Review – The Old Grey Mare, Cottingham Road, Hull

There was a time when the Old Grey Mare was a place to avoid. The food wasn’t great and the service was pretty poor. However, all that changed a few years ago and we have eaten here on a fairly regular basis, preferring to come here now compared to the sister pub, The Fair Maid, in Cottingham.

So, how did this visit stack up.

I phoned up in advance, booking a table for us for a busy Saturday evening. The pub shows live sport and you can never tell if you’re able to get a table without a reservation, so it’s always better to book in advance.

Arriving at the pub, you are greeted by the smokers, hanging around the doorway for a crafty fag. It’s not ideal because the smoke does drift back into the pub and you can smell it near the door. However, once you get sat down, you don’t notice it.

There is always a game we play at The Old Grey Mare called “Find Your Table”. Joking aside, this is the only real gripe I have. The reservations are on pieces of paper which are moved left in the menu holder, and almost impossible to see without walking up to random tables to see which one has your name on it. Surely in this day and age we could embrace technology?

Anyway, enough about gripes. We found the table and sat down. The table hadn’t been cleared and cleaned from the last customer, which was a little disappointing, and I have to say, not the norm. I asked one of the staff if they could give the table a wipe down, and he was quickly on it, returning with spray and a cloth before heading off to fill up the cutlery pot as well.

I ordered at the bar, and returned to the table with our drinks. The pub has a good selection of wines and spirits and quite a few lagers. It’s a little bit lacking in terms of real ale, with a couple of standard brews on offer.

Although the pub was fairly busy, we weren’t waiting too long for the food and were soon tucking into our order. The grills are served on a hot skillet which does keep the meat hot. It does have the unfortunate effect of continuing to cook the meat as well, but the staff at the Old Grey Mare seem to have mastered the art of transferring the meat onto the skillet before it’s quite ready to go.

We were left to enjoy our food, but the waiter did come back for a meal check half-way through. Having worked in the restaurant trade, it’s always nice to experience this. Sadly, it doesn’t seem to happen so much anymore.

We passed on desserts this time, although when we have had them here, they have always hit the spot.

The menu is typical pub food, and price-wise it’s very reasonable. The prices are not the cheapest in the area, but the food is of a good standard and I’m happy to pay a little more.

Overall, it was another good meal at the Old Grey Mare. Long may it continue.

Service (out of 10) – 7 – The table wasn’t ready when we got there. It was quickly rectified but should we really have to be asking?

Offer (out of 10) – 9 – Maybe it could offer one or two more pub staples, but, it’s a pub, serving pub food!

Value (out of 10) – 9 – Prices went up slightly with the menu change, and there are cheaper options, but this is good value for money.

Review – McDonald’s, Cottingham Road, Hull

McDonald’s is a sort of go to easy option in our house. When we are moving kids around between A and B with not much time, it has always been a quick win.

On this occasion, this was exactly the case. Or so I thought.

I pulled into the drive thru lane and expected to be ordering fairly quickly. After about 2 minutes, it was apparent that this wasn’t going to be the case.

Finally, I got to order and pulled round to the payment counter. It was apparent, even at distance, that the young lady working on the paynent counter didn’t know what she was doing.

However, no one came to help her or go find out why customers were moving slowly through the drive thru lane, or why the volume of traffic was building up.

After a few more minutes, I was able to pay and edged forward to collect the food. The staff serving the food didn’t have a clue either and were totally confused as to what was being served to who.

Finally getting the food I had paid for, we set off. As we drove away, I was told by my child in the back that “this is cold!” I pulled over to check and have to say that it was not only cold but it was freezing. The food had obviously been stood for a good amount of time to cool down. In my opinion, it shouldn’t have been served.

We didn’t have time to go back and put this right, but to be honest, even if we had, I’m not sure we would have got a satisfactory response.

The food was cold and the service was poor. I won’t be back.

Service (out of 10) 3. Poor. No one seemed to know what they were doing.

Offer (out of 10). 2. Cold food.

Review – The Seafront Chippy, Marine Drive, Hornsea

An impromptu family trip to the beach on a sunny September afternoon saw us looking for somewhere to eat.

Having walked along the beach, heading towards Bridlington, we were at the wrong end of the town for our usual haunt, and when hunger called, The Seafront Chippy was the answer.

There was a small queue in front of us, which is never a bad thing. We were served quickly though. Since we were having a large fish, it had to be cooked to order (I always like to see this) and we sat on the stools at the front of the chippy waiting for our food.

