Sunday Best - The Grill, Celtic Manor

I've visited Celtic Manor a number of times, but hadn't yet experienced their Sunday Lunch. A few weeks ago, a few friends were down in the area for a stag do with Mr P, so accompanied with the ladies we had a few rounds of (crazy, obviously) golf and then headed over to The Grill for lunch.

This was the first time we've experienced The Grill, as we've usually leant towards the Rafters restaurant on previous visits. The Grill is the clubhouse restaurant, which overlooks the Roman Road golfcourse. That doesn't mean a lot to us non-golfy people, but it is a pretty view nevertheless, even on the grey and drizzly day that we had.

A couple of lovely crusty mini loaves were brought to the table while we reviewed the menu, with the usual hunk of creamy butter and a heap of salt for the unhealthy ones like me to pile on top to our hearts content...

Although named 'The Grill', the menu is pretty extensive, including burgers, salads and pastas amongst the meaty grill offerings. A couple of the party had these options, and they looked quite good, but we're here for one thing only guys. Winner winner, chicken dinner.

A juicy chicken breast with a charred crunchy skin was placed upon a pile of wonderfully fruity red cabbage. I absolutely love red cabbage on a roast but unless it's Christmas it rarely makes an outing, so I was happy to see this. Coupled with a handful of roast veggies and a purée, made for quite a sweet dinner.

The two roasties were pretty much perfect in my eyes, with the ideal crunch to soft ratio (I know, I'm becoming a real potato nerd). Chicken gravy is never going to be the star of the show, but even so I could have done with a little more than the spillage that we got. No jug means a docking of the points I'm afraid.

However, at £16.50, it made my eyes water just a little. I'm well aware that this is the Celtic Manor etc, and I didn't go expecting 'Toby Carvery' prices or sizes. There was no extra gravy or vegetables, and as lovely as the chicken was, I did expect a little bit more. I can't help compare the fact that this one dish cost more than the entire 3 courses at The Ruperra, and the quality there was just as good, or even better.

A few of us rounded off lunch with dessert, and there was one offering that caught my eye, the cola and cherry sundae. We ordered one, with a couple of spoons.

Now this, was amazing. Drool worthy. The entire thing was like a cherry cola float, and I loved the retro sundae glass to go with it. Cherry ripple ice cream, with cola gel and cherry compote swirled through, topped with some kind of amazing fizzy cola whipped cream. No prizes for guessing whose spoon did the biggest damage.

Hiding at the bottom of the glass was a glorious little chocolate truffle which burst full of cherry goodness when bitten into. This was a total dream of a dessert, and I'd happily pay the £7.50 for this again. It was huge, and easily enough for two people to share.

Dessert just about saved the day for us at The Grill. Lunch was lovely but not spectacular, and the service could have been improved. As most of us were on driving duty, our drinks order was not complicated, but what we received was incorrect and it took a number of tries to get some water, and then the bill, to the table.

Then there's the prices. With barely a main meal on the menu for less than £15, it isn't very purse friendly. Add that to £3.60 for a pint of postmix Pepsi and £4.70 for a Fosters, it can easily add up for a family. Oh, and don't forget the 10% service charge added automatically to your bill (a huge bugbear of mine). Ouch.

As a special evening meal, I think the prices could possibly be justified, but personally, there are much better Sunday lunch deals out there than at The Grill. Even some of the other Manor restaurants offer a set menu Sunday lunch at much better value, so it's worth looking around first if you're after somewhere special.

Sunday Best - The Ruperra Arms, Newport

Next up in the Sunday lunch series is The Ruperra Arms, situated in Bassaleg, Newport. I've been looking forward to trying lunch here for a long while, after many recommendations from friends and family alike. We saw on their twitter that they had a last minute table free for Sunday lunch, and at a loose end, we nabbed it.

The Ruperra is a seriously cute looking little pub, cwtchy corners and log fires for winter, and a twinkling fairy light garden for the summer. We grabbed our drinks (Tiny Rebel on tap = points on the board already) and settled in with the menu.

Sunday lunch is offered at £8.95, £12.95 and £15.95 for one, two and three courses, and in the interests of a good blog (how long can I use that excuse?) we went for all three.

First up was a smoked bacon Caesar salad for me, and a smoked salmon and crayfish parfait for Mr P.  There's not a lot you can say about salad, but it was a perfectly pleasant starter. Creamy cheddar cheese went well with the salty chunks of bacon, and the crunchy croutons pulled it all together.

The salmon parfait looked very pretty, and came with plenty of the bloody Mary sauce which pleased Mr P who's partial to the spicy cocktail.

I usually go for the chicken dinner, but the 7 hour roasted beef brisket sold me, and I'm so glad it did. I don't know what they did to that beef, but it was incredible. Thick slices were piled high on the plate, and were as soft as butter. Definitely worth every minute of slow roasting time, and clearly good quality beef as it wasn't sinewy in the slightest.

Mr P went for the chicken, and his reports from across the table were that it was a very good roasted breast of chicken, and most importantly for a roast chicken, still moist and juicy.

