of the breakfast.

The mug of tea was spot on too, so refreshing, I like this sort of place where they give you the mug with the tea bag in, hand you a bottle of milk and just let you get on with it. Just as if you were at home in your own kitchen

Toasted Tea Cake

The Toasted tea cake looked good too all smothered in plenty of butter, or butter like spread. It was looking even better when you know that it was just a quid 🙂 I should have had one for my pudding after the BLT! 🙂

They had other cake type stuff on the counter as well, so plenty of options if you fancy something sweet with your hot drink!

Other Menus

So as I said up top the Breakfast sounds good, I am most certainly coming back to eat and post about this. If you check out the website they have a picture of what this is all about and it makes me hungry just looking at it! I think the picture might be of the bigger breakfasts as I can see large hash browns and doubled up bacon, eggs and sausage. I’ll be back for that!

Boathouse Classics

There are Lots of café classics on offer too! I can imagine living down here on a boat and popping in for some regular stuff. I saw a boat advertised for £900 on the river nearby and reckoned I could just live here and munch my way through the menu this summer 🙂

I can also see why my Mum’s walking pals like it here too as OAPs get these classics for just 4 quid!

I have my eye and my belly has it’s eyes too on the ‘Gammon, Egg and Chips’ in the warmer weather and the Sausage, mash and gravy if its a colder day! 🙂

But first order of business is to come back for one of the breakfasts!

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The BoatHouse Café is located at

1A The Quay
Riverside Road,

Beeston

Nottingham

NG9 1NA

Tel: 01159 223 168

Check out the deets on their Website

Posted by myfoodhunt on July 15, 2017 in 2. Nottinghamshire, Attenborough, Beeston and tagged all day breakfast, beeston marina, cafe, cafe in nottingham, food at beeston marina, Food Blog in Nottingham, Food in Beeston, food near beeston, Food reviews in Nottingham, lunch, sandwich.

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July 13, 2017

All Day Breakfast at Cafe Victoria in the Victoria Centre Market

Café Victoria is one of several cafés in the Victoria Centre Market up on the top level of the intu centre. There are several other greasy spoon type establishments in the market that all seem to have similar menus with lots of daily specials. I am going to try and work my way through them all, but today I picked Victoria Café as this seemed to be the brightest and most spacious of them all.

The had some classic café daily specials like Cottage Pie which was pretty tempting, but I was in the mood for breakfast. I know I am always in the mood for breakfast, just let me roll with it 🙂

The All Day Breakfast

I ordered the All Day Breakfast for £4 and a mug of tea brought my total up to £5.10. Now considering at the time that I was dining in a market café that had seemed a lot, but then I considered that I went on to pay £5.20 for a craft beer at a city centre pub so it wasn’t that expensive after all 🙂

It was all very much as expected, cheap and cheerful, but not as cheap as I had hoped. Ingredients wise though I think we are on the budget end of stuff, which is fine with me, sometimes a good all day breakfast is better when it does not try to be posh and clever.

The sausages looked and tasted fine, but they were those less solid slightly mushy ones, probably not as much meat in these ones. The bacon was ok too, it could have been crispier, but I didnt ask for crispy so I got what I got. There were two fried eggs, one slightly broken, the other one I broke myself moments later 🙂

There was plenty of juice with my beans, and some of that tinned tomato that I am not so keen on, but that I know many people love, I use mine as ‘rustic’ ketchup.

Breakfast Menu (part of)

Officially my All Day Breakfast was described as being “2 bacon, 2 Sausage, 1 Egg, Tomatoes, Beans, 2 Breads and Butter” so it looks like I did well for myself as I got two eggs!

Maybe they gave me an extra one as one was slightly broken, if so then that was jolly nice of them! I like to think that is what happened so thank you very much! 🙂

I got the most value that I could out of my breakfast plateful by making two small egg and bacon sandwiches with my bits of bread and butter. As a bacon and egg butty seemed to be about £2 – £2.50, I like to think I broke the breakfast system there 🙂

All in all it was kind of what I was expecting so I was fairly happy with my lot and was glad that I ventured up to the market to sample.

