Shrewsbury Restaurant Week - My Delicious Week 2024
Shrewsbury Restaurant Week has been and gone! What a week it was! 38 different restaurants, cafes, bars and food joints are sticking on specials, offers and deals to help showcase the amazing food scene in Shrewsbury!
You might have seen my previous blogs about what’s going on all week and some of the places I thought might have been worth a punt this week. It’s so important we are supporting local hospitality as much as we can. As in industry it’s been repeatedly kicked in the nuts lately and the latest budget hasn’t exactly helped the already struggling business owners. But let’s not get bogged down with the doom and gloom - this is a week of celebration!
I keep banging on about it but we are so lucky to have so many incredibly delicious independent restaurants. The towns food scene is packed with vibrancy, diverse flavours and all the general yumminess you could ask for. We have a lot of choice when it comes to our food and drink and I am always unbelievably proud to show it off to any visitors from all over the country. We need to keep it this way and the best way is to keep supporting our cafes, coffee shops, bars and restaurants!
I think we should also give Original Shrewsbury and all of there team a big round of applause for organising this week. It’s not easy to pull anything together than involves so many moving parts but I think for a first shot at it, I don’t think we could have asked for much more! Roll on a bigger and even better 2nd year!
Quick recap in case you missed my other blogs (you can always head back and find them if you want to fully indulge yourself)…….
I’ve been stuck in my ways for too long now in terms of eating and drinking in this town. Too habitual, too content with the places I know and love, I’ve been ignoring the opportunity to get out there and try new places. So my restaurant week was about getting out of my comfort zone. Challenging myself, challenging my taste buds, hunting out some hidden gems and expanding my taste bud horizons! I think I did pretty well but I did also manage to get to some of my old haunts…..delicious is delicious, I can’t ignore that!!
So here is the run down of where I went and how I got on!
Hopefully Made/Hopefully Coffee, Milk St - It Just Never Disappoints…..
I started Restaurant week exactly how I start pretty much every week in our Zen Garden of a coffee shop. Our gluten free paradise, Hopefully Made. This is a regular spot for me and my wife to debrief the weekend, discuss what a nightmare having kids can be, before laying out our survival battle plans for the week of parenting and business running ahead.
I loved seeing the place already busy from the get go! We couldn't even sit in our usual spot (the horror!!!) but this is Restaurant Week - new horizons……so we took our chance to take a window seat!
A couple of delicious bagels and 2 coffees for £16, you just can’t go wrong! I love everything about this place, the vibe is just amazing!
It’s got such an amazing calming effect, even when it’s busy. I’m genuinely not sure how they manage it. We got into such a groove that we almost even booked a family holiday for next year. We’ve been avoiding that for almost 3 years now. A horror show in Gran Canaria a few years back but us off the idea of taking the kids on holiday until they were both a little more grown up. I will never again spend 4-5 hours sat, freezing cold in 2cm deep cold water in the toddler pool, having a said toddler trying to pour water on me at an age where she was still incapable of filling up the bucket. Resulting in my pouring cold water all over myself for her entertainment………..we didn’t book the holiday but we did decide we would be going on one!
Back to Hopefully Made, a joyful stamp on my Restaurant Week and a great place to get my motors going!
Cafe On The Severn, Chester St - My New Monday Hot Spot!
Wednesday morning took me off on my first adventure! A cafe that I have been meaning to visit for some time. One of those mysterious places. I know which street it’s on but for the life of me, I can’t picture where it is?
It’s always sounded so delicious and the foods looked amazing. Some good comments and reviews too so I was over the moon to see it on the restaurant week list. This was actually the place I was most looking forwards to visiting. Their specials sounded right up my street and it’s open on Mondays. So it could be new spot for our family debriefing sessions each week!
The cafe is set inside the Gateway Education and Arts Centre on Chester St. It’s kind of got a sort of library vibe to the whole place and the cafe is set at the back, which to my delight opens up onto a patio terrace that overlooks the river…..maybe the name, Cafe ON THE SEVERN, should have meant that wasn’t such a surprise for me…………
The cafe looks like exactly how I want a cafe to look. A proper cafe, nothing pretentious! I was met by the owner with a beaming smile and a lovely welcome which really set everything off perfectly. It might have been cold out, and I might have been dining alone but I was not missing out on sitting on that magical terrace, so I headed out and grabbed a table. The staff were all lovely and took my order swiftly.
