Showing posts with label pudding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pudding. Show all posts







Applewood Farm is a traditional style large food pub in Tyldsley. It serves classic pub grub along with some other interesting additions, and prides itself on its dessert offerings, particularly its cake and ice cream. I've heard a lot of praise for it, so decided to finally give it a try for lunch whilst I was nearby.

The first thing you notice is that this big traditional style pub is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. You drive along, and it suddenly pops up out of thin air. It has a big car park, but seems to get busy pretty quickly.

I must admit, my first impression on walking through the door wasn't positive. It was very busy, and a frantic looking female staff stood behind a large stack of dirty plates sitting on the "please wait here" podium, and then simply said "two?", before dashing off and then coming back to say "just through there on the right hand side". I would've liked to have been taken there really.


The décor is a modern interpretation of a classic pub style, and it works pretty well, remaining efficient and clean looking with bright colours and various bits of art and knick-knacks whilst retaining a traditional atmosphere. It was surprisingly busy throughout the pub for a thursday afternoon, with a bustling but pleasant feel. Once inside you realise the size of the place, with different rooms leading off the main thoroughfare, to booth seating along it. As well as the dining pub option, there is also a large carvery counter further into the pub, where you can choose a plate size for a set price, then go and check out the tasty looking carvery options. 





We ordered a couple of classics in the form of beer battered cod and chips, and steak and ale pie. The wait time for both was reasonable, and the first thing that hit us was the sheer size of the portions! The food was delicious. I loved the crispy bubbly batter, and the tartare sauce, and my partner loved the quality of the "oh god, it's half a pie!" he was tucking into.



We didn't have room for dessert, but had a good look through the huge book of desserts, puddings and ice creams, and as delicious the descriptions of the sweet treats were, we decided that we'd try their "cake-away" option, where you can take a slice of their cakes home with you to enjoy later. Knowing that their target customer would probably be full by now, but priding themselves on their desserts, this is a clever move!

When you get to the desserts counter, you can see how crazy their ice cream presentation is, bordering on American in presentation, but also very tempting! The one thing you'll notice though is the sheer size of the cakes! They're colossal!



The slices are £4+ in the menu, which might make you bawk a little until you see the sheer size of the things! We opted for the Millionaire's Cheesecake, and the Banana Chocolate Chip cake, which come in a plastic box with a small tub of cream each. Lovely. We ate them many many hours later, but enjoyed the flavour lots. The banana cake was tasty and moist with lots of flavour, and the cheesecake was tasty, but just too big. The middle layer was a solid 6 inches of pure cheesecake, meaning that you didn't get so much of the base or the top with it, which made it a little hard going. Some of the other cakes appeared similar to me, where the middle was just a bit too large unless it was in layers, but with how popular they obviously are, who am I to question?!

I loved it here, it's somewhere I'd be happy to bring my mum and dad sometime and know that they'd enjoy it, and the same with friends and colleagues. It has something for everyone. 

My partner has already stated that he wants to return there next month for his birthday! That's that then!



Applewood Farm
Astley Park Way
Chaddock Lane
Manchester
M28 1DP
(0161) 703 3611

www.farmhouseinns.co.uk/pubs/applewood-farm

Applewood Farm on Urbanspoon

Applewood Farm

by on 10:09
Applewood Farm is a traditional style large food pub in Tyldsley. It serves classic pub grub along with some other inter...
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The Rivington Pub & Grill (formerly The Ridgeway Arms) in Blackrod is a warm, cosy, and comfortable traditional English pub, with a large focus on dining.

If you enter the Rivington from the car park, you would firstly think that you've walked into a the bar of a pleasant restaurant, complete with leather winged armchairs, candles, and historical photos of the area. If you walked into the Rivington from the other entrance, you would think that you've walked into a traditional and friendly pub, complete with a roaring fireplace, wood panelling, and comfortable chairs. Fortunately, both are true. Whether you're there for a pint, or there for your dinner, the warm and pleasantly decorated and furnished surroundings automatically make you feel relaxed and comfortable.


BBQ Saddleback Ribs
The main dining area for the restaurant side of the pub is in a horseshoe shape, with open fireplaces on each end, and a raised seating area in the centre. The food offered has something for everyone, ranging from the traditional to the modern, but done superbly well, and in good portions. The head waiter told us how nothing is ever frozen, and everything is bought and created freshly, hence sometimes there can be a wait for your food, but frankly if you want good food created fresh, you should anticipate a bit of a wait. It only makes sense
Camembert cheese in filo pastry
Bruschetta, with home-made bread 


Of the above starters, I had the Saddleback Ribs, which were in a delicious BBQ sauce, which was very much a home made sauce, rather than the thick ketchup-like BBQ sauce you seem to find everywhere today. The meat was so tender, that I was able to simply lift it up, and the bone fell out! Very tasty indeed!


