On Wednesday, I put my spoon down after swallowing the final piece of Oreo cheesecake. It was only then that I knew how Bruce Bogtrotter must have felt while demolishing that huge chocolate cake. I was kindly invited to try the Christmas menu from Coast to Coast before it actually hits the restaurants. I met up with a couple of other food bloggers, Taylah and Laura, and we ate what felt like the entire restaurant.
I chose to drive as I went pretty much straight from work. The curse of this being that I could only try a few sips of the odd cocktail throughout the night. We were entertained with a cocktail master-class from Coast to Coast’s mixologist, Andy Pearson. He taught us how to make Mimosa’s (a bucks fizz inspired drink, perfect for Christmas morning!), an Egg Nog cocktail which was the best tasting in my opinion, and consisted of Mount Gay Rum, Milk, Double Cream, an egg and Gingerbread syrup and finally, a Chocolate Orange Martini which was presented in a ice-cold snow frosted glass. This cocktail had a dash of vodka, white chocolate liqueur, Cointrau, chocolate bitter and some more syrup! They were all a hit with the group and Andy pulled out some bloggers to make some cocktails.
After the cocktail making, we all sat down and awaited the Christmas menu food to be brought out. By this time, we were all pretty hungry but I don’t think anyone quite knew how much food there was going to be. Chef, Jim Dickenson bought out all of his full-sized creations to each table & talked through what he’d prepared. Luckily, us bloggers were given a ‘small’ portion of all of the meals but even these were filling. By trying the majority of the dishes, we were given an idea of what the Christmas menu was about and how well it should work with the public.
Our first course was the Goats Cheese and Bruschetta bites, which were ciabatta slices, topped with goats cheese and pesto. We also had a small pot of mushroom risotto on the side. I thought the presentation of the food was wonderful and not too overwhelming.
For main(s) – yes, we had TWO main meals, we tried the Maple syrup bacon burgers with fries and a Turkey Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. Both of the meals were outstanding, full of flavour and cooked to perfection. I would definitely recommended visiting here if you like good portion sizes and amazing food.
If that wasn’t enough, we were then given the full-sized dessert menu which consisted of hazelnut chocolate brownie sundae, an Oreo cookie cheesecake with cheesecake & ice-cream, and lastly, Pecan pie.
You’d think the night would end there, but oh-no, there was one more surprise. After everyone made the effort of waking from their food comas, we went to the bar one last time to watch the final creation of the ‘Snowman’ cocktail being made. It was basically a pina-colada esque drink with lots of cream and a face made out of oreo cookies. How brilliant is that?
The night was a success and come 10pm, everyone was so stuffed, we all waddled out the doors, and queasily hugged each other goodbye. It’s really hard to get so excited about Christmas when it’s still a couple of months away, but Coast to Coast did a brilliant job of entertaining us with an amazing array of Winter cocktails & the most wonderful portions of Christmas-esque food. If you haven’t already been to C2C to eat the food, I suggest you take the chance to go and especially try the Egg Nog cocktail – it’s sensational! What do you think of the menu?
I was kindly invited by Coast to Coast in Brindley Place, Birmingham, to try out their brand new new Christmas menu with several other food bloggers. All of the food and drinks were complimentary. All views are my own.