We didn’t have to wait too long. Like a lot of chippies now, you buy a little sachet of sauce to go with your food, so armed with ketchup, as well as curry sauce and mushy peas, we tucked into our food.

The batter on the fish was really light and tasty. I like fish and chips, but often find I’m disappointed by the quality of the batter. Not on this occasion! The fish was fresh and the chips were good too.

There is a small area at the front of the chippy that you can sit in as well as a few tables outside.

Best of all (if you’re 8 or 80), there is an ice-cream stand that is attached to the chippy, so we were able to get ice creams / waffles after we’d finished our fish and chips. No complaints there either!

All in all, a great alternative to our normal haunt.

Service (out of 10) – 10. Served quickly, no messing with the fish. No complaints

Offer (out of 10) – 10. It’s a ronseal here. It does what it says on the tin. 

Review – Gino’s, Hallgate, Cottingham

Gino’s is a local pizza takeaway which has been popular with locals and students alike for a long time.

A busy Saturday saw the family deciding that pizza was the food of choice. Deciding on a couple of 12-inch pizzas and a garlic bread, I phoned the order through. The phone was answered quickly and politely, and I was told that the order would be ready in about 10-15 minutes.

Heading straight up there to collect, I found that the pizzas were ready inside the 10 minute mark and were sat, boxed up, on the top of the pizza oven.

I paid, picked up the order and headed home. Despite having been ready for a few minutes, the food wasn’t cold, and we were soon tucking into some really nice pizzas.

The pizzas tasted good, with plenty of topping. The bases were crisp and the sauce didn’t taste artificial. The garlic bread also tasted nice, with not a hint of garlic powder.

Gino’s justified it’s place as the got-to pizza takeaway shop locally.

Service (out of 10) – 10. Does what it says on the tine

Offer (out of 10) – 10. Pizza takeaway selling good pizzas.

Review – Nenno, Islington, London

An unscheduled catch-up with a an old friend led us here.

We arrived about 9.45pm and although the restaurant was very empty, the food smelt great.

We were greeted and seated promptly and given a few minutes to pick over the menu. There was a good choice of pizzas and pasta dishes along with some more substantial main courses, sides and starters.

We were left waiting a couple of minutes to order, nothing too long, but just long enough to question whether they had forgotten us in a mostly empty restaurant.

Once we had ordered, the drinks came out really quickly and the food wasn’t too far behind.

The food looked good. Plenty of toppings on the pizza and plenty of meat in a good looking carbonara sauce.

We tucked in, and the food tasted as good as it looked. It was really well made and very tasty.

My friend had to ask for parmesan cheese, which was a little disappointing though.

At the end of our meal, the plates were cleared promptly and we were left to finish our conversation before asking to settle the bill and leaving. We were asked as we left if we had enjoyed our food but until that point, we’d had no contact with the staff since we were served.

If I was in the area, I’d eat here again, but I wouldn’t rush back.

Service (out of 10) 6. Could do better. We had to initiate almost everything.

Offer (out of 10) 9. Great choice of food. Just needed a calzone and a dessert menu to top it off.

Review – Bert’s Pizzeria, Queen Street, Hull

A celebratory meal with the family saw us book in at Bert’s. They have two restaurants, one in Hull and one at Brandesburton.

The greeting was friendly when we arrived. We were shown to our table and left to look over the menu. Bert’s is an Italian restaurant, serving starters and pizzas. It’s also a gelateria. There is a choice of 16 pizzas along with some specials.

The restaurant wasn’t overly full, with enough staff to more than manage. Unfortunately, the staff were more concerned with looking at a mobile phone rather than serving the customers, and we were left waiting quite a long time before anyone came back to our table to get the order. We also asked for some water for the table, but this was forgotten, sadly.

Once our order was taken, we weren’t waiting that long for either the drinks or the food. The food was really tasty. I went for a calzone, which had more than enough filling and wasn’t doughy. The others went for margheritas and enjoyed them just as much.

As you’d expect in a gelateria, the kids eyes moved very quickly to dessert. There are a good dozen plus flavours of gelato to pick from, with something that will suit everyone. The server at the counter was quick to serve and we had two very happy children eating gelato.

I asked for the bill and again, had to wait for the bill to come over. Rather than wait for someone to come back to see how I wanted to pay, I took the bill to the counter and settled.

Overall, this was a mixed experience. A lot of the service was fairly poor, with longer waits than we should have had when the restaurant wasn’t particularly busy. However, the food was really nice.

I would go back, but I’d be hoping to see an improvement in service.

