Review: Table Table Restaurant - Gateway, Eastleigh, Hants

Ready for their dinner after a busy day at Marwell Zoo

Last week seems like a million years ago sadly but this time last Thursday I was at Marwell Zoo with my family enjoying seeing the animals and looking forward to our dinner at the Gateway Table Table restaurant in Eastleigh.

First Impressions

I was very pleased to have been asked to review a Table Table restaurant as it is a number of years since I last ate in one and I know I used to enjoy it. I'm pleased to report that this experience was no different, we had a great time. We arrived at the restaurant car park at about 6.25pm and the car park was very full but there were some spaces we could pull into. It all looked clean and well maintained and thus our first impression was good.

We were greeted as soon as we arrived in the restaurant and the greeter took us promptly to our table as we had a reservation. I loved the lay-out of the restaurant as there were lots of different shaped tables in all sorts of areas. We had a separate booth area for the five of us and this meant dh and I did not have to worry about the kids being too noisy and disrupting other diners. Personally I felt parts of the restaurant were a bit dark for 6.30pm but it would have been great for later and a romantic meal for two.

The Menu

My husband and I were impressed with the selection on the Spring menu. There is a good variety of starters to either enjoy alone or to share and the mains are split into themes such as hearty pies, classic dishes, gourmet burgers, salads, fish and grills. There is also a nice selection of sides and I was super excited to see cauliflower cheese featuring there as that is a personal favourite. Starters start from £2.59 for the garlic ciabatta bread but most are priced between £3.59 - £4.99 for a single portion. The main meals seem to be around £7.99 and you could choose something like a burger, lasagne or quiche for that price and the prices range up to £17.99 for a T-bone steak. All main courses come with appropriate accompaniments such as chips, salad or garlic bread, so you only have to pay for extra sides if you wish to have more than the standard offering. Puddings range from £3.99 to £4.99 and there are both hot and cold varieties.

We took advantage of the evening value deals menu which is available Monday - Friday after 6pm. This offers 2 courses for £9.99 and 3 courses for £11.99 which was excellent value. Of course the variety you can choose from is more limited but there is certainly enough on it, that it made us smile - 4 starters, 7 mains and 4 puddings.

There is also a daytime value menu too which has mains from the main menu on at the special price of £4.99, £5.99 or £6.99 and you can add a starter and/or pudding for £1.99 each. So you can have 3 courses for as cheap as just under £9.00 in the day (Monday - Saturday 11.30 - 5pm) and if you are dining during the day but want something less heavy there is the light bites menu too.

Clockwise - Miss E colouring, Miss E'd odd main course (her choice) - spaghetti bolognese, mashed potato and garlic bread, chocolate challenge dessert and Miss M with her cheesy nacho and BBQ dip starter

Kids Menu

Probably the menu I was most impressed with was the children's one, it is called Ruthless Romans and is styled around Horrible Histories which instantly made it appealing to my children. They received a colouring/ activity sheet and some crayons each and got straight to work on these, it is always good to have something to distract them whilst they wait for their food to be cooked.

Both my girls choose from this menu as they are 7 but we let our 11 year old son (who is only 3cm shorter than me) chose from the main menu as we felt he is getting a bit big for kids menus now. The price is £3.99 for a main course and you can choose either a starter or pudding for free and add the other if you want to for 99p. So three courses is £4.98, which is fantastic value and kids drinks range from 75p to £1.50 per glass. I do feel these prices are so much better than many restaurants offer and there is really excellent variety on this menu with smaller portions of main menu items such as ribs and steak and chips being available for £4.99.

With the kids main courses as part of the deal they can choose 2 sides and there is a massive choice with both healhy and not so healthy options. Miss M went for salad sticks and garlic bread with her macaroni cheese but Miss E had the stranger combination of spaghetti, mashed potato and garlic bread. It made her very happy though!

Food Quality

In general we were all really impressed with the quality and the taste of the food we were served. There was nothing that we needed to complain about and we would order everything again with the exception of the battered fish as the fish was rather pulpy and the batter not very crisp. I would highly recommend the pate I had for starter as it was a massive portion and super tasty. JJ and dh are very fussy about their burgers and they both said theirs was excellent (as were the skinny chips) and the would be very happy to eat at a Table Table restaurant again.