I ordered the masala potatoes and fried eggs. I was so excited about this dish. It is totally a bit of me. The kind of thing we love to cook at home too. It had some coriander heavy chutney and some coconut raita splodged with it……it sounded magic!
The coffee arrived on time. What I loved the most about the coffee was the lack of latte art. We live in a coffee world where people seem to focus on creating the perfect tulip or swan before they learn to make a decent coffee. I would always choose great tasting coffee over the latte art any day of the week. And that is exactly what Cafe on The Severn delivered. No bells and whistles, just yummy coffee! Perfect!
The food didn't disappoint. When it came out, the smell was absolutely insane! So delicious! Roast potatoes, spices, fried eggs….bottle that up so I can just spray it around me when I need to escape to a happy place…….
Just about the best roast potatoes I’ve seen in Shrewsbury. For something so simple, I have no idea why as a town we struggle so much with cooking a decent roasty?! Crispy outside, soft, fluffy inside, seasoned with some Indian spices…….just amazing! The eggs were fried perfectly. I don’t get these people who want totally white, just set, floppy fried eggs. I like a bit of texture on the bottom of mine. Not so much that you can’t still get through it with the side of your fork but something to contrast! They were amazing. Great to see them well seasoned too. It’s the little details that make all the difference! Like the roasties, they were absolutely perfect and on the money! The chutney and raita added everything you were missing. A little pickled onion and watercress salad on the side……..this dish should be on the menu constantly. One of the best brunch dishes I’ve had in town.
I was more than content with my breakfast. It was yummy. It filled the gap, I didn’t need anything else. However, I have big issues with my appetite when I’ve had something delicious. My inner hunter/gatherer/scavenger kicks in and totally unnecessarily I seem to demand cake. I casually enquired about options unsure if I would have anything…….
When the words, Chocolate Brownie, Warm and With Clotted Cream come out of someones mouth, I’m not sure there is anyone in the world with a power to say no to that……
OK then, I’ll have one of those with a pot of tea then, you’ve twisted my arm….
Like the potatoes and eggs, it was just great and on the money. I’m a huge fan of contrasting temperatures, hot brownie, cold clotted cream what a bloody lovely dream…….as the old saying goes…….
All in all, this lived up to all my expectations. But then on the way out I had a chat to the owner and realised it was Shrewsbury Cafe Royalty, Jules! Jules of Riverview and Cafe 34 fame. Seasoned cafe professional and all round lovely lady! No wonder it was all so good…..
I would recommend this place to everyone! I can’t wait to be back!
2 stamps in and its only the morning of Day 3!
Pont, Wyle Cop - The Best Value For Money Stamp All Week!
I wrote a blog about the best coffees in town a while ago. Pont featured on having the best Mocha.
Me and Pont is quite a tragic story. I found out I was gluten intolerant a week after they opened so I have been limited to enjoying their chocolate brownies and Basque cheesecake since they opened…..I know, life is hard, right?!……..
What it does mean though, is that Pont is a real treat for me. I can always get my kicks by drooling through the glass at those amazing laminated pastries, allowing my flavour memory to kick in and let me just about feel that buttery, flaky pastry on my lips…….I’m calling it ‘Phantom Croissant Syndrome’……..but to eat there is a special treat for me. A sort of Restaurant Week treat……
I also took my pastry munching toddler partner in crime with me. Here’s the deal, babe, you have the yummy salted chocolate cookie, I’ll have the best mocha in town! Deal?……DEAL!
Coffees were a quid with any pastry/cookie. A great deal, everyones a winner! The mocha lived up to the billing. On reflection, I think this was probably the most value for money stamp in town! I adore this Parisian style bakery and I am all for it. Gluten intolerance or not, having such a high class bakery in town is a total asset!
Everyone needs a Pont! It’s a place of pure deliciousness, packed with lovely, happy people, baking in their happy place, making happy food!
If you haven’t been, get it on your list asap!
St Vincent, Fish St - Worth The Whitebait!!!
In my Restaurant Week battle plan, Thursday was always going to be the big one!