The serving staff here are friendly and helpful, but for many of them it seems English is not their first language. This isn't a criticism as much as an observation, and a note that a few times we had to say things a couple of times before they understood, as we were often asked "sorry, what was that?". My only criticism might be a one off, as we asked the head waiter for our bill, but it didn't arrive, and after 15 minutes we asked another waiter about it, but as we did so, we saw the head waiter walk in, see us, and have a moment of realisation, before he dashed off to the bar to collect our bill. Everyone forgets something now and then, but as soon as he realised, he was on it!

Although there are many vegetarian dishes available, I do have to say that the Rivington's forté is their meat! All of their steaks are dry aged for 32 days hung on the bone, and all of their beef is from traditional breed cattle. My personal favourite dish here is the rare breed minute flash-steak, which is tender, juicy, and full of flavour (as were my dining companions' above dishes too!). My flash steak came a specific way, but for other meats you are asked how you want it cooked, and obviously which sauces and accompaniments you would like. Steaks cooked without a sauce get lightly drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt. I personally love their chips! Big, chunky, old fashioned chips. Proper comfort food!

Herdwick lamb chops
You see the photo of the Herdwick lamb chops here on the left? I feel I must point out that when asked what he thought of them, my father-in-law, who is a very difficult man to impress, declared them "excellent!", which frankly blew the rest of us away (my mother-in-law dropped her fork!). This is an old fashioned man who would usually say something was "not bad" or at most "not bad at all!", but to declare a food 'excellent' is something we've not heard before... so that's saying something!



They offer a nice selection of after-dinner goodies, from teas and coffees to after-dinner tipples, but as beautiful as their desserts sound, I have yet only ever had their sticky toffee pudding, which is home-made and very light (not stodgy and heavy like you'd imagine) and served with vanilla icecream and butterscotch sauce (my favourite!). It's not that I don't want to try their other desserts, but I can't resist their sticky toffee pudding whenever I'm given the choice!! Frankly I should go there one day and JUST have a couple of desserts!



The Rivington Pub and Grill is superb basically, and if you've only ever been there when it was The Ridgeway, I emplore you to go along and give it a try! Maybe have one of their amazing sunday roast dinners. It's the sort of place you could go as a couple, with friends, your parents, or even the whole family. It's a good example of a traditional English dining pub done right! I look forward to my next visit.



The Rivington Pub & Grill
Station Road
Blackrod
Bolton
BL6 5JF
(01204) 696 027
www.rivingtonpubandgrill.co.uk
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I must admit, Tavern Fayre is one of those places I've driven past on multiple occasions, believing it to be one of those chain type food pubs, mainly due to its name and the style of its signage, but after reading wonderful things about it over on my friend DollyBakes' blog, I was eager to give it a try!


The first impression as you walk in is that you're not walking into one of those pubs where everyone's sat around looking at you as you step inside. I hate that. Instead, the décor inside is warm, friendly and welcoming, with roaring open fireplaces and colours and designs separating the large space into different areas without using big intrusive walls. This gave the place an eclectic and sprawling feel, and made you want to look around. In particular, the main restaurant area is two floors in height, but has beams where I assume the second floor would have been, which gives a very dramatic and interesting look!


When we first entered the above area, we stood at the 'wait here to be seated' podium for a few minutes, as nobody seemed to be available, but there was a lot of staff movement bringing out food and working behind counters, so it was forgiveable. The only thing is that on the podium was a notice, saying how smoking isn't allowed, but also nor was the use of electronic cigarettes. I've not seen this sort of problem before, so I can only assume they have their reasons. The entire restaurant is also wheelchair friendly, which is nice, and has free WiFi, you just need to ask someone for the password.

Before long, a member of staff appeared and took us to a nice little section in the middle of the restaurant, which felt like it was in its own little room due to the use of colours, flooring types, and fabric/curtain dividers. At this point, although it was forgotten with us, it seems as people are lead to their tables, they're also given a jug of water, which is a pleasant touch. I didn't realise this until later on, even though we had water glasses on the table. We didn't mind though, as we ordered some soft drinks straight away anyway.

There are a few things about this venue which don't quite marry together for me though. The general décor and furnishings are lovely, and quite traditional, but there is the occasional 'chef's special' chalkboard or sign which is done in a very modern style, looking like the sort of thing you'd see in a service station, and didn't quite fit in with the rest of the design. Sadly, the menus fell under this category too. I don't mean the content, but the menus themselves were a large two-sided piece of laminated paper, with the odd bit of cheap clip-art dotted around on it. A shame really as it was quite a cheap look, and the plastic was bending and splitting at the edges. Some nice properly made card menus would be a lot nicer.