Service (out of 10) – 5. Slow too many times, and they forgot the water for the table

Offer (out of 10) – 10. Sets itself up as a pizza and gelato restaurant and delivers.

Value for money (out of 10) – 10. Prices are really good compared to other local restaurants.

Review – Pizza Express, Princes Quay, Hull

Pizza Express. Synonymous with jazz and pizzas. The Pizza Express in Hull is tucked away on a sub-mezzanine level (if that’s even a word) of Princes Quay Shopping Centre in Hull.

You can enter from the outside via a walkway from Princes Dock Street, or you can enter from the shopping centre itself. The meet and greet happens at the foot of the stairs from the shopping centre.

The decor is typical of a lot of Pizza Express stores. There are big plate glass windows looking out onto the Princes Dock, which can be a great view in nice weather, or thoroughly depressing in bad weather.

The size of the plate glass windows means that the restaurant can be quite chilly, something which is exacerbated by the fact that they insist on running the air con in the restaurant, even when it isn’t needed.

On this occasion, we had booked ahead, and were greeted promptly and shown to our seats. We weren’t sat near to the windows this time, which made the experience a little less chilly.

We were given our menus and left to decide what we wanted. To be honest, it often doesn’t take too long. There is a fair choice of pizza toppings served on a couple of different bases. There are some other dishes as well as well as a kid’s menu.

The waitress returned quite quickly and we ordered food and drinks. There was a little wait for food, but nothing excessive.

Since we’d been recently, we’d completed a feedback survey and were able to get out free doughballs to start. I mean, who doesn’t like free doughballs?!

As always, we had no complaints about the food. It was just what we expected. The bases were crisp on the pizzas and there were plenty of toppings.

The waiter came back and did a meal check about halfway through the meal and we had no complaints.

At the end of the meal, we asked for the check. There was a little confusion about who was now waiting on the table and who needed to produce the bill on the system, but it was soon sorted.

Overall, it was another nice meal at this Pizza Express. We will be back.

Service (out of 10) – 9. A couple of kinks to iron out but generally very good.

Offer (out of 10) – 9. Great if you want pizza.

Value (out of 10) – 8. There are a couple of cheaper places nearby.

Review – Cottingham Tandoori, Hallgate, Cottingham

Sometimes you can’t beat staying in with a takeaway on a Saturday night. The debate in our house is always between Chinese, Indian or pizza.

On this occasion, the Indian won and we ordered from Cottingham Tandoori.

Cottingham Tandoori has been a go to for Indian food for us for a while. It’s very rare that we get something that disappoints.

Occasionally we order something that is too hot or not hot enough.

On this occasion, we ordered a Chicken Thali with an extra naan bread and some poppadoms.

I was told the order would be ready in 15 minutes and it was ready right on time.

The food didn’t disappoint, as normal. The chicken curry and chicken bhuna were well flavoured and not too hot for the various tastes in the house. There was plenty of food to go round, and not much left at the end. The thali comes with rice, chicken kebab and mixed vegetable bhajee, and at a price which is good value.

We were all left feeling full and I know for sure that we’ll be ordering from here again.

We’re always greeted with a friendly smile and never kept waiting for our food. In fact, writing this, I’m already looking forward to my next curry from here.

Service (out of 10) – 10. Friendly and welcoming.

Offer (out of 10) – 10. The menu never disappoints.

Value for money (out of 10) – 10. Good value for money.

Review – McDonald’s, inside Plaza Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada

We arrived at this McDonald’s after an evening on Fremont Street. It wasn’t our first choice, but was easily accessible after the crowded streets of Fremont Street Rocks.

The offer is the same as any other McDonald’s you’ll go into. At the time we were there, McDonald’s was running the Taste of the World promotion, which offered various things with a global twist.

Being boring and hungry, we stuck with what we knew, i.e. cheeseburgers, Big Macs etc.. Standing in the queue, service seemed a little slow. There was an outstanding order which the customer was getting irate about. The duty manager serving was getting worked up with the team in the back making the food and they, in return, were getting worked up with him. Not a great start!

Anyway, after a 3 or 4 minute wait, it was our turn. We ordered and then waited for our food. I got the impression that even though this McDonald’s is at the end of Fremont Street, they don’t expect to be busy on an evening, and so don’t have any food ready to go, hence the wait. If that’s the case, it would have been a good idea to have some kind of sign up advertising this.

After a longer than normal McDonald’s wait, our food was ready. It was, like a lot of McDonald’s food, really average.