I was going to go out for dinner without my wife! This is almost unheard of in our house. Not in an overbearing sort of way from either of us, but just in a more sort of, we love each others company too much. Why would you want to go out for dinner with someone else, kind of way. We have one of those relationships! Our love of food is pretty much equal too and we both have this thing where if we have something yummy, we instantly want the other one to have tried it!
But that wasn’t going to happen tonight! Tonight was about me going on a delicious, food nerdy man date with my goof friend Tom!
St Vincent was our first stop. I have wanted to try some of the food in St Vincent for some time. I’d been in for wine before but never for food. They had a couple of offers on, Wine & Small Plate or 2 Small Plates for £10……pretty good value for money!
We were trying to decide what and how to order. Bearing in mind we had another 2 stops planned for the evening. The wine with the deal was set at the house wine, absolutely fair enough for a deal. We were in the mood for a fizz to start off our man date. I concocted a stupidly complicated plan to have a glass and a dish between us, then share a glass of fizz. Then order another glass of fizz to share if we needed it. Tom very graciously let me finish rabbiting on about how this would work before simply suggesting we get 2 dishes for £10 and 2 glasses of fizz……seemed to make much more sense, much more quickly than my plan. We had the houmous and flatbreads (made gluten free with some crackers) and the whitebait and lemon mayo with 2 glasses of pink fizz! I’m extremely daunted by the size of the wine list in St Vincent. It gives me similar anxiety to the reading list I used to get given in my student days…..how on Earth am I going to fit in 4-5 hours of fruit machines in the pub and read all this?…………of course, some people like a choice. I prefer to be guided….is that lazy? I’m not sure, anyway. They only had one pink fizz on, so decision made!
If I am being honest, the houmous was fine. A little bit of a non-event, there was a white houmous (regular, I think) and a purple houmous (beetroot, I assume?) both kind of tasted the same, kind of just white beans with nothing else much too them. I didn’t note if they were white bean houmous’s’s’s’s’s (or houmii) but they didnt have the heavy richness of chickpeas so I assumed they were. They were in no way unpleasant at all, both were light in flavour and texture so they did the job they had to alongside the fizz.
The total winner was the whitebait! Really delicious, crispy, freshly fried whitebait and a great mayo to dip them in. This is the kind of thing we all need more of in our life. The perfect bar snack! We sat really content alternating cracker in houmous dips, followed by whitebait in mayo dips. I even pushed the boat out and dipped my crackers in the mayo at one point!
I didn’t get a chance to see if the whitebait are on the regular food menu. That was also extremely large and daunting for me to read. But that must mean there is a great choice for a wide range of tastes. I do hope they are on there. A little Saturday afternoon wine and whitebait would be just about the most perfect moment for me and something I know my wife would love……so there is a date in the bank……..these days we class even 20 minutes for a glass and a snack as a date…..
Prince Rupert Hotel, Butcher Row - My Star Of The Week!
Following St Vincent, we stumbled over the road to The Prince Rupert Hotel.
A few months back, I found out that Gareth Howarth was now cooking there. I have been totally bemused as to why people aren’t rushing there or why the Hotel isn’t lighting the Shrewsbury night sky with the fact that they have commandeered one of Shropshires best chefs?!!
I know nothing of the Rupert, other than knowing of their work with the homeless during Covid, so this was exciting!
I’m going to keep this love letter brief, because I want to write an entire blog just on this place…..keep them peeled for when that drops……
The place is extraordinary. A sort of time warp from the 70s. Like a mock Tudor decor that was set in the 70s. An almost Fawlty Towers kind of feel to it in a way. And I mean that in the most loving of ways………suits of armour on the walls, muscats, helmets from the Norman conquest all adorn the walls. The drinks are all served in classic crystal style glasses. The menus in leather bound pouches. The dining room is large and dark yet each table is brightly lit with an almost spot light. Which is great. It means the lighting for pictures is just excellent! Good for all those food bloggers who love a good picture on their insta grid! I was a bit taken a back by the retro style of this but there is a unique authenticity about the dining room that I would not change a single thing. It is part of the hotel, so it fits the bill perfectly.
The menu was a simple 4-4-4 menu…..4 starters, 4 mains, 4 desserts…with 2 steaks on the separate page. I love this. It is always a sign that the chef is in control. He hasn’t had to fling all the proverbial at the wall because he isn’t sure what people might want to eat so has to cover every base. He knows himself, he knows his food.