Top left, Louisiana chicken goujons (these were really tasty), pate starter, JJ with his burger that he was super pleased with, my fish chips and peas

Service

Dan was our waiter and he was very attentive and gave great service; very happy and smiley but not too intrusive. The mains took a little longer than he wanted and he apologised for the delay, although it did not feel overly long to us. We spent about one and a half hours in the restaurant in all and we were perfectly happy with this for a 3 course meal.  We were checked on regularly to make sure we had everything we needed and that the food was OK and Dan also came and bought us soft drink refills as we required too.

Overall

We had a fabulous meal and we would happily visit this restaurant again. The staff, food and environment were all very pleasing.

Disclosure: We received a £50.00 for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Review: Frankie & Bennys New Specials Menu

Frankie and Benny's the New York Italian restaurant chain has become a bit of a favourite of ours in the last couple of years.  Prior to that I never really went there, I am not one for chain restaurants in general as I find the food always disappoints me BUT not so with Frankie and Benny's.  I'm not sure if we are super lucky with our local Stevenage restaurant or if they are all as good as this one.  The staff there are really friendly, very efficient and keep a good restaurant and the food is very delicious.

Dh and I went along to try out the new specials menu last week one lunchtime when they kids were at school. It is funny how things change as you get older and have children. It used to be that all our dates were on an evening and involved being out for hours, nowadays it is often about lunchtime and just an hour or two, but still equally as enjoyable.

The Specials Menu is available all day Sunday through to Friday and presents really excellent value, especially on an evening. You can have 2 courses for £10.95 and even add on a third course for another £2.25.

On the day I had the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich followed by Salt Caramel Cheesecake and dh had Meatball Siciliana Calzone and Banoffee Brownie. We each tried a bit of all the meals and I can honestly say I'd of been happy to eat any of them. When we go back I will have the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich again though - it was such a big portion and the chips are very good, they have a sort of rough quality to them and are super tasty.

I would find it hard to choose between the cheesecake and brownie as they were both excellent, we will probably have to share again. As we ordered I mentioned that I love salt caramel sauce and the waitress bought me an extra pot, which was a nice touch.

We both had a soft drink and these are £2.55 each which is about the norm for this kind of family restaurant. While we were there someone had a birthday and a big bear came out along with a cake and some music was played across the restaurant and the young teenager was thoroughly embarrassed to have such a big fuss made of her. We both commented that our kids would love that!

Take a look at our food -

Thanks for Frankie and Benny's for a really great meal.

Disclosure: We were provided with our meals free of charge for the purposes of this review. I have not been instructed hat to write and I remain honest.

Review: Chiquitos Mexican Restaurant

Its always good to have a night out with your husband and I have to be honest it is not something I do so often anymore. It is all too easy to get in the habit of staying in and sitting in the same room but without really being together.  So it made a very welcome change to get a night out, just dh and I.  No kids and not even any talk of the kids - just us being adults and chatting about what is going on in our lives and the things we hope may happen very soon.

So what prompted us to get out and remember 'us time' is important too?  Well Chiquitos approached me and asked if I'd like a date night and how could I say no to that? So we got dh's Mum to babysit and got the kids primed up to be good for Nanny and off we went nice and early - might as well make the most of our time off!

We arrived at the Hatfield Chiquito restaurant about 7.15pm on a Friday night and it was already heaving, I was quite surprised as I thought we might have beaten the crowd but at that time there was lots of families enjoying a meal together and I noticed there were two kids menus for differing appetites. Note to remember for the future.

Our greeting was good on arrival and we were immediately shown to a table. I have to be honest and say the tables were a little closer together than I would have liked and due to being on a table for two I was put off ordering the fajitas as I wondered how on earth they would fit everything on the table. Despite this we had a really good meal and were very happy with our time out at Chiquito.

We were served by Vasilis and she was very friendly and efficient, checking our food was OK and would we like more drinks. We really liked the free popcorn on arrival, a nice little extra when we sat down. I found the menu a little daunting if I am honest, there was so much there and I fancied it all. The plus side is that you could come to the same restaurant again and again and never get bored. In the end dh and I decided to order different things so we could try a bit of each.

