Sisters Dine Out

Last week I headed into Winchester (with my 11-week old baby) to try the Summer Garden Afternoon Tea. It was my mums birthday, so her partner and I arranged to surprise her. My mum is gluten intolerant, so I’ll show you what the ‘normal’ afternoon tea is like vs the gluten-free offering. Afternoon Tea at The Ivy, Winchester is served between 3-5pm. As we had baby G with us, we opted to eat at 3pm to ensure we were home in plenty of time for the bath routine (how things have changed!).  The first course of sandwiches and scones was promptly bought to the table alongside our glass of champagne. Our savoury selection included: Truffled chicken brioche roll  Marinated cucumber and dill finger sandwich on basil bread  Smoked salmon on beetroot bread with cream cheese and chives  I love that the cucumber and salmon sandwiches were served on flavoured bread. This made them seem a bit more special than your average afternoon tea and delivered a deeper complexity of flavour. ...

Who else has missed eating in restaurants? As you’re reading this blog, I think it’s safe to assume you are also excited to be able to enjoy a meal inside with your nearest and dearest again.  This week, we were invited to Cafe Binghams to try their menu. For transparency, this meal was complimentary, however, this does not affect our review.  Going for Afternoon Tea is one of my favourite things to do, especially when I’m with friends. In my eyes, nothing suits a long overdue catch up like a tasty selection of cakes and a good cup of tea. For me, this was also my first experience eating in a restaurant with my little boy, who was 7 weeks old at the time.  What’s on the menu? Savoury  Coronation chicken wrap  Maybe the best coronation chicken I’ve had. Messy but delicious. Rosary goats’ cheese, sweet pepper piperade wrap   I know goats cheese can be a bit of a marmite option, but I absolutely love goats cheese. It was nice to have something a little bit dif...

Last weekend we had the most amazing night away at The Grosvenor Hotel in Stockbridge, Hampshire. For the sake of transparency, I won the night away through a competition. The views in this blog are my own and have not been affected or influenced by the hotel staff.  The Grosvenor Hotel is prominently situated in the centre of the Stockbridge high street and has the most beautiful entrance, which can be seen below. At the moment, they have playfully placed two deck chairs and sand just outside the front door. The room we stayed in was 'The Cannon', named after Tom Cannon, a local horse jockey turned trainer who also lived at the Grosvenor until he died in 1917.  The room is decorated in a relaxing pale pink with pops of colour here and there. I can honestly say that the photos do not do this room justice. I feel like it looks really girly in the photos, but it didn't feel that girly in person.  Opposite the bed, a TV hides behind a mirror/frame. I thought this was a ...

Lainston House is situated just outside of Winchester, Hampshire and is part of the Exclusive Collection of luxury hotels.  The main house dates back to the late 17th century and is so beautiful. It was only turned into a hotel in 1981 and I can't help but wonder what it would have been like to live there when it was still a private residence.  We visited Lainston in August 2020 to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary and booked in to The Avenue for dinner. We had tied the knot at a local church back in 2015 and then held our reception at Lainston, so thought it would be the perfect place to celebrate. Due to COVID, we weren't 100% sure if our dinner was going to go ahead but luckily, the hotel opened it's doors just in time for our special day.  Originally, we were due to have the tasting menu, however, the hotel decided that, due to COVID, they would only offer the standard a la carte menu. This was extremely disappointing, however, we are going to return to enjoy t...

Do you remember that feeling when you were a kid and a vending machine full of sweets was oddly exhilarating? You'd walk up to the glass, peer in at all of those tasty treats and then mull over the options before excitingly picking your snack. Well that is exactly what it's like when you go to The Black Bottle in Winchester.  On your first visit, you will need to get a card (which is free) to load with credit to spend on the wine vending machines. You then keep this card to reuse on each visit, so don't worry if you don't spend everything in one go!  There are 32 different wines available giving you the option of a taster (25m) , a small (125ml) or a large (175ml) glass of your chosen wine. Each wine has a tag telling you where it's it from, what grape it is and a little description of the flavours, example below. This is really nice, because even if you aren't a wine buff, you can make a selection based on what you know you like and have the opportunity to try ...

At the beginning of February, we headed into Winchester as we usually do when we have a free weekend at home. Winchester is one of my favourite cities and when the sun is shining it's the perfect place to roam around and grab a spot of lunch. There are a number of cuisines on offer and this particular weekend we were really craving dim sum.  Dim T is an authentic Asian restaurant offering a variety of dishes including dim sum, noodles, ramen and soups. It is also conveniently situated on Jewry Street which in a short stroll from Tower Street Car park (which is where we always park when going into Winchester). If you are familiar with the city, you will know that there are a number of little cut through's that mean you bimble down to Dim T pretty quickly from the car park. I love dim sum because I'm one of those people that really suffers with food envy. When I see other peoples meals, I always want a little bit of what they have and I find that dim sum means I can have a li...

At the beginning of March my mum and I visited Hotel du Vin, Winchester for a spot of dinner before heading to the Everyman cinema. We started the evening with a glass or two of wine in the bar before moving through to the restaurant around 6.30pm as we were planning on eating from the prix fixe menu (which is available until 7pm on Friday and Saturday nights). You have the option to do 2 courses for £19.95 or 3 courses for £24.95, which I think is a really good price, especially on a Friday or Saturday night. Starters When my starter first arrived, the pigeon was a little bit blue for me. It did feel warm, but I sent it back and asked them to cook it a little bit more, which they did and it was then cooked perfectly for me. The lentil du puy was so full of flavour, it was a really warming way to start the meal.  The trout was also delicious, I really liked the way it was presented and the flavours were very summery and I think this would be a beautiful dish to sit in ...