Location

The Victoria Cafe can be found at 42-43 215B Victoria Market

It is right at the back of the market and overlooks the road that leads to the car park, so the views are spectacular if you like traffic 🙂

Although because there are lots of windows it is very bright and airy and you can actually see quite a bit of nottigham from the window 🙂

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There are several other cafés in the market and I kind of feel the need to try them all out for comparison and not just because I like a greasy spoon breakfast 🙂

I will report back to y’all when I do

Posted by myfoodhunt on July 13, 2017 in 2. Nottinghamshire, Nottingham, Nottingham City Centre and tagged all day breakfast, cafe at victoria centre market, cafe in nottingham, cooked breakfast, Food at intu Victoria Centre, Food at Victoria Centre Market, Food in Nottingham City Centre, greasy spoon cafe, Victoria Centre.

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July 12, 2017

The Purist Burger at Bunkers Hill in the Lace Market

Bunkers Hill in Nottingham is one of those city centre pubs that is just far enough away from the main drag to feel like a local. Not too many of the gobshites bother to walk down the hill through Hockley to drink in this place, so you end up with a pretty relaxed but also vibrant feel. You get the guys out for a ‘decent pint’, the music lovers coming to see the bands and the singers, and when the Ice Hockey is on, well then you get the Panthers fans in.

The place has been done up a bit recently and a lot of the hockey memorabilia has gone which is a bit of a shame, they do have a big net up in the ceiling filled with Hockey shirts though which tickled me a bit.

They also have one of those big white boards now with all the beer listed as if they were the latest movie releases. I kind of liked that 🙂 I also like that they are doing tap takeovers, and promoting craft beer from all over. I know that is the ‘trend’ these days, but you get the feeling that these guys really are teaming up with the ‘guys who have the beer’

Last time I was down here they had this massive burger menu and I was like ‘come on now, how many burgers does one man need to think about?‘ These days though they have cleaned it up and you have a menu with most of the hits on it and just a couple of burgers to think about. My mind is less cluttered now and I was able to keep my choices simple, so thanks for that 🙂

Burger and Fries

We checked out the Bunkers Hill Menu and both ordered The Purist with chips which was billed as being “Two 3oz Beef Patties, Cheddar, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Homemade Burger Relish and Onion Rings”. The suggestion of adding smoked streaky bacon for £1 extra was heeded and the upgrade to a meal with chips took the pricepoint up to £8.75.

In the world of pub burgers this creation has a fair bit going for it. The actual flavour of the chargrilled burgers was very good, they were well seasoned and meaty. Sadly as they are so thin, they were a bit overcooked for my personal taste and they were somewhat on the solid side of well done.

The added crispy bacon was just as promised, a lovely bit of smoke, nice and salty, and some good crunch in the bite. You know what I wouldn’t mind just getting great big bacon cob filled with some more of this streaky perfection (put that on the menu 🙂 ).

I really liked that we had cheese on both the top and bottom bun, and the homemade burger sauce was fairly well received.

I would have preferred it if the onion rings were on the plate alongside the burger, instead of being deep within the tower. It seemed strange to have raw red onion and then deep fried battered onion in the same mouthful, that didn’t really work for me

Close-Up on the Purist

Construction wise we are looking at a dangerous game of burger Jenga! Even in this pre-munch close-up you can see that this stack is on shaky plate. Once the supporting wooden skewer was removed so that you could actually eat it, it was a toppling baby. This is one of those burgers that you almost end up needed a knife and fork for.

I like to be able to just pick my burger up in one hand and take a great big bite without the whole thing falling apart and tumbling back down onto my plate.

