Now that Easter weekend is over and we’ve all probably stuffed our faces with chocolate, roast dinners, or in our case, BBQ’d lamb; you get to that stage where the kids are still off school or nursery and the week is stretching ahead with lots of possibilities. I don’t know about you, but I always try to fill my time off work with different family experiences and days out with the kids so that we can really enjoy each other’s company and it usually includes a nice lunch or dinner somewhere.
Eating out as a family can be a pricey affair, but going to somewhere like Brewer’s Fayre in Carrickfergus is quite kind to the purse strings, as it offers fantastic value for money. Yes, we do go into Belfast city centre with the kids, but sometimes it is nice to go somewhere different but relatively nearby – and Carrick is a perfect choice for us. Plus, its free parking!
This restaurant is a favourite of ours because it is so child-friendly. It’s spacious and has fantastic views of the historic Carrickfergus Castle and the harbour. I was invited along recently to sample their taster menu – a sneaky peak of thier new Spring Menu that is now available in the restaurant. We were made to feel very welcome by the friendly staff, as we always are when we are there – and were invited to partake of a complimentary glass of wine to begin our meal – well, why not? (Please God, I hope my Slimming World leader isn’t reading this! It was the start of a slippery slope!)
Then the food arrived – they gave us lots of ‘mini’ versions of the starters, mains and desserts – it was a great way to see what each dish was like and all of them were very very tasty. First, we had chicken wings with peri peri sauce – very spicy (which is just to my taste) and the batter was crispy and the chicken was really tender. We also had the red pepper and feta quiche which was gorgeous – as well as crispy potato skins with bacon and chili – right up my street.
Onto the mains – a cheese and mushroom burger was offered, as well as chilli beef with nacho crisps and fluffy, white rice – this was probably my favourite dish of them all – really smoky flavour and just the right amount of heat. We also had the chicken schnitzel which was incredibly tender and had a lovely breadcrumbed coating.
Finally – the dessert. I’m not normally a dessert person (stop laughing.) Seriously – I’m a starter, main and about 16 side orders type of gal. But these desserts (mini though they were) were tasty as hell. There was banoffee pie and chocolate cake. A. Maze. Ing. The sort of dessert you really kind of dream about. Soooooo chocolately – it was worth it.
All in all the food was fantastic and so many choices on offer for all tastes and ages. I can’t wait to bring the kids back again…and to order a full plate of the chilli beef – it’s okay on Slimming World….right?