Easter Sunday Lunch at Hotel Colessio, Stirling

On Easter Sunday, we spent time with family. This year we decided to have a lunch at Hotel Colessio (http://www.hotelcolessio.com) in Stirling. The hotel opened in summer 2014.

We were wondering what this building was used to be. The building next door to this hotel, now Stirling Highland Hotel, was used to be a high school that my mother-in-law, Mary went when she was a teenager. So we asked her what this building used to be, to which she replied old Royal Infirmary.

Well, the building itself may be old, however you step inside and it is decorated modern. You immediately see the bar on the left and the restaurant on the right before you notice there is a check-in desk right in front of you.

Our table for 9 was booked for 12.30pm however we arrived too early so we decided to sit in the bar to have some drinks till the rest of our party arrived.

Craig, Emily's husband, kindly offered to drive for us so Emily and I had some cocktails to try. We checked the drink menu ...

I ordered Elderflower Cosmopolitan - vodka, shaken with elderflower, cranberry and lemon.  Emily ordered Scottish Mule - gin and ginger mixed with elderflower, fresh mint, topped with ginger beer.  Both were very refreshing and lovely cocktails.

Once everyone arrived, we moved to the restaurant - Grill Room - and were seated. There was Easter Sunday menu which we all tried. Everyone ordered different things ....

The restaurant was still quiet so we were served fairly quickly.

My husband and I tried Hot smoked salmon and Horseradish Tart.

  

Mary, Craig and Paul had Carrot and Coriander Soup, which I thought was really tasty.

Emily and Kaylee had Chicken Liver Pate..

 

For main course, I had Roasted Cod Loin (I asked without Parma Ham) with mushroom, spring risotto and rocket pesto.  Cod was quite a good size, cooked nicely - flaked easily but still moist and not dry. Risotto was actually Orzo pasta, shaped like a large grain of rice.

Some had Roasted Loin of Marmalade-glazed Smoked Gammon. They found it a bit salty but it looked nice.....

Some had Roasted Sirloin of Scottish Beef. Emily and Craig thought this was really lovely ...

My husband had Butternut Squash Ravioli with smoked Applewood garlic cream sauce. Unfortunately he found this to be over powered by far too much cheese sauce ...

After the main course most people decided not to have any desserts except Andrew, Emily, Craig and myself.  Andrew, Emily and Craig tried Creme Egg Ice Cream Sundae with fresh strawberry coulis. I forgot to ask them what it meant by 'Creme Egg' ice cream....

I tried Chocolate Mini Egg Cheesecake with vanilla ice cream.  Chocolate cheesecake was quite delicious, not too sweet with Cadburys' Mini Eggs on it. Chocolate Cheesecake egg was sitting on chocolate coconut, which was really hard to crack (no pun intended...). It would have been nicer if they were chocolate flakes instead.

Overall I enjoyed my lunch however it was hit or miss for some people. I have seen some photographs of their Afternoon Tea on Instagram and it looks nice. Perhaps we may come back for that to try before we make any judgement....  My mother-in-law Mary comes here for lunch with her friends as they also do weekday lunch menu.

Comfy seats in the bar ....

Well, it's always good to try different places, however most of all, it's lovely to get together as a family and have lunch on Easter Sunday. I certainly did have a lovely Sunday.

See you till next time ....? 

Where shall we try for next Easter Sunday ....? Still 51 weeks away to think about.

Hope you too have had a lovely Easter Sunday.

That's all forks.

Buttercup Cafe, Doune near Stirling, Scotland

My husband and I arranged to have lunch with Mary, my mother in law the other day.  She lives in Stirling, so I did some on-line search to see where we could go for lunch in or around Stirling area.

Stirling Castle

I then found a place called Buttercup Cafe in Doune (http://buttercupcafe.co.uk), near Stirling. According to their website, they reached the final of the British Sandwich Association's 'Designer Sandwich of the Year' competition in both 2013 and2014. Immediately I thought to myself, "This is it! This is the place we should try for our lunch with Mary."

The Cafe is on the main street of Doune. We parked our car on the main street and walked across to the Cafe. Inside is simply decorated but warm, relaxing atmosphere with friendly staff.

The Cafe has quite good selection of dishes on the menu ....

In addition, daily special on the blackboard on the wall sounds good too.

My husband tried Vegetarian Burger which is with grilled Portobello mushrooms in a lightly toasted muffin with roasted onions, red peppers, spinach, cheese and a light basil mayo, served with side salad and homemade coleslaw.  He also ordered chips with it.

Normally when you order a vegetable burger, you get a burger patty made of mixture of vegetables but you have no idea what they are fully made of. Here, Buttercup Cafe's vegetable burger is, literally 'vegetable' burger...

Here is what's inside of the vegetable burger - grilled Portobello mushrooms in a lightly toasted muffin with roasted onions, red peppers, spinach, cheese and a light basil mayo, exactly how they describe in the menu....