I did like that burger flavour as you felt that you could just eat the meat patty on it’s own, you didn’t to disguise it with lots of fancy toppings. Apparently the burgers come from Owen Taylor, one of our excellent local butchers from just over the border, and they are made from a mix of ‘rump cap, short rib, and chuck steak’. All they need to do now is cook them just a little more gently 🙂 or get thicker burgers. I like mine pink 🙂

If I am totally honest I would love a burger called the Purist to just be a simple affair of a good well cooked burger in a nice soft bun with perhaps just some cheese and maybe some bacon. Pure and Simple is what I really want, and that is not just hearsay 🙂

Some other stuff 🙂

Menu

I like that they have condensed the menu at Bunkers Hill, and I like that the prices are fair and reasonable.

I could imagine myself popping down for a Fish and Chips Friday to try out their “Cod and Chips” for just £8.50 the menu say that it has a ‘Guinness batter’.

Burger Sandwich Stuff

I kind of fancy trying the “Chilli Beef Burger” just to try the ‘smoked beef brisket chilli’ and the ‘chorizo relish’. If I do though I will ask them to take it a bit easier on my beef patties; just show them the grill and then put them in my bun 😉

That XXL Pork Belly Slider sounds good too, I can just imagine some crisp or maybe soft juicy pork belly coated with or dripping with ginger garlic, soy, chilli and honey. Damn I am really hungry now, why do I write about eating food?

So anyway Bunker’s Hill is located all the way down the hill from Hockley, just across from the Sneinton Market and pretty close to the Ice Stadium where those Panthers Play

Officially they are in the Lace Market at

BUNKERS HILL

36-38 HOCKLEY

LACE MARKET
NOTTINGHAM
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE
NG1 1FP

Posted by myfoodhunt on July 12, 2017 in 2. Nottinghamshire, hockley, Nottingham City Centre and tagged burger, Food Blog in Nottingham, Food in Hockley, Food in Nottingham City Centre, Food near Lace Market, Food reviews in Nottingham, lace market pubs, Pub Food in Nottingham.

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July 11, 2017

Rectory Fish Bar in West Bridgford – Haddock, Chips and Mushy Peas for tea

The Rectory Fish Bar on Rectory Road in West Bridgford has been there for as long as I can remember. I have always been given great reports about the place and many people have told me that they serve the best Fish and Chips in West Bridgford and that I should get my ass over there to try them out.

On their Facebook page they say that they are “A family run fish bar where we always put quality and customer service first.” I had heard that it was revamped a year back, but everyone still said that they were good.

I popped in for an early Fish and Chips Friday, on a Thursday 🙂 to try them out, ordering my usual chippie tea of ‘Haddock, chips and mushy peas’

Chips for Everyone!

I really could not grumble about the amount of chips I was given, I could see the chap scooping them in, three scoops full! I honestly wondered how they were all going to fit in!

The Box was so packed out that I could barely see the Haddock and some of those chips were as big and thick as my fingers. It was probably a good thing though as all those chips kept my fish hot all the way home 🙂

Haddock, Chips, and Mushy Peas

Until I put it all on a plate I had not realised just how big the Fish was, it would not fit on a standard plate. It drew great merriment when I was telling my mate how big it was, he said it was like an old fishermans story. The fish got bigger each time I talked about it 🙂

It was a pretty good piece of Haddock, really great flavour of the white flesh, deep and meaty. The batter was quite good but suffered a bit from the walk home as the bottom of the fish was stuck to the box so I lost the bottom of the batter. That was the only grumble I had though

The chips were very solid and well cooked, they had an almost nutty flavor, not sure where that came from though.

The mushy peas were also good very dark green and vibrant, I really should have ordered a large pot as I was enjoying them so much and I still had a whole load of chips to dip.

All together this meal was £7.10, but if I came back I would bring someone to split the chips with so it might be even better value.

Was it the best in Bridgford? It was very good and I enjoyed it immensely. I think George’s has better batter but I think the flavour of the Haddock at the Rectory was preferable in my opinion.

