Dad took us to the pub... ...and Mum was okay with that. In fact; Mum came too! One day (In about ten years) we'll come back here and review the craft beers, wine menu and whatever it is they're doing in here to make all the windows steam up from about 6pm onwards, but for now we'll have to settle for reviewing the kids' menu and the board games! The Rose & Crown in Tooting has only been open a couple of months, but already it's become really popular. Dad says he even saw one of our teachers in there (He won't tell us who - but I think we know!) and we've seen friends having lunch with their mums & dads too. We visited recently to see what all the fuss was about. Battleship, Connect4 & Cluedo are three of our favourite games, so already we were off to a good start. Whilst my sister and I started deploying our fleet, Mum & Dad ordered us lunch. Don't judge us! I know we're meant to be reviewing the menu, but we haven't even looked at it, but in our defence: 1. Placing your battleships tactically is the most important part of the game. 2. There's only one option on the kids' menu here - so there's not much to read! Can you see it? Right there in the pizza section, Number 9, is the kids' combo. A Margherita pizza, desert (We'll come back to that later) and a drink for £6.50. There, so now back to the Battleships. The key thing is to avoid the edges, and to think about the ships' positioning in relation to other ships - a support boat adjacent and parallel to a cruiser is always a good move.
And now to desert. I know what you're thinking; ice-cream. Pub lunch deserts are ALWAYS ice-cream. Well not at the Rose & Crown. It's THIS... Yep - that is what my sister looks like when she's beaten me at Battleship (beginner's luck) and just been given a warm, fresh doughnut covered in chocolate sauce.
Not much choice, and it is a pub, so you have to be out by 8pm. But if the Rose & Crown were a Battleship co-ordinate. It'd be A1! FOOD: E4.5 R4.5 = 9/10 ATMOSPHERE: E4 R3.5 = 7.5/10 FRIENDLINESS: E4 R4.5 = 8.5/10 KIDS MENU: E4 R4 = 8/10 KID-FRIENDLY: E4 R4 = 8/10 TOTAL 41/50
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Some things look easy, but are actually really hard: Keepy-uppies, balloon-modelling, cutting hair (I've promised never to try again!) to name a few. I'm pretty sure making sushi belongs on that list too. We spent an hour last week sat at Hi-Ki sushi bar in Tooting Market watching this guy make sushi. And it was spell-binding. We love sushi. Mostly nigri, the raw fish on a block of rice but also rolls, with cucumber or avocado and fish wrapped in rice. But surely the best thing about a food like sushi is trying new things, so as we sat down in Tooting Market we let Dad order a few new things for us. We tried: Rainbow Roll - Cucumber wrapped in rice, with tuna, salmon and avocado on top. Glazed Pork Belly (Basically thick bacon with sticky soy sauce on top) Eel, Octopus and Salmon sashimi (Raw fish) The only thing I (Emily) wasn't keen on was the octopus, which was really chewy. I (Riley) liked everything, but my favourite thing was the rainbow rolls, which were delicious. There's no children's menu here BUT what really matters is that from the moment we sat down we felt like nothing was too much trouble. We were asked if we wanted to sit closer to the chef so we could watch him make our lunch (we did), we were asked if we wanted the pork belly cut into smaller pieces (we did) and anything spicy was pointed out to avoid any accidental fire-breathing.
When we could take our eyes off our sushi chef we watched everyone walking around Tooting Market. We saw one of our teachers, and one of our friends - and we stopped both to tell them that they should stop for some sushi. Hi-Ki is that kind of place, a little local secret that you want to tell everyone about. So here are our scores for Hi-Ki: FOOD: E4 R4.5 = 8.5/10 ATMOSPHERE: E4 R4 = 8/10 FRIENDLINESS: E4.5 R5 = 9.5/10 KIDS MENU: E3.5 R4 = 7.5/10 KID-FRIENDLY: E4 R4 = 8/10* TOTAL: 41.5/50 * Just a note to say the bar stools are slightly precarious for younger children, so if you want to watch the excellent chefs at work you might need to be slightly older. There are tables available in the back, but sit at the bar if you can - it's mesmerising! (Dad) Bad news: Dad forgot his house keys, so we're stood outside home and can't get in. Good news: Dad's decided we'll have to go out for dinner, which means a new review! Most of our reviews have been in Balham, so we'd already decided that our next blog would be in Tooting. We also wanted Mum to come and have dinner with us, so we chose somewhere near a train station to make it easy. Cassio is an Italian restaurant near Tooting Bec tube. It does mainly pizzas and pasta, and you know, things you'd find in an Italian restaurant. Evan an Italian man who runs it. The restaurant wasn't open when we got there, but they let us sit down and look at the menu. We had the restaurant to ourselves, so it was pretty quiet. There's no kids menu (boo!) but that seems to be normal for pizza places. I suppose you can always share a pizza, and I think they would do a small pasta portion if you asked. We decided to have a pizza and some pasta and share between us, but we had to wait a while for Mum to arrive and there's nothing for kids to do here, no pencils, paper or puzzles... luckily we had some books to read. It's a proper grown-up restaurant, so not much fun for kids. Mum arrived just as we were getting our drinks, which means she arrived in time to see the waiter knock over Dad's glass of wine - he was soaking, and it went all over his trousers, so it looked like he'd wet himself!!!! Luckily Dad got another glass of wine... otherwise he'd have been really cross. Our pizzas were nice, and the pasta was good too, but we've been to a few pizza restaurants recently and these weren't our favourite. I'm glad Dad forgot his keys - it's always nice to eat out, and we had a really nice meal. I hope he forgets them again soon!
So here are our scores for Cassio: FOOD: E3.5 R3.5 = 7/10 ATMOSPHERE: E3 R3.5 = 6.5/10 FRIENDLINESS: E4.5 R4.5 = 9/10 KIDS MENU: E3 R3 = 6/10 KID-FRIENDLY: E3 R2.5 = 5.5/10 TOTAL: 34/50 (If you've been to Cassio then leave your comments below.) |
Riley & EmilyWe like eating out. This is what we thought of the places we ate. |