Mary had Buttercup Quiche - today's quiche of home made roasted vegetable served with fresh salad and coleslaw.  I should have taken more picture of the quiche as the photo below does not look that big but it was a big and deep filled quiche....  Mary also liked this blue plate.

I decided to try their 'Gourmet Bagel' (£7.25) which is toasted bagel, smoked salmon, prawns in a light citrus mayo, paprika, guacamole, rocket and sweet chilli jam, served with fresh salad.  Apparently, this was designed by one of their chefs - finalist at the British Sandwich Association "Designer Sandwich of the Year Competition 2014", so off course I got to try this bagel.

Yes, exactly as it is described ...

The bagel was delicious - with interesting concoction and different flavours of smoked salmon, prawn mayo (but "light citrus"), guacamole and chilli jam. Interesting.

To be really honest, having checked their website and viewed gallery page, I was naively expecting the bagel to have been presented differently. The gallery shows a picture of the gourmet bagel being hooked and lifted with a tiny fishing rod, with a small sign saying "Hooked on a Filling".  I thought if this was the finalist's bagel for the Designer Sandwich of the Year competition, it would serve in such a way at the Cafe. Obviously it was not and I felt slightly disappointed, however, I understand ... it is not actually practical to serve in such a way in a busy working kitchen.  So I understand (... but I wish they would do "Hooked on a Filling" thing ... for the sake of blog, hahaha) ...

After that, I then wanted to try their cakes. There were good selections of sweets and home baked cakes which all looked delectable.  My husband had lemon sponge cake and I had chocolate and peanut butter cream cake. They were delicious too, especially my chocolate and peanut butter cake's sponge was lovely and moist.

 

Buttercup Cafe opens 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm on Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday. It also serves breakfast menu till 11.30am and the menu has good selections for breakfast. It also has area where you could sit outside in the back.

I start sounding like I am advertising this cafe for them so I stop now. Just to be clear, all the meals and drinks we consumed at the cafe were paid for by ourselves (and the owner of the Cafe does not know the existence of my blog, so I am totally independent).

After the lunch, Mary suggested that we would go and visit Scottish Antique & Arts Centre nearby (http://www.scottish-antiques.com). Well, you could spend good many hours at this place, looking at all those antiques (there are many shops and dealers under one big roof), visiting the gift shop and stop over at their cafe for lunch etc.  And I guarantee that you will leave the premises without empty handed ...

You can buy sweets ...

or you can look around antiques ...

 

... you can buy books and records, if you don't mind old ones ... 

or you can buy cars!

You can also buy signs ...

You can also own a collection of cats ....  as I do now ... a cat lady I am .... My husband asked me where I would put these, which I have not figured that out yet ....

A collection of 10 small cats that my husband bought for me ...

 Well, we had a lovely day out in Doune with Mary.

 

... and that's all forks, hahaha.

Greengrocer cafe in Stirling

As I am writing this, my friend Wendy and her family are enjoying sunshine and great food in Sicily! That has reminded me of the wonderful roasted pepper open sandwich I had when I met her a few months ago for lunch in Stirling. 

It was a lovely gorgeous sunny day and we met at The Greengrocer Cafe at 81 Port Street, Stirling, FK8 2ER.  The cafe is tuck down a lane close to Stirling town centre, part deli and part cafe with different products on the shelves that surround customers having lunches.

I love roasted or grilled vegetables so without any hesitation I ordered their open sandwich with roasted peppers.  I did debate myself if I could manage eating this without any of the roasted black bits of vegetables getting lodged between my teeth. Well, who cares, I got to try this. 

And so I did. This was really delicious, lots of vegetables - underneath warm roasted peppers hid slices of equally perfectly roasted courgettes, aubergines and sweet potatoes! This came with side salads with lots of sun dried tomatoes. It was really yummy.  I can't remember how much it was but I think it was less than £6 (if not, it was definitely less than £7!). 

Outside the sun was shining, unusually warm yet pleasant for April in Scotland and the dish also brought me with sunshine to my stomach and soul. We did not have time for coffee nor any room for anything else as we both had to head back to our offices after this.

As we were leaving I quickly took some photos of this cafe. I noticed there were some people sitting outside having lunch too. As it is off the busy street, the location provides a lovely sanctuary with relaxing atomoshere being away from bustling and hustling of many day time shoppers and traffic.  

Outside of Greengrocer Cafe

Inside - selling fresh vegetables too - toward the back there is a counter with glass case
with lots of delectable home made cakes. 

Having had a lovely lunch in the lovely sun-shined afternoon, I went back to my office. I took out my compact to check my teeth in the mirror whilst applying a lipstick and found a black chargrilled bit stuck in my bottom tooth.  Poor Wendy, being ever so polite,  must have had a difficult time to refrain from bursting into laughter and managed so well to keep straight face whilst talking to me.  You know what, I don't care as the open sandwich was so good it was worth sacrificing my vanity here.