Desserts were free if you ordered starter and main so it seemed silly not to…….
Myself and Tom shared every dish and quite frankly it was just perfect. For the money, it’s just spot on. Mains were the same price as some gastro pubs in town are serving and quite frankly, far superior in terms of cooking. What I adore about Gareth’s food is the relatability. I’ll write more about that on my blog. What he isn’t afraid to do is take you right in to the centre of your comfort zone, then absolutely drown you in everything you love! The food is generous, familiar, seasoned beautifully and cooked with a kind of technical ability that makes it perfect for Shropshire! The Hake was out of this world……..
Tom put it really well when he said, it’s just a load of really good mates on a plate together, everything you want in just about the right amounts, brilliant!
The most surprising thing about this place was the fact that it isn’t packed. They need to go on a massive press release campaign, I would hate for this not to work, it is such an asset to Shrewsbury and with the Hotel, I can see it becoming Shrewsbury’s first truly destination restaurant. The hotel should be packed with guests, on gastronomic weekend adventures, desperate to eat the food. It would be so good for the town to get this off the ground!
Go, let me say ‘I told you so’, then tell everyone you know to go!
Green Options Zero Waste, Darwin Centre - Guilt Free, Delicious Shopping!
If you aren’t visiting refill shops yet, you’re living in the past. They are definitely the future. They offer a huge range of flexibility. Buy 10g, buy 100g, buy 1kg, whatever suits. No more having to buy massive bags of nuts when you only want a small handful.
Save the planet, save your pocket - its a simple win-win! This particular refill shop has recently changed hands, it was my first visit since the new owners, and I was over the moon to see it hasn’t lost any of its charm! It’s actually a pretty special refill shop to me and my wife. It was all part of when we were on BBC1 on ‘Shop Well For The Planet’, a time when we had Melanie Sykes and Chris Bavin turn our lock down house upside down, turning us in an eco leading household.
So good to see such a diverse range of uptake on the Restaurant Week….it’s not just for Restaurants!…..
They ran a really great offer with various discounts the more you spent.
The shop is packed with just about everything you need in your house. With a great range of local products including a favourite local coffee roaster of mine, Hundred House. Great to know we can go and pick up a caffeine fix when we’ve let slip on stock control! Also with a great range of Hodmedods British grown grains, your shopping is in good sustainable hands!
Pack your containers and go fill your house in the most amazing guilt free way!
Osteria v2.0, Mardol - The Most Fun, Best Family Meal We’ve Had In Shrewsbury!
My cooking roots are in Italian food. They are deep rooted in the culture. The simplicity, the restraint, knowing when enough is enough. Celebrating what you have, not wanting more. It’s a magical food and culture.
I’m unsure why I hadn’t been to Osteria yet. I’d heard mixed reviews. As many die hard fans as people who weren’t quite so sure…..Like I have said, we fear making a mistake when it comes to going out these days. Babysitting tokens are hard to come by and the last thing we need is a bad experience. Also being gluten intolerant for over 18 months, its a tough sell to go for pasta/pizza. Even if I know that there is so much more to the food than that……
Osteria v2.0 was one of the restaurants I set my targets on for Restaurant Week. Determined to get there! We thought this would be a fitting end to the week and also a fitting celebration that the entire family could enjoy.
There is always trepidation when we take the kids out. As any parent will testify, any number of uncontrollable factors can seriously kick your enjoyment in the nuts. Everyones having a great time until one toddler realises her skirt (that she’s had on for 6 hours) isn’t as ‘spinny’ as she wants; so she digs deep to bring out every demon she can, demanding to go home and change. One way tickets to Meltdown City are far too common. Going somewhere unknown adds an even bigger risk to the entire drama. Who knows if they will actually eat anything, and we all know what its like to have anyone hungry around them, let alone two kids who haven’t quite got to an age to regulate their internal engines yet……..
We shouldn’t have worried. What we ended up having in Osteria was quite possibly the best family meal we have ever had. The kids relaxed into the place in a second. Enjoying themselves, feeling at home, playing, laughing, most importantly eating!
