The Stag and Hounds, Churchill

This also is great, fabulous food, too much to eat, well prepared, may have to wait but warm convenient nice location takes many guests if you have a party and the drink supplies are good if a little overrun by the demand and the place can become crowded which probably speaks for itself. Only ever had to wait for a table for a long while once and you get good conversations by traditional elders who have connections who gather there for celebrations. Plenty of choice. Going again soon family birthday. My parents rarely ate out except the great egg chips bread and butter and tea at Stokes Croft Bristol in the 1950s at Christmas shopping and the odd Truck Drivers' cafe, so they missed a lot we enjoy. They make great meeting places, The Yacht at Torquay was one, but that has sadly demised. So if you like the A38 and want a break from eating the M5 dust with a scenic trip get off at Weston, Brent or Clevedon and take a trip through Yatton the winding lane to Churchill and Shipham Hill, see Cheddar, wander the Mendips and then eat at this restaurant, your stomach will love you for it. As my wife's brother said, it is becoming not so much the fishing and boats as a matter of the restaurants and food on holiday these later days, the best until last. Mike

28 Dec 2011 23:37

Gordano Gate, Portishead

I do not use the Beer so for a Beer for You this may seem a little unfair but I do use the Cider, or as the French have pinched it Cidre, but it is Somerset, the Cola, Water, Mango and Lemonade and have been known to use the Rose wine and the Ginger Beer and Cherry Brandy especially in chocolates, but I had to answer that I thought a definitely unfair review, this may not be the best pub restaurant on earth but it does too many jobs for such a small place, I think it could do with expansion but that is costly and Arthur Lewellyn Jenkins wanted the site for a badly needed furniture emporium, so history aside after Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick ably knocked over the sheep pasture oil tanks of yester youth, so up the Welsh and I have eaten in a few places there too, especially Hall of Residence which was wonderful, no beer at all in spite of 49 chapels and 49 pubs as EG Bowen stated in First year degree, at last we have restaurants this was one of the very few and soon we get another motel stay, years ! we went without, the staff are worked off their feet, helpful, polite, accommodating, the fish and chips good and large, the drinks always good, the pies and chicken great, the food is usually too much to eat and the late added Chinese we found by surprise visit was wonderful, the Mexican good tonight, the after dinner excellent and the children's supplies met by dozens of children in a day, who are always fun to watch charging about around their parents. Best of all I think they keep their tempers and the Chef has not as yet steak battered a customer, which my Great Aunt Glad could render easily but she worked for Armstrong Rhino Flooring, and made great heavy gravy, the Managers are always sympathetic. Never complained yet, convenient and we visit this and another quite often. Perhaps not enough, but there is only so many meals one can spread oneself around. Obviously we know a lot of the incumbents from School contacts of people we know who have worked there and children who take up places for a while. So I am impressed, but I am not a restaurant critic, nor a crawler so usually arrive capable of assessing the taste of the food. Sorry about that one, I get mad about people who work being unfairly treated, especially since 2010 I have become very intolerant about it. One thing the country needs, appreciation and working people who care. Otherwise they emigrate for a better less damp and less darkened life in a hot desert climate. Thank you for the meals over the years and for the friends who work there. We even had juice poured all over us when the lady slipped with the tray but free flowing ice melts and is not a problem, she was severely upset for causing it, they always repair a slip up in food and the coffee is good too. Mike

28 Dec 2011 23:21