As you can see, the yorkies were huge and pillowy, and it came with both new and roast potatoes, and there's a stuffing ball hiding underneath there too. I'm not too keen on the bit of green strung across the top though, a little bit unnecessary?

Along came an extra jug of heavenly 'Nanna' gravy, thick and flavoursome and made with those glorious beef juices. It was lush, the entire jug disappeared between us both, and Mr P declared it "the best gravy I've ever had in my life" - that's a serious statement from a man who's seen a lot of roasts! There was a good selection of crunchy and vibrant veggies. I love a green bean so was happy to see those make an appearance.

My only disappointment was the roast potatoes, which looked perfect on the plate, but they just weren't crunchy at all on the outside. They were a good size and bronzed nicely, but just lacking the crunchy edges that I love so much.

I was completely stuffed by now, especially after mopping up all the rich gravy, but I was too intrigued by the dessert menu, or more specifically "Steve's OMG brownie"...

A chocolatey hunk of naughtiness with a scoop of creamy vanilla bean ice cream and the most picture perfect of strawberries. This was a real slab of thick, rich chocolate. Just the thing for chocolate lovers.

Mr P went for the lighter side of dessert, with a lemon posset and shortbread biscuits. I'm not one for those type of desserts, but he absolutely raved about this. Probably the better option to round off a filling lunch and cleanse your palette, but this girl needed the chocolate.

For £15.95, I honestly walked out of The Ruperra feeling like I'd robbed them. The standard of each course was outstanding, and just unbeatable for that price. I can't wait to go back and try out the normal menu, and I'd go back for Sunday lunch in a heartbeat.

Make sure you book up ahead (details here) as this place gets very busy and booked up quickly. There were some walk ins turned away while we were eating. Oh, and have the beef. Trust me.

Sunday Best - The Halfway House, Blackwood

Welcome to my new series - Sara's Sunday Best. I've recently had a lot of my friends and family asking about the best place for a good ol' Sunday roast and it set my blogger bells ringing. I decided to throw myself on the line for you readers, and set out to find the yummiest roast around.

My lovely arty husband helped me design the scoreboard below, and we chatted about the most important bits of a roast to be scored, and the ultimate score out of five. Out of five 'Nans' that is. I don't know if it's a Welsh thing, but the highest accolade you can ever get for a roast dinner is "That tastes just like my Nan's dinner" so the bar is set very high my friends.

Up first is The Halfway House, Blackwood (ish). Local for me, and only a few moments away from the Bryn Meadows Hotel & Golf Club. Thinking of where to go and get fed one weekend, we remembered the most amazing sandwich we'd had here a few years ago, and decided to go back and check out the full dinner.

We'd booked for 12.30pm, and when we got there it seemed almost deserted, and odd that although there were only the two of us, we were sat on a small 'in the way' table. However, by the time we sat and ordered, it soon filled up.

I was tempted by the pork belly, but in the end we both plumped for the roast lamb. Slightly odd to see such varying prices between the meats, but all in all reasonably priced for what came next. Cauli cheese was an extra at £2.50, which is a must for me when it's on the menu. Child prices are just out of shot, but they were £3 less than the adult price across the board.

Our food came out of the kitchen very quickly, and just kept on coming. Roasties, a crunchy stuffing ball, a yorkshire, carrot & swede mash and the roast lamb were plated up and given a lick of gravy to keep moist and warm.

Then out came a bowl of crisp cabbage, a mixed bowl of carrots and peas, an extra full jug of herby gravy and the cauliflower cheese. Mind your toes...

The lamb was faultless, plentiful and flavoursome. The carrots (both mash and boiled) were sweet, but I could take or leave the average peas. I'm not the biggest fan unless they're of the mushy or marrowfat kind. Cabbage was well seasoned and still had a bite to it.

The most important part...the roasties were pretty darn good. Not quite as amazing as our previous visit, but that sandwich held high expectations. Crispy on the outside, piping hot and smooth inside. The stuffing ball was different to any I'd had before, deep fried texture with a lot of spicing. A bit of a surprise, but a nice one.

 

The cauliflower cheese sauce was really flavoursome, and so pretty flecked with herbs. My only criticism was that it could have done with just a minute more under the grill for me.

Service was lovely and helpful, with offers of more of whatever we needed, but not intrusive. I do hate that I'm always asked "How's your meal" when I've inevitably got more than what's considered polite shoved in my mouth.

After all that food, we were full as eggs, but I started out the afternoon with ice cream on the brain and ice cream I was going to get. There were some interesting looking desserts on the menu, but we opted to share a mint chocolate sundae.

Pretty standard pub sundae affair, more than enough for the both of us at the £5 price tag. I didn't (probably stupidly on my behalf) realise that it came with chocolate ice cream too, which I hate, so I skirted around it and snarfed all the minty bits. 

Totally stuffed, the damage was £30.50 for the two of us, without drinks. I can't comment on the beer selection as we were both on driver duties, so cokes all round.

For the first time in the series... let's get the Nan Score!

(P.s. If you like the look of Mr P's handiwork, take a look here at what he gets up to when I'm blogging)