__________________________

Rectory Fish Bar is located at

16 Rectory Road, Nottingham NG2 6BG, England

Posted by myfoodhunt on July 11, 2017 in 2. Nottinghamshire, West Bridgford and tagged fish and chip shop, Fish and Chips Friday, Fish and Chips in Nottingham, food in west bridgford, food on Central Avenue, Haddock and Chips.

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July 4, 2017

Pub Lunch at the Meadow Covert in Edwalton – Gammon Steak, Egg and Chips

The Meadow Covert in Edwalton is these day’s run by Greene King and so has the same menu as the Grosvenor on Mansfield road that I visited recently.

Alison and I popped in for a MyFoodHunt chain pub visit last week for The Nottingham Food Blog, partly because we were hungry and partly because it was the first place we saw as we drove back toward the office after a trip to the gas station, sorry I mean the petrol station 🙂

I tried to persuade that we should try the Pub Classics 2 Meals for £9.99 deal but my powers of suggestion fell flat so I got one of the classics for £7.99 while my partner in crime just had a ‘boring old sandwich’ 🙂 for £3.29

Gammon, Egg, and Chips (and peas)

I ordered the Gammon, Egg and Chips, one of your pub classics, and one of my favourite ‘old school’ meals. They describe it as “A thick-cut gammon steak served with seasoned chips, peas and two free-range fried eggs. Swap your eggs for pineapple rings”

There was no way on earth that I was swapping my eggs for pineapple! although why could I not have one of each?

As pub lunches go this was fairly decent, the gammon steak was pretty big, it was as expected a great big bit of thick grilled bacon, and was cooked pretty well. It had all that saltiness, baconesque, and meatiness that you kind of like to get from a bit of gammon.

I really liked that the whole chop was covered with two perfectly cooked runny yolk fried eggs, that made me really happy in that moment.

The chips and the peas were as expected, unexciting, but par for the course at a chain pub. Nothing that some ketchup, vinegar, salt and pepper cannot fix.

Thinking about it, if I am honest just give me the meat and eggs! 🙂

Yes this is a classic, and a chain pub classic, and it worked for me on the day and you know what if I was in a Greene King pub somewhere else I would not be adverse to ordering it again 🙂

Cheese and Pickle Sandwich

Alison had the Cheese and Pickle sandwich which came with a reasonably decent little side salad garnish. I liked the look of this sandwich and it certainly seemed to be well received by the chomper 🙂

It did look good though, you could probably have got away with calling it a vegetarian ploughman’s and upselling it a bit 🙂

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I often get snobby and filled with despair when I end up at a pub that is part of a chain, just because the menu is the same and I fear that the food just gets shipped in from some central site on a big truck. So when I do find myself pondering the menu, I just try and choose something that I think someone has to actually cook and not just heat up.

Luckily today I hit the spot with my Gammon steak and eggs :-), I was a bit sad though that we didn’t get it as part of the Pub Classics 2 Meals for £9.99 deal 😦

Maybe I should have a got a ‘Mac n Cheese’ as an extra side 🙂

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The Meadow Covert is located in Edwalton at

Alford Road

Edwalton

Nottinghamshire

NG12 4AT

It is not far from Edwalton Golf Course and just off the roundabout

Posted by myfoodhunt on July 4, 2017 in 2. Nottinghamshire, Edwalton and tagged Cheese Sandwich, Food in Edwalton, Gammon and Eggs, Greene King Pubs, lunch, pub lunch, Pubs in Edwalton, Pubs in Nottingham.

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July 1, 2017

Brunch at A-Venue in West Bridgford

The Avenue in West Bridgford is the newest kid finding its way onto the block down Central Avenue. It is the newest incumbent of the building formerly occupied by Cured, and by Belle and Jerome.

