Mothers Day is the one day of the year that sends me into cold sweats, or at least the build up to it and the need to make sure I get it right. With both H and D at the age I can’t lay any blame onto them for poor presents, lack of cards etc and believe me, I know this first hand when I let time pass by and before I knew it, all the good ideas were too long to complete and despite a personalised card, I really was lucky not to have my bags packed for me by Mrs F.
One quick and sure fire way of ensuring more time is spent helping Mums to relax is to take her out for a Mothering Sunday dinner and if you play your cards right, there might be something in it for Dad as well as Mum too…
Coast
Coast to Coast is brand new to us, living in Staffordshire, unless we venture out to larger cities such as Manchester we have had to make do with the usual pub chains offering to same variations however more recently we were treated to several restaurants when our local shopping centre, Intu Potteries in Stoke on Trent expanded in November last year.
When we arrived at the venue we were instantly greeted by the team and shown to our seats, I can’t begin to explain how attentive the staff were to the fact we had both children with us, 4 and 18 months, with the deputy manager even asking us which chair we would prefer to remove in order to accommodate the highchair for D.
The menu is a mass of choice with appetisers (starters in my more basic language) ranging from breads through to wings, fish and more. Given the children were with us, we opted to skip these (an 18 month shows no sign of patience in case your wondering why) and go straight for the mains…. With a side of their mozzarella and garlic bread just to make sure we tried everything 🙂
In terms of the children, there is a dedicated menu as you’d expect which included an ice cream dessert as part of the dish. H decided to go for his new found favourite, a pepperoni pizza, whilst we plumped for chicken strips for D. In terms of Mrs F, she went for a pulled pork burger from their vast choice of creative burger options and me, well nursing an epic hangover from the previous night, decided that meat was my only option and went for the BBQ rack of ribs with the optional cheap zithromax buy sweet potato fries.
When out with little ones, any parent will tell you that the period of waiting for your meals to be cooked is perhaps the most stressful of the whole period however we were regularly checked on to make sure we had everything we needed and also our waitress, Hannah, also made sure every time she did visit us, she interacted with both children as well as interacting with D from afar on other occasions.
The venue itself is really well designed and decorated with the decor paying homage to the Coast to Coast story and the Lincoln boulevard spanning coast to coast, memorabilia from every key city along with way is displayed around the venue with a stunning map which lights up when the sun goes down giving you something to really admire. There were a great mixture of booths and tables as well as an area which can also double of as a makeshift VIP area for parties or private events, whilst there in fact there was a young girls birthday party with over 20 guests and due to the design of the venue, neither the party or other guests felt like being overpowered by each other.
The meals were absolutely top notch, cook well, fresh and looked great. The children’s meals were also the same, albeit H’s pizza was the same size as you’d expect an adults to be whilst D had three large crispy chicken strips which although we were essentially expecting a variation of Chicken Nuggets, these were made of proper chicken and freshly battered so nothing of the sort.
Having polished off the mains (H did have half a pizza left) we took to the desserts menu which is equally appealing although unfortunately when there, their waffle machine was broken so I was unable to have my first option, inside plumping for pancakes. Mrs F had the cheesecake option (always a given for her) and the kids had their respective “meal included” ice creams.
Finally we finished off with a try of their fantastic thick milkshakes which are made from a mix of ice cream and milk…. a real indulgent option but a really tasty one nonetheless.
Needless to say we were very full and very happy when we left from our first ever visit to Coast to Coast and it won’t be our last, I aim to take just me and Mrs F next time and enjoy an unheard-of date night to see the atmosphere even better at night.
STOP PRESS!
If you are like me and bumbling around wondering where to eat at Mother’s Day this year, Coast to Coast had an offer where Dad’s can’t lose… Book a meal with them and Mum receives a free cocktail … and Dad even gets a free beer for his troubles. Everyone’s a winner!
STOP PRESS!
To find your local Coast to Coast, jump on to their website now and check out their fantastic new menu whilst you’re there too.
Until next time
Jim x
NB: We were invited to have a family meal at Coast to Coast in order for a review of our experience, all opinions remain our own.