Italian pop and rock music was blaring out, the decor very akin to what you expect in a small town on holiday in Italy, it was everything we would want from a family meal. The food is generous in a way that only Italians can be. Big portions, massive flavours. We had the most enormous antipasti board you’ve ever seen. Delivered on a Lazy Susan; I hadn't known what a Lazy Susan did to my wife. Ends up it turns her into a giddy child. Spinning the antipasti with such gusto that I got covered in Tuscan Beans on numerous occasions. Who cares, though, the kids are happy, I was on cloud 9!!!
The pizza came out, roughly the size of the entire dinner table, fresh out the oven, this was for the kids to share. They absolutely destroyed the entire thing! So good! Our mains were great. I had the award winning polenta and lamb shank dish. So packed with flavour, like right at my limits but really great. My wife had the prawn risotto which was without question the most prawny risotto I have ever tried. It carried a massive prawn on its back, and when I say massive, it could have been pre-historic. What was even more surprising was just how well cooked it was. Up there with the best I have ever experienced.
My own personal highlight was when we asked to see the dessert menu, only to look up and see the service team hauling a massive blackboard onto their hips! I can't remember the last time I saw this. Likely on holiday in Italy as a kid but I am all on board with it! Just amazing!
It was actually the service that stole the show for this meal. Our waiter was so attentive. It was actually quite unreal! With the kids and our own scattiness there were multiple times during our ordering process where I felt like just interrupting and saying ‘hold on guys, this is too complicated, lets start again’….kids food before the antipasti, but dont wait until they’ve finished to bring the board. Desserts for the kids when we have just finished our antipasti, but could that be delivered to the table before we have our mains………it went on and on……
Incredibly, this poor waiter checked he had it right in his head, then just rolled it out perfectly. It was remarkable. Friendly, attentive but not over bearing. It was amazing!
From reviews I have read, there are lots of feelings that the place is expensive. I can see that. But when you look across the whole menu there is something for everyone. £12 for the pizza was out of this world great value, opt for a mid way risotto or lasagne for £15-18, both seem reasonable. Or splash out on one of the more expensive mains for £24-26. You actually have complete control of your budget. Everything we had was so generous. Maybe too generous. We certainly had more than enough food for the money.
The antipasti was huge and good quality, both of us said that we could easily see a great afternoon with an antipasti board and a couple of glasses of wine!
Along with the generous portions, you also get super generous flavours. Absolutely packed!
We will definitely be bringing the family back really soon!
Notable Mentions & Final Thoughts………..
I stopped off in a couple of other places during the week but didn’t eat. So I thought I would give those places a little shout out.
Cromwell’s Tap House
Great pub, great beer. Gluten Free Beer! They were serving a great new Gluten Free Lager from Ludlow Brewery - Latitude 52. This isn’t just for us poor, gluten intolerant minority, it holds itself up against any lager. Proper delcious! The pub is always really inclusive and accessible and a place the kids are always welcome. Their triple cooked chips are mega! They also have a great range of board games to keep everyone happy. The staff were great. It’s just a happy place and I always feel so welcome when I go there. Amazing!
Glou Glou
We stopped off in Glou Glou after our meal on Thursday. Such a great spot for a night cap. Unbelievably delicious. Great vibes, amazing staff. They are always ready to let you taste, always ready to give you some info on what you are drinking but at the same time, never overbearing! I will forever recommend this place to just about everyone! You don’t have to be into fancy wines and beers to enjoy it. This place is for everyone!
Shrewsbury Restaurant Week offered the most amazing platform for us to celebrate our town and the amazing businesses we have to offer. I am over the moon that my mission to find new places to go has been so fruitful!
We have to remember that food is one of the few things in the world that brings all of us together! It really is the universal language. It’s the ultimate mood changer!
I have genuinely found places this week that I cannot wait to return to and really feel like I have broadened my horizons! A stark reminder that we should all keep an open mind and not be too blinkered by other peoples opinions. You don’t know until you try! And as the great Anthony Bourdain said…….
“Eat at a local restaurant tonight. Get the cream sauce. Have a cold pint at 4 o’clock in a mostly empty bar. Go somewhere you’ve never been. Listen to someone you think may have nothing in common with you. Order the steak rare. Eat an oyster. Have a negroni. Have two. Be open to a world where you may not understand or agree with the person next to you, but have a drink with them anyways. Eat slowly. Tip your server. Check in on your friends. Check in on yourself. Enjoy the ride.”