The seating area really needs some TLC. It looks like it is shared with other outlets, but it looked tired and dirty. Empty food wrappers on the tables tells me that it’s not cleaned up very often. Maybe the staff are too busy discussing pressing issues in the kitchen?

I doubt I’ll be eating here again.

Service (out of 10) – 5. Slow, lack of attention to cleaning and I really don’t want to hear the arguments in the kitchen

Offer (out of 10) – 7. It’s a McDonalds. Burgers, fries and drinks. 

Southwest Road trip – Day 2, Las Vegas, Nevada

After a long day travelling into Vegas, we all slept soundly. There was noise in the corridor from late-night gamblers and party-goers about 5am, but apart from that, it was gone 8am before any of us were awake. Still, that’s one way to get ahead of jet-lag.

The first order of the day was breakfast, and having seen it on a TV show a few weeks earlier, there was only one place we were heading – Denny’s.

Heading through the air-conditioned embrace of the MGM, we were met with the heat of a Nevada Desert mid-morning as we stepped outside. Even the “heatwave” at home before we left didn’t prepare us for a heat already in the high 30’s.

There is a Denny’s about a block up from the MGM heading north on Las Vegas Boulevard. We walked up past the M&M store (as a self-confessed chocaholic, you can imagine Thea’s face) and were soon being greeted and seated in Denny’s.

Denny’s is an American diner style chain with a big menu to choose from. We were seated in the middle of the restaurant which was a great place to people watch from. Saturday morning. There was a real mix of people eating in here. I’d wager that almost everyone was a tourist of some description, mostly American with a smattering of other nationalities. Some were ordering breakfast, some lunch. Coffee was flowing.

George and I went for bigger orders, Sarah and Thea somewhat smaller. Sarah tried American coffee and then switched (very quickly) to Lipton Yellow Label tea. Thea discovered Minute Maid juice and then the food arrived! It’s 20 years since I was last in the States and I had forgotten how big the portions can be.

That said, I was hungry (and so were the rest of the family) and we soon demolished breakfast, with refills of tea and coffee, and were heading back to the hotel.

Although we had planned out a lot of the trip, today was always going to be about relaxing and trying to overcome jetlag. A lazy start to the morning had gone some way to address this, but the obvious cure was to this was to head down to the pool and chill out for a few hours. If you are staying at the MGM Grand, you can use the pool for free. If not, you will need to pay. The MGM Grand boasts a long lazy river, a waterfall, 2 pools and a lot of sunbeds. The umbrellas are at a premium if you don’t book a sunbed though. There are plenty of trees around the pool area providing shade for parts of the day.

I had thought long and hard about booking some sunbeds for the day. There are various packages available, all of which mean that you get an umbrella and several of which mean that you get some degree of food and drink comped.

Useful hint – you can get water for free from the bar areas. The staff don’t like it, and they will expect you to tip. Don’t feel you have to everytime.

We found some sunbeds near the lazy river. The kids were straight into the water, looking cooler than they had all day. It wasn’t long before we joined them. Although the pool area is open, the area around it is built up and so it acts like a sun trap. Great for starting to tan, but if you’re not careful, you’re soon cooking.

Useful hint – unless you really need to, don’t take your phone to the pool. Every one of our phones were very quickly warning us of overheating because of the outside temperature.

We enjoyed a couple of hours around the pool, but after a while, it started to fill up with young Americans coming out of Wet Republic, which is the party pool at the MGM Grand, located not too far from the lazy river. The atmosphere got a lot more frantic, and we decided that it was probably time to head back to the room.

Well, some of us headed back to the room. Some of us pulled shopping duty and walked out to the Walgreen’s for snacks. Nowhere is cheap on the Strip, so be prepared to pay more for things like water and crisps than you would do further out.

Useful hint – If you are staying in the Grand Tower, it’s a good 10 minute walk through the casino to Las Vegas Boulevard. Great for step-counts, but try and plan your shopping trips into your day.

The main purpose of heading back to the room was to cool off and relax before heading up to Fremont Street later in the evening.

The trip to Fremont Street was anything but easy. The Uber app wasn’t playing ball, which meant that despite repeated attempts to book using it, nothing happened. We were booked in to the Zipline at 7.30pm, and needed to be there in advance. With panic setting in, we went out to the front of the hotel and jumped in a taxi.

Useful hint – If you’re heading up to Fremont Street from the Strip, plan to give yourself an hour and then add in another 30 minutes fail safe. Traffic in Las Vegas seems to come from nowhere.

