Brewer's Fayre Half-Term Family Fun

This half term holiday, Brewers Fayre pub restaurants will be offering loads of family activities to keep the whole family entertained from themed arts and craft activities to mini discos - there's lots going on around the country.

We checked out our local Brewers Fayre resturant - The Weather Vane in Bracknell - to get a taste of what is to come over half term. At the table, Lara and Holly really enjoyed solving puzzles and colouring in their Beano-themed activity books. At some of the Play at Brewers Faure sites around the country, you'll find their recently refurbished Beano themed soft play areas where your children can work up an appetite before their meal while you chill out with a drink!

 

For extra entertainment during Half Term, Brewers Fayre will be featuring fun discos on both Friday 19th and Saturday 20th February at selected Brewers Fayres (check online to see if your local restaurant is taking part). The Toddlers disco will run from 9.30am – 3pm while the Kids disco will run from 3.30- 7.30pm at a cost of £3 per child.

When it comes to food, its easy to see why Brewers Fayre are a UK family favourite. We were all spoiled for choice from the kids Beano menu, the regular adult menu packed full of pub classics and of course the daily Chef's Counter which features a different themed food every day of the week including a Pizza Parlour, Burgers & Hot Dogs, Mexican favourites, Curry Night or a special Sunday Roast. The Brewer's Fayre daytime value offer runs from 12 - 6pm Monday to Friday and means guests can enjoy two starters for £2.50, two mains from just £10.99 and two desserts for £2.50, so eating out during the holidays is certainly affordable.

Lara and Holly both tucked into the roast dinner at the Chef's table and even had room for a dessert afterwards - Lara chose dipping doughnuts with chocolate sauce and popping candy, and Holly devoured a Cadbury chocolate ice cream Sunday. With full tummies, Lara and Holly were delighted to leave with a Beano balloon.

Look out for half term activities at your local Brewers Fayre restaurant.  I was really pleasantly surprised by our recent trip to Brewers Fayre in Bracknell - particularly with the staff who were friendly and attentive.

New Zizzi Bambini Menu Review #ZizziBambini

Last week we were away on holiday. On our return, we celebrated the end of a wonderful holiday with a brilliant family meal out at our local Zizzi italian restaurant to try out their new children's menu - The Zizzi Bambini menu.

The new bambini menu is quite phenomenal value for only £6.75 for three courses.  The girls started off with a light starter of dough sticks, cucumber and carrot sticks which helped keep them occupied while we devoured our own sharing platter of bread and olives.

The Bambini menu is all about creativity.  From the very moment you walk in, your children are encouraged to get arty, not only with their food, but with their placemat and hat.  The girls were supplied with a pot of Crayola Twistables with which to start drawing on their menus (a picture of the Mona Lisa on one side, and puzzles and a colouring competition on the other).  Alongside these fun, chunky crayons there was a sheet of stickers each.  Lara used her crayons and stickers to create a picture of her ideal Zizzi restaurant in a sunny field and, of course, we entered her drawing into the monthly colouring competition so she is in with a chance of winning a free family meal and a Crayola goody bag.

When it comes to the food, your kids can get creative too.  The menu offers a "design your own" pizza option where your children are given a few pots of different fresh toppings that they can use to decorate their otherwise plain pizza.  The girls were given slices of ham, cherry tomatoes and pitted black olives and had great fun placing them on their pizza - Lara created this happy holiday face.

I think we were all a little surprised that the toppings were raw - I think we were expecting the girls to have a chance to put the toppings on their pizzas before they were placed in the oven but in fact the pizzas arrived ready cooked.  Holly didn't seem to mind but I think Lara was as surprised as we were.

The DIY element of the meal didn't stop with the pizzas though.  Holly's dessert was a set of mini vanilla ice cream cones which she could decorate using sprinkles of chocolate popping candy (or "candy pop" as her big sister calls it).  This was quite phenomenally messy.

To finish off the meal the girls were both offered a little choccaccino which is basically hot chocolate.  We loved that it was presented in a glass insulated mug, just like the grown-ups drinks and Lara loved it so much that she has seconds.

The entire bambini menu at Zizzi was perfectly suited to my two girls.  Real food.  Mini versions of the grown-up's dishes but with that added level of excitement to keep them interested for the entire meal.  We were in the restaurant for over 1.5 hours which is unheard of for us because normally the girls lose interest and start misbehaving but this night was different because they had great food and lots of puzzles and colouring to keep them occupied.

Of course, Zizzi isn't all about the kids and both Mr. B. and myself enjoyed out meals too - I had great fun with my dangling chicken Spiedini skewer which was served with yummy Tuscan potatoes and Mr. B enjoyed his ENORMOUS rustica pizza.  It was a brilliant evening, really relaxing and enjoyable and we will definitely be going back to Zizzi soon.