I walked by on a bimble last Thursday and saw signs of life, so this Friday I made a plan to MyFoodHunt my way down the Avenue to check them out

For weeks there has been a sign on the window suggesting Street Food would be on the menu and recently last week I read about the place in the Nottingham Post where they said that “The street food menu captures flavours from around the world from Canadian chicken with maple syrup and cheesy chips and gravy and Indian chicken tikka with smoking hot sauce to posh British fish and chips and Thai fish skewers.!”

So I was pretty hopeful of a treat or two when we popped in on Friday lunch to get some brunch.

The Breakfast Menu

They had two menus, a breakfast menu that was being served until 1pm and a ‘street food’ menu as well (see bottom of post).

I was in a breakfast mood 🙂

So what did we eat?

A-Venue Benedict

I ordered the A-venue Benedict which was described on the menu as “Chorizo, black pudding, poached egg, toasted croissant and Sriracha hollandaise’

I have mixed feelings about this dish, it looked pretty and I really enjoyed eating it, it has lots of the things that I love, spicy chorizo, black pudding and soft runny poached egg.

I was kind of expecting something a lot spicier and a lot hotter, my mouth had been salivating with the expected sort of slap in the face from the Sriracha sauce.

In the end though it was pretty tame and not really that spicy. Most of the spice heat came from the very thin slice of chorizo.

It was a very tasty little snack though and I thoroughly enjoyed munching my way through it with minimal bites. I was kind of about 3 mouthfuls short of being full so, as they say, I was left wanting more.

Thinking about it, did I really want an overpowering chilli hit? probably not which maybe why they left it as a slight hint or a slight thought of Sriracha in the hollandaise topping

The “Veggie Breakfast”

The Veggie Breakfast was described on the menu as ‘Beetroot sausage, mushrooms, tomato, spinach, beans, poached eggs and toast”.

Alison ordered this and to be fair when it arrived on the plate it looked pretty well presented. Poached egg, toast and beans all were pretty decent.

The mushrooms were a bit weird and I kind of think that they came out of a tin. The vegan sausages were also a very surprising item, they had the right shape, but they were a bit dry and crumbly and considering that they were made of beetroot, I didn’t really taste any beetroot in the bit foisted on the end of a fork towards me.

Now I am not a vegetarian so I can’t really comment on the addition of spinach to the plate, I suppose it adds iron and some essential vitamins?

I do like that they cater to the vegan and vegetarian with a meatless and meat product free option. I am just glad that I probably will never have to stick it at the top of my list.

Street Food Menu

I did check out the ‘street food’ menu to see if it really was street food, or just another faux effort masquerading as street food. I did like the sound of some of the stuff on the list.

The Fish Dog with Fennel slaw sounds pretty good “Cod and smoked salmon fish dog in a brioche hotdog roll with fennel slaw and Chipotle tartar sauce” and the Chicken Taco with Peach BBQ sauce sounds intriguing as well; “Char-grilled chicken breast with black beans, red grape and coloured cauliflower salad on a tomato taco with homemade peach BBQ sauce”

Both sounded good but at 9 quid we are venturing into Hipster prices here for street food

More Street Menu

If I come back it will most likely be on a MyFoodHunt Fish and Chips Friday mission to sample their “Up Market Fish and Chips”

I am always a sucker for stuff like that 🙂

A-venue in West Bridgford is located at 33/35 Central Avenue right in the heart of café society.

It is right over the road from Iceland if that helps 🙂

Posted by myfoodhunt on July 1, 2017 in 2. Nottinghamshire, West Bridgford and tagged all day breakfast, brunch, Food Blog in Nottingham, food in west bridgford, food on Central Avenue, Food reviews in Nottingham.

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June 30, 2017

A Fish and Chips Friday at the Apple Tree

The Apple Tree on Compton Acres in West Bridgford is one of the pubs in the Ember Inns family. I drive past a lot on my way out of town when I avoiding the A453 and taking the back roads through Ruddington. Loads of my mates tell me that it is good value and that you can get a decent deal here, so I figured what the hell lets pop over and test them out?