The taxi headed up Las Vegas Freeway and got caught up in traffic. We could see the Zipline in the distance, and the covered area that is Fremont Street. The taxi driver pulled up near the Fremont Hotel on East Ogden Avenue and told us he could get no closer.

Jumping out, we headed quickly over to the booking office. The queue for the Zipline was out of the door, and at one point, it looked like we might miss the booking slot. Thankfully, owing to some really kind people in front of us, we moved fairly rapidly through the line and were soon checking in.

Well, I say we were checking in. This was actually a treat for the kids. They did the Superhero Zipline, flying for 5 blocks 120 feet above Fremont Street.

From checking in, there was a bit of wait before we saw the kids. Everytime we saw people setting off, we strained to see if it was the kids. It was probably about 45 minutes from them checking in to seeing them starting their journey across the top of Fremont Street.

Useful hint – The area around the Four Queens gives you a good view of who is flying on the Zipline. Move further down towards the Golden Nugget to get a good view of the Zoomline.

The Zoomline takes about a minute to ride. You might say “Is it worth it?” but the looks on the kids faces when they came off the ride told me that it was.

We had been stood outside the Four Queens so had to walk along Fremont Street to meet them

Since we were there on a Saturday evening, Fremont Street was hosting “Fremont Street Rocks”. This meant that a busy tourist destination was even busier and trying to keep an eye on what was going on was quite hard.

The music was getting going on 3 different stages up and down Fremont Street which meant the moving around became difficult.

Useful hint – Check out the Fremont Street Experience website for events and an idea of What’s On.

There was a heady mix of rock and pop in the air, but since none of us had heard of any of the acts, thoughts turned to food and being hungry.

Unfortunately, because Fremont Street Rocks was so busy, it made trying to find somewhere to eat a little more difficult.

Sections of Fremont Street were had barricades in place, especially around the main stage, and the volume of people trying to move through the security system meant that we soon discounted a few places to eat (such as Heart Attack Grill).

Walking back along Fremont Street, we could see a few places to eat, mostly inside casinos, and none really caught our attention. In the end, a quick Google search showed that there was a McDonalds inside the Plaza Hotel at the western end of Fremont Street, so we headed up there.

It was a strangely surreal experience. Coming from a country like the UK, where McDonalds makes a big thing of the Taste of America promotion every year, we never really considered that McDonalds in the USA would do a Taste of the World promotion, but there it was. A Spanish style burger, Dutch themed ice-cream, but no British inspired items. Come on guys, have a word!

Sticking pretty much to script (and trying to keep costs down) we order, collected our food and ate. Heading back out of the Plaza, we started walking back along Fremont Street. At this point, we began to realise how many people were out selling either photos or sex.

Strippers were trying to hand me and my 18 year old stepson cards advertising their place of work (it’s an assumption). His eyes were popping out of his head at times as he was confronted with a gaggle of buxom ladies wearing not very much.

Other people were dressed up as cartoon characters, super-heroes and movie characters, all trying to get you to buy a $10 photo opportunity with them.

Useful hint – Keep your family close, especially if you’ve got kids. Before you know it, you can be having to pay for a photo-op that you didn’t really want.

Trying to stick to a vague plan, we hustled over to the bus stop near Binion’s to catch the WAX back down the Strip.

The WAX is one of the express routes operated in Las Vegas and is a good way to move around (and reasonably cheap), if you leave yourself enough time (see the earlier comment!). It looked like we had missed it, because the scheduled time came and went, but a very helpful guy from the RTC (the transit authority) gave us all the information we needed to get back down to the MGM. Knowing that the WAX was running slightly behind schedule, we waited and fairly quickly it was pulling in and we were heading back to the hotel.

The WAX takes about 25 minutes to run down to the MGM Grand. It pulls up on Tropicana Avenue so if you are staying at the bottom end of the Strip, it’s a very quick way to move around.

We headed back into the MGM and back to the room. We’d already told the kids that we were going to see them back to the room and then head out for a drink. A few years ago, this would have resulted in a pantomime performance. Now, all we got was a “whatever”. Progress? So, back down to the casino floor for a break from the kids. We headed to TAP, the Sports Bar in the MGM Grand. We did have plans to head out to another casino and check it out, but it was later than expected, so we just hit the first place we came to.

The bar was advertising Happy Hour drinks as well, with a choice of cocktails and draught beers. However, we didn’t really do our checking and this was only on specific drinks. We ended up paying full price for our drinks, which cut the night short a little.

There wasn’t much atmosphere in TAP, with nearly as many staff in there as customers (it was about 10.30pm by this point), so we called it a night and headed back to our room.