 

Inspire your kids creativity this summer by trying out the new Bambini menu. You can find your local restaurant here. Share your kid’s creations using #ZizziBambini on all your favourite social channels.

Disclosure: Out meal was supplied by Zizzi for the purposes of the review.  It was blimming awesome though!

The Handmade Burger Company - New Family Friendly Menu

Last night, Handmade Burger Co. invited the full Mellow family down to their newer restaurants on the riverside at The Oracle in Reading to see how family friendly their new menu is.

Mr. B. and I love a good burger - I guess we consider ourselves to be burger snobs! - and Handmade Burger, having only been at the Oracle a short while, had already come recommended to us.  On arrival we were all taken in by the atmosphere; it had a sense of gastropub about it; all wooden furniture and blackboards.

The girls were happy to be offered colouring and balloons (I REALLY appreciated being asked by the staff before entertainment like this was offered - more places should think about asking before plonking crayons in front of a toddler!).

The menu was just up our street.  I can't think of a single thing on the menu that we wouldn't have tried; the same went for the junior burger menu.  New on the menu this season are two different sets of sliders - three different mini burgers served in soft, sweet brioche buns.  I went for the beef sliders and thought they were all fab; my favourite was the Beef Cheese Classic which was topped with a decadent sweet relish that left me wanting more.

The girls each chose a junior burger as part of a children's meal which included a burger, a side dish and a soft drink for less than £6.  Both of my girls were happy that the range of side dishes on offer included salad vegetables and corn on the cob (they did steal some of our chips too!).  Oh, and the chips.... the chips.  Proper chip-shop style chips served in huge bowls you just want to dive into.

Mr. B. tried out one of the brand new burgers on the menu - the peppered beef burger.  And very peppery it was too.  The Handmade Burger company make all of their burgers, rolls and sides fresh so they know exactly what goes into each dish.  The burgers aren't just limited to beef - with a choice of lamb or chicken too I was really impressed by the range of different tastes they catered for and the vegetarian options didn't feel like an afterthought, in fact, a chickpea and quinoa burger sounded very tempting!

I would agree with the friend who first recommended the Handmade Burger Co. to me that the burgers are the best I've tasted outside the US.  I think there may be a little work needed on the bread product - all of our burgers had soggy bottoms but they didn't hang around long enough for this to really be an issue as we wolfed them down!

The staff at Handmade in Reading were all really friendly without being patronising; it is nice to be asked more than once during your meal if everything is OK, it shows that it isn't just a tick in a box on a documented process.  I also appreciated the honesty of the staff at the counter who recommended money saving options to me when I placed my order.

We finished our meal off with a couple of ice cream sundaes.  The dessert menu was small and unfussy and do you know what?  they were blimming awesome!  We loved the simplicity of the menu and the honesty and passion behind the reason for the food that they serve - great ingredients don't need a lot of tarting up, do they?

The Handmade Burger Co. had a feeling very much like Nandos (not sure if they will love me or hat me for this).  They concentrate on one thing - burgers - and do it really well.  The style of ordering at the counter and the general approach to service felt similar, as did the small dessert menu.  Well, Nandos seems to have pretty much taken over the world, so why can't this homegrown burger chain do the same too?

We all enjoyed our meal at Handmade and will definitely be going back during weekend shopping trips to Reading.

 

Colouring Pencils In Restaurants – A Rant

Dear restaurant owner, please ask before offering my child colouring pencils or crayons at the dining table. It isn't allowed at home, so why would it be allowed in your restaurant?

Lara has been dining out with us at restaurants since she was 3 weeks old! At 19 months she is now old enough to sit up at the table with us and enjoy a meal (quite what foods she gets to enjoy depends on the 'children's menu' available but I shall save THAT rant for another day). Over the last few of months, every time I have taken Lara to a restaurant, she has been presented with some paper and coloured pencils... this is doing my head in.

Lara enjoying a meal out when she was 8 months old!

Like all toddlers, Lara can be a bit of a handful when she is hungry, and if she gets bored she sometimes needs some entertaining. I understand the thinking behind the presentation of coloured pencils to children, I really do, but I just wish that restaurateurs would ask me before supplying 'entertainment' for my own children. I want Lara to grow up to know how to behave at the dinner table and to join in with the pre-dinner chit cat with the grown ups. Dining out is as much about the social occasion as it is about the food. I don't want Lara to be the troublesome kid causing havoc, or the child who ignores everything going on around them. I don't want her to be absorbed in colouring pencils, or a personal console, or even a cuddly toy... I want Lara to join in with us.

That isn't to say that I would always refuse the offer of colouring pencils in a restaurant. No, sometimes I need all the help I can get to keep her calm until the food arrives. But, once the crayons have arrived, there is no going back and even food can sometimes be ignored in favour of frantic scribbling. For this reason, Mr or Mrs waitress, kindly ask me before plonking the colouring pencils down in front of my child. Thank you.