On their website they say “Visit The Apple Tree in West Bridgford for authentic British cooking and real ales in a genuine local pub warmed by a cosy fire. Our pub-food menu features classic meals made with award-winning ingredients”

Well lets be honest that does sound like a nice little sound bite. I was feeling fairly optimistic at that point.

Cod and Chips

I had the Cod and Chips officially described as “Hand battered in our own Ember Inns Pale Ale, served with seasoned chips, mushy peas and a sea herb tartare sauce”. It all sounds most lovely, does it not?

I have been eating a lot of Fish and Chips recently and sadly this was not one to add to my must have list. The Fish itself was not too bad, once you fought your way through the thick over crunchy batter there was some reasonable fleshy white cod to enjoy.

The chips were hiding underneath the fish, probably for good reason, they may have been ‘seasoned’ in one lifetime, but not in the lifetime that I was eating them in. They needed a whole lot of salt and pepper, tramp juice, and a lot of generic brand ketchup to enliven them to wanting to eat level.

I was saddened by my small pot of mushy peas, they were green and vibrant, they were also small and little more than a spoonful. If the pot had been bigger it would have been the highlight on the plate

I will be straight with you, if this was £4.99 or even £5.99 I would be saying it was OK and reasonable value. However at £9.79 it is well overpriced in my humble and my wallet’s opinion.

Bits of Menu

‘

The thing is or was that this cost £9.79! We dined, with me and my partner in crime Alison (who had Halloumi and Chips), with two diet cokes for basically just around £25 quid (#FFS).

This is in a pub, a chain pub, a not amazing gastro pub, just your run of the mill everyday happy go lucky …. pub!

I will be straight with you, paying something like £4 for a diet coke is still bordering on the piss take.

I will say that it seems to be a well kept and quite welcoming pub up on the estate, so maybe I was just unlucky with my choice. My biggest gripe was the pricing, but maybe those West Bridgford folks think it’s cheap 🙂

Well you can’t win them all, so lets move onwards to the next meal 🙂

The Apple Tree is located at Compton Acres, , Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK, NG2 7PA

You can see a map here

Posted by myfoodhunt on June 30, 2017 in 06. Compton Acres, 1. The Nottingham Tram Stop Food Hunt Project, 2. Nottinghamshire, Compton Acres, fish and chips, Tram Route: Nottingham Station to Clifton South, West Bridgford and tagged Chain Pub Food, fish and chips, Fish and Chips Friday, food in Compton acres, food in west bridgford, Pub Food, Pub Food in Nottingham.

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June 29, 2017

A Fantastic Breakfast and super sandwich at the Village Cafe and Bistro in Keyworth

The Village Café and Bistro in Keyworth is a super spot for a quiet relaxed brunch if you are over this way passing through the South Notts village.

They are usually open from 9am until 3pm every day except for Saturday and they serve a mix of breakfast, brunch, and lunch specials.

I last wrote about this place back in 2013, which seems so long ago now, many meals have passed since then and I really cannot fathom why it has been so long for the blog to revisit

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June 25, 2017

Pub Sandwiches at the Grosvenor in Carrington up on Mansfield Road in Nottingham

The Grosvenor on Mansfield Road in Carrington is one of those pubs that seem to have been there for ages. I last blogged about this place back in 2014 when it was owned by John Barras, today it seems to be a Greene King pub.

We popped in for a bite to eat prior to a mini beer bimble around Doctors Orders and the Gladstone. As it happened this place also had a few good beers too and they accepted my CAMRA card so I was kind of OK with the whole chain pub situation

Last time I posted I recalled that “A pub has been on this corner since the early part of the 19th Century when it was known as the Blacks Heads Inn, In 1873 it was renamed the Grosvenor Hotel when it was bought by John Robinson who was the founder of Home Brewery. Locally it was then known as the Squires largely due to the stabling of horses fro the nearby Forest Racecourse. In the 1990’s the name was changed to the Grosvenor Pub”

I did a lot more research back then to justify the post.

