The blog's branching out to write about some of the things our family loves.
Namely family days out and camping (involving the van) and eating (involving my tum).
I love a good roast dinner. But I am not a fan of slaving over a hot hob and oven and then a soapy sink for hours when we could be spending precious time together as a family.
Instead, we often take a road trip in the van and pay to enjoy roast dinner delights cooked and cleaned by someone else. (Only if my mum's not cooking. And then we help clean up.)
Now, finding a family friendly restaurant that serves up a roast anywhere near as good as my mum's is the holy grail. (My mum's roasts are, after all, THE best).
We've tried, and are continuing to sample, a few in our quest. So I thought we would share our experiences in a regular 'Sunday Roast Post' review to give you an idea of where is good for families with little ones who want tasty, fairly priced, honest good food in a home from home atmosphere.
The first review goes to the Cleeve Cloud, Cleeve Hill, Gloucestershire.
We held a large family gathering here to celebrate our daughter's christening in their skittle alley come function room recently. Instead of the usual three kids we had nearer 10. A big test!
And here's what we thought:
Gravy Goodness
To me the most crucial part of a roast dinner and top of my review criteria...
Tasty but a little thin.
3/5
Menu options for grown ups:
Three roasts were on offer, each with tasty trimmings; chicken and stuffing, pork and crackling and beef and yorkies. All came with boiled potatoes, crunchy fluffy roasters and shared veg sides.
5/5
Children's choices:
Same as above, only kids sized, sharing the sides of veg. Nice and easy.
4/5.
Veg variety:
All good roasts are made up of more than meat and two veg! Oh, and tender carrots, not crudités or baby mush...
Huge veg side dishes with scrummy creamy leaks, cauliflower cheese, buttery cabbage, peppery swede mash and seasoned carrots. All served piping hot and cooked to perfection. This really was the gold star of the roast for me.
5/5
How good's the pud:
A cheese board and choice of coffee nicely complemented a selection of British pudding favourites for both adults and kids. Three flavours of ice cream too. The warm fudge brownie was a favourite.
3/5
Kid's things:
Ample outdoor space being atop the highest hill in Gloucestershire. Although I don't think the groundsmen appreciated the impromptu kids footie match on the putting green.
You can close yourself off in the function room, and the skittle alley shute and balls provided a great giant marble run game for the kids.
3/5
Changing children:
Being a golf club it has changing rooms with showers (although thankfully we had no need for them this visit!) and lots of space. Didn't spot a change mat, station or nappy bin on my visit though.
3/5
Highchair happiness:
Two available. Could do with updating.
2/5
The price's right:
Feeding a family of five is an expensive business, help us out here...
Straight forward, really reasonable prices at £6.95 per adult roast, £3.95 per child roast and £3.95 per pud. Drinks were reasonably priced too.
5/5
Parking:
A biggie for us, needing ample space for the van, and a short distance to cart changing paraphernalia, buggies, toys and not forgetting children...
It's a golf club. And popular. So even though it has a huge car park it's always packed and trying to find a space can turn into a bit of a game of cat and mouse.
2/5
Warm welcomes:
Staff were super efficient and smiley even though they were super busy. (Not only did they have our large party to serve but the rest of the restaurant was packed too.)
The club house itself is a bit dated, but in my opinion this adds a bit of 'vintage' charm.
4/5
Total score:
39/55
Final Sunday Roast Post Review:
A straight up tasty home cooked roast in pleasant surroundings which offers REAL value for money, which is very rare these days.
We will be visiting and eating again!
No comments:
Post a Comment