We went for a full three course meal each and had 2 soft drinks each and the bill came to just under £55 so it was not a particularly cheap night out but we did enjoy it very much.  The food was well cooked, tasty and portion sizes were generous.

The sizzling specials on the new menu were really appealing so I went for the chicken skewers and it was superb, I most definitely will want to order that again next time.

Take a look at what we had -

Disclosure: We received a £50 voucher for the purposes of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Review: Beefeater Grill Restaurant, The Stanborough

Beefeater are a name that has been around for years and I have to say I have not visited one of their restaurants for absolutely years, my assumptions have been that they are expensive and the food would not be that good.

I was wrong!  I'll say that again, just in case you are not sure.  I really was wrong.

The Service
On Saturday, late afternoon we were lucky enough to go along and try out The Stanborough Beefeater Grill in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire and we had a really superb time. On arrival the 2 waitresses on the floor were busy but we were acknowledged twice and told they would be with us soon.  The greeting was warm and we were seated in a comfy booth.  The waitress was very friendly and chatted with my twins about the show they had been to see that morning.

The girls enjoying the colouring and activity sheet

Within a few minutes, our waitress Simone came over and introduced herself and took a drinks order, she was very efficient and personable.  The drinks arrived quickly and were as ordered and Simone was able to make some food suggestions as we placed our order.  The feeling was that nothing was too much trouble. We did laugh though, as it had been noted in the reservations diary that our table was booked by the PR agency and thus I assume they realised we were either important to judging them. Because of this we keenly watched the rest of the restaurant and the service that other tables were receiving and I can honestly say that the service was consistent and they were just exceptionally good at the all-round customer experience.

The Food
With regard to the food, again there was nothing to disappoint us. It was all cooked well and the portion sizes were good.  All chips are bottomless, including the kids and thus those with a bigger appetite can fill up. I felt that the vegetarian options were a bit limited but dh (who is the veggie) was quite happy and he had a vegetable risotto which he tells me was really pleasant.

3 good sized skins for a starter portion

For me, I started with the cheese and bacon potato skins, which we all loved and the kids nicked a good proportion of and then I didn't fancy chips so I went for the chicken breast wrapped in bacon with a black and blue sauce, served with new potatoes and vegetables.  I am pleased to report that the veg did taste fresh and the chicken was cooked to perfection. To finish I had a waffle with banana, hot toffee sauce and ice cream and it was large and very good.

The Kids Menu
I was particularly impressed with the kids meal, it is a main course and dessert with a free drink for £5.25 and then you can add on a starter for another £1.  The choice is very good and the portion sizes were more than adequate. JJ opted for the burger, fries and beans, Miss E had the same but with fish fingers and Miss M has a spaghetti bolognaise, garlic bread and corn on the cob.  That was a really hearty meal and was enough for Miss E to have some too!

The kids desserts are great, often I find you have a choice of ice cream or ice cream for the kids but not so here.  Miss E indulged in a large portion of profiteroles with ice cream and the other two had the mini chocolate challenge, where you can create your own dessert with ice cream, brownies, marshmallows and warm chocolate sauce.

What could they do better?
I have thought hard about what I might write as something to be improved for next time and the only thing I have thought of is that we were not offered the special daytime (until 6.30pm) value menu, but this is very minor when I think about just how good the food and service was.  I would also have been happy with the cost had I of paid for the whole meal, all of us having a 3-course meal and drinks came to just over £57 and for an evening out that is acceptable.

What promotions are there?
As mentioned there is a daytime value menu and also an evening value menu, the items on these menus are more limited but when a main course starts from just £4.99 in the day you can't really complain.  The upgrade for a starter and dessert is just £1.99 a piece, so you could end up with a 3-course meal for less than £9.00, sounds good!

Also, what we discovered while at the restaurant is that there are often good promotions going on. We were told about the breakfast deal where an adult can get a full english buffet with drinks for £8.25.  Nothing special there you may think until you realise that every adult can take 2 kids (under 15) with them to eat for free.  Fantastic, so when we have something to celebrate but not too much money we can all go for late breakfast on a weekend (up until 11am) and have a great meal for just £16.50 for the 5 of us is perfect!

The Final Verdict
Excellent, we would give the overall experience a 9/10.


Disclosure:  We received a £50 discount on the cost of our meal for the purposes of this review.  I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.