The good thing though was the selection of offerings on the menus, which were very enticing, and good value too! Both my dining partner, Phil, and I at some point had decided on three separate meals each before we settled on a choice, but we made it clear to our friendly and helpful waitress that we'd be trying the other options next time! We also decided that we were going to opt for a main and dessert, rather than chancing a starter and having no room afterwards! The starters did sound very nice though.



Phil settled on the steak pie, which he said was very tasty with very tender meat. His chosen potato option of mash was a superb accompaniment, as it was creamy and buttery. No insta-mash here, folks! It came with a side of cabbage and carrots.



I however took Dolly's recommendation of the hand-salted gammon! I have to say that she was NOT wrong... this is quite probably the best gammon I have ever had! Bursting with flavour without tasting like a mouth of salty seawater! It was juicy and tender. I cut a bit of fat off the edge, but Phil then pointed out that it wasn't fat, it was just a gooooood cut of meat, and was delicious meat right to the edge! Superb! I chose to have roast potatoes for the potato option, which were nice. It also came with the cabbage and carrots. The carrots were cooked nicely, but they sadly didn't have much flavour to them. I had ordered some pork gravy on the side in case I wanted to try it on the gammon, as I prefer gravy rather than an egg or pineapple, but after tasting the gammon, the gravy did not touch a single bit of it! You really must try this gammon!

The meals were filling, but we were determined to have one of the amazing desserts we'd seen in the dessert cabinet as we walked in, as they looked wonderful! So we had a 'breather' as it were, and sat and chatted for a bit, letting our food go down. During this point I decided to pop to the Gents toilets, which were clean and modern, but had 9 urinals, two toilets, and two sinks... which seems a little odd to me. The only problem with the toilets was that the taps were those horrific single push button taps that tend to stay on for 4 seconds, and then shut off. Was it going to splash forcefully into the sink and spray all over me? Gladly not, but it was however a very weak stream of water. The hand dryers were 1980s looking monstrosities too. There was another one of those "electronic cigarette" notices in here too. Also I can't speak for the Ladies toilets, but the gents only had a single mirror, and it wasn't by the sinks, but was in fact on the other side of the room.
The toilets were fine, but just need a bit of a glamming up, stick in a couple of Dyson airblades, some proper taps, and you'd be laughing. 

Right! Dessert time! Phil had his eye on a big chocolate fudge cake he saw sitting in the counter, but when we went back, it seemed to have gone. However the waitress behind the counter pulled it out from underneath, and Phil's face lit up!


He was asked if he'd like it hot or cold, to which he chose hot, and chose cream as its accompaniment. He said that the chocolate fudge cake itself was deliciously chocolatey, without being a really heavy cake as is often the case. Other options in the dessert cabinet included a strawberry pavlova, LumpyBumpy, a fruit cheesecake, and a caramel creamy concoction I didn't catch the name of. Aside the desserts on show, they offer a range of hot desserts and ice creams. I opted for the "Hot Sticky Pudding", which didn't fully explain what it was, or how big it was, but I was told it was essentially a sticky toffee pudding, but with butterscotch. I love butterscotch. The girl showed me the pudding itself, which was in a little pot she brought out from under the chiller, so I was slightly worried that it was going to be microwaved, but for the time it took to come out, I don't think it was, I imagine it was popped into an oven again for a little while.



What turned up was a wonderful smelling steaming hot sponge, sitting in a pool of hot custard, drizzled with butterscotch. The sponge was piping hot, moist, wonderfully rich, and delicious! I'm glad I opted for it! Next time I might try it with ice cream instead, but the custard was heavenly, it has to be said!

So now it was time for the bill. Uh oh. You know when you've had a great meal out and you think, "this is going to be a pricy one, but it's a one off!"? Well that's how we were feeling as we went to pay... however, we found that our bill was a total of just £33.54! £33.54!! If this restaurant was in Manchester City Centre or one of the trendy suburbs, they could charge double that! We were thrilled, and told the staff we'd be back again soon, which we damn well will be, and probably with the parents!

Go and give it a try, it's a fantastic place for dinner! They serve food until 10:00pm Monday - Saturday, and 9:00pm on a Sunday. They also have a very large and spacious car park.


Two mains, two pints of soft drinks and two desserts came to £33.54


Tavern Fayre
Wigan Rd,
Hunger Hill, Bolton
(01204) 62861
www.tavernfayre.net


Tavern Fayre on Urbanspoon

Tavern Fayre

by on 11:22
I must admit, Tavern Fayre is one of those places I've driven past on multiple occasions, believing it to be one of those chain typ...
at No comments:
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