Today though I admit that we were just here to fill a hole before we started necking a few pints of wholesome real ale. BUT hold on a minute mate! Lets just give this place a chance before you get all snobby again about Chain pubs 🙂 you aint all that and aren’t on the rich list for 2017 so be a bit more humble (note to self, stop talking to yourself, and also stop writing online notes to yourself too, someone might notice)

The menu always makes it look like the food is good

“satisfying Sandwiches & Wraps” ooh go on then

Normally on a Friday I am taking my chances with a Fish and Chips special, here at The Grosvenor they were offering a “Cod and Chips” – “Our signature cod fillet freshly hand battered served with seasoned chips, mushy peas or peas and tartare sauce” for £8.99.

But tonight I just ‘didn’t need’ the massive plate of food so I was looking at the Sandwich options instead.

I still wanted to stay on theme though. This wasn’t an excuse to leave room for beer (it was) it was just sensible cost effective eating 🙂

I made the effort though and got as close as I could to the Friday masterplan with my choice of sandwich! so Check this out 🙂

Cod Goujons

I picked the Fish Goujons sandwich which was described on The Grosvenor menu as “Hand battered Cod Goujons with tartare sauce and lettuce”, I chose to have mine on a white bloomer and it came with a dressed salad garnish.

This was basically a bit of a posh fish finger sandwich, but as it was served in a chain pub, lets not call it posh, although I expect (and accept) that the regulars would (and I did too).

I know it was a pub chain sandwich, but you know what? it was pretty good for what it was. I liked the white bloomer bread and I liked the goujon filling which was actually pretty plentiful. I think that there was at least three fried and battered pieces of cod in there, possibly four. I didn’t rip the beast apart to check. I quite liked the bottled tartare and the lettuce actually did its job of shielding the bread from sauce.

I know that in England we seem to judge a sandwich on how good the bread is, while in the States we judge it on how good the filling is. Here at the Grosvenor they both kind of balanced out.

Rump Steak Melt

Martin my erstwhile MyFoodHunt and Friday Pub Bimble partner in crime chose the Steak sandwich or as it was officially named the “Rump Steak Melt”. This was described on the menu as a ” 28-day aged Black Angus rump steak, with mature cheddar cheese, lettuce and red onion chutney” apparently for just £5.69

It did actually look pretty good for a chain pub sandwich, but I will lower my opinion of the steak under the ‘lets not talk about cousin angus’ radar. I am sure that all was fine.

Martin did say that ‘it wasn’t bad’ so that is a fairly good rating from the man

Sides of Fries and Onion Rings

We chose sides to share of Onion Rings and French Fries. The onion rings were OK, I was surprised, so I will give Green King some credit with their ability to produce something that has a crisp bite and a decent taste. I have had much better but I have had a lot worse. I would order them again

The fries were kind of frozen bag ‘average to sad’ I ate them because I was hungry but was not a massive fan

All in all, I found that these sandwiches were actually pretty decent and quite good value. I felt that I got what I asked for and to be honest, since I am writing about it they must have done something right :-).

I often find it hard to sum up the energy to pick my way through the chain pub menu with much enthusiasm, but as they are everywhere, we need to work out what meals are good value and are worth popping in for.

I probably won’t have the Goujon sandwich next time, but I am encouraged to spin the wheel of menu fortune and dine with Green King again. It was all quite decent

The Grosvenor is located at 291-293 Mansfield Road

They do take a CAMRA card discount, they sell beer, and they serve food

That is all I have (note I will be back again one day 🙂 )

Check them out on their Facebook page

Posted by myfoodhunt on June 25, 2017 in 2. Nottinghamshire, Nottingham City Centre and tagged Carrington, fish sandwich, Food Blog in Nottingham, Food on Mansfield Road, Food reviews in Nottingham, Green King Pub, Grosvenor Pub, Pub Food, Pubs on Mansfield Road, sandwich, steak sandwich.

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June 22, 2017

The Chock’s Away Cafe – Breakfast and Brunch at Tollerton Airport

I love Chocks Away! I hadn’t been here for a while and I had forgotten just how good a little café it is. The last time I blogged about it was back in 2013 when I popped in for a bacon butty and a tuna melt. You can read about those visits here

Since my last visit, not much has changed in that you can still drive over and have a little snack while watching the trainee pilots run through their paces. There is still the random wildlife to watch in between take offs too, we saw baby crows getting fed, and a couple of hares having a bit of a barney while we sat out by the runway in the sun this week.

The menu seems to have expanded a lot, or maybe the chalk board got prettier and bigger!? 🙂 they have the three breakfasts all named after some sort of plane ranging from the Tomahawk, to the Jumbo, to the Hercules! (that one is defo new!) Lots of toasties, breakfast baps, burgers, and things with chips. We love things with chips!

It was so good that we came back the next day!

Cheese Toastie

They do the simple things really well, it is kind of no frills with a lot of love and attention. Sometimes all you really want is a Toastie and they can do you one here no problem for just a small outlay of cash.

Alison picked a cheese toastie and then glammed it up a bit by adding in the red onion from the simple side salad. We might have been given spoon number 13 when we ordered, but no worry we were far from unlucky.

Tomahawk Breakfast

I ordered the Tomahawk breakfast for £4.50 which was actually pretty tasty. Now OK I admit that maybe it is not as pretty as some, but I reckon that it had a fair chance of winning the Turner Prize.

My breakfast was the smallest of the offerings with one slice of nicely grilled bacon, a decent meaty sausage, beans, tinned tomato, a lovely runny yolk fried egg, a scattering of fried mushroom and a slice of toast. I added a slice of black pudding to mine, mostly because I love a good blood sausage, and also partly because it is fun to order when dining with a vegetarian 🙂

I really enjoyed eating this plateful, it seemed so honest and real. Real food for normal people. I usually do not like tinned tomato on my breakfast plate, but I know plenty of friends who swear it is a must. For some strange reason today I was actually really liking them and I was scooping up beans and tomato with my toast as I cleared my plate faster that the tower clearing the run way for take off.

Sausage, Egg and Chips

We came back the next day and I really just wanted to slum it a bit with a plate of sausage, egg, and chips. The sausages are actually pretty decent fare here at Chocks Away, I quite like them. The chips were plentiful and I know that they are just basic fried ones, but somehow here that seems grand enough for me. I had two eggs with this and my only sadness was that I would have liked a runny yolk.

Just to note Alison had a chip butty, but I didn’t take a pic of that. She also had some homemade lemon cake, but I decided not to record that in photographic evidence out of kindness 🙂

The sign above the door as you enter the building says ‘Everyone Welcome’ and that is so true.

I have already fallen back in love with this place and vow to return way more often that I have in recent times.

Why? oh why? would one drive to buy a sad sandwich from the supermarket when instead you can come here for a friendly smile, a simple bite to eat, and a little oasis away from the work desk?

There is no answer, except that you should come and watch small planes take off, eat ice cream and stuff your face gently 🙂

Chocks Away is located at Nottingham City Airport just on Tollerton Ln, Tollerton, Nottingham NG12 4GA. It is pretty well signposted from the road and if in doubt just keep driving down that long green road until you get to the Airport Car Park and Tower.

Check them out on Facebook for the food and also for news on events

Posted by myfoodhunt on June 22, 2017 in 2. Nottinghamshire, Tollerton and tagged all day breakfast, bacon and egg, breakfast, brunch, cafe, Food in Tollerton, Food near Tollerton, greasy spoon cafe, sausage and chips, Toasted Cheese sandwich, Tollerton Airport Cafe.

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The Nottingham Food Blog

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Pub Sandwiches at the Grosvenor in Carrington up on Mansfield Road in Nottingham

The Chock’s Away Cafe – Breakfast and Brunch at Tollerton Airport

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