I am looking outside, it is grey and dull, probably it would rain soon.  Typical Scottish summer.  So I think of Wendy, imagining her having Sicilian food under the Sicilian sun, which brings me back to the Greengrocer's roasted red pepper open sandwich to give me sunshine to my soul, even if it's dull and grey outside and is about to rain.

That's all forks!

Girls Weekend!

My daughters, Emily and Maria, and I went to Double Tree by Hilton Dunblane Hydro Hotel (http://www.doubletreedunblane.com) last weekend to celebrate Maria's 22nd birthday for half board & wee spa break package. This was a present from both my husband and me for Maria's 21st birthday but we had not had a chance to organise this until a year later... sorry, Maria!!!  Anyway, it was a really relaxing weekend for us three 'girls'.

We stayed in a family room so that three of us could be in the same room. We 'smuggled' ourselves a bottle of prosecco, strawberries and a birthday cake to eat in our room when we checked in.

'Happy Birthday, Maria - Queen of Awesomeness'

Ah, I forgot to mention... when we checked in, the receptionist give us Chocolate Chip Cookies. There was a tea/coffee making facility in the room so we had these first before we scoffed a bottle of prosecco and cakes!

Yummy chocolate chip cookies - sorry, it's upside down...

Our dinner was booked for 8.30pm so we still had good few hours to kill.  After we had some cakes and prosecco, we went out to walk around the hotel ground.

Dunblane Hydro Hotel

This is our Family Room with sofa bed

Back to our room, having more glasses of prosecco with strawberries, we watched Britain Got Talent on TV lying on the bed, munching packets of crisps and M&S's Percy Pigs. Hope we got some room for proper dinner later....???

At 8.30pm, came dinner time, we were ready.  The dinner was served at The Kailyard Restaurant by Nick Nairn, Scottish TV chef.  Our weekend spa package includes an allowance of 32.50 sterling pound per person to dine in his restaurant and we could choose anything we want from the a la carte menu.

For starter, Emily had Classic cocktail of brown shrimps, Loch Duart Scottish salmon 'Nick Nairn', Hass avocado & cocktail sauce. I had Trout 'Nicks' Potato salad, beetroot and fresh horseradish. This was meant to be grilled Peterhead mackerel but the waiter told us that they ran out of mackerel so it was replaced with trout. I could not remember if there was horseradish but anyway, the trout was lovely. Maria had 'Nick's' chicken liver parfait, Cumberland sauce and warm brioche.

Brown shrimp cocktail

Trout with beetroot and potato salad

Chicken liver parfait

For main course, Emily had Slow braised feather blade of Scottish beef, mustard mash, Swiss chard, truffled celeriac and red wine gravy. Maria had sauté breast of chicken, smoked butter mash, glazed parsnips, pancetta and king oyster mushroom. I had Pan fried Scrabster halibut, herb mash, wilted spinach, Avruga caviar and chive butter sauce.

Braised Scottish Beef

Saute breast of chicken

Pan fried halibut - can you see some sprinkles of Avruga caviar?

By the time I finish the main course, I was so full, I could not move. I could not even sip any water so I watched Emily and Maria enjoying 3 British cheese 'in good Nick' with handmade fruit chutney. Actually 2 British cheese as Emily did not want blue cheese so she asked for 2 cheddar and brie cheese.

Emily & Maria sharing cheese and biscuits for dessert.

We were really full. I thought Emily and Maria wanted to move to the bar for cocktails but no, they just wanted to go back to our room with me just to chill and lounge in jammies and it was not even 10.30 yet!  Those days were gone when they did not go out to the town with friends till almost midnight for clubbing, so I bet they are feeling 'old' now...ha ha ha. 

The next day was Sunday we we had a little bit of long lie but not too long so as not to miss our breakfast.  Breakfast was buffet style so you just pick whatever. I had scrambled egg, sauted tomatoes, potato scones and beans.  Maria and Emily had full Scottish breakfast - fried egg, potato scones, black pudding, square sausage, tomato, baked bean and a role. 

Our check out was 12.00 and we finished our breakfast just before 11.00am so we went back to our room and relaxed.  We booked our massage for 2.00 and 2.30pm in the afternoon so we checked out, went to M&S to get Sunday newspaper and some magazine and went back to the hotel's bar for tea and coffee till our appointments.

Maria had facial and Emily and I had aromatherapy neck, shoulder and back massage. It was really lovely, so relaxing.  We really enjoyed staying at the hotel, in fact the whole weekend package - room was lovely, service was great, staff were very friendly and attentive, food was good but the highlight of this weekend was the massage. After the massage, we were given a glass of water each to drink for hydration and were advised to relax and not to get stressed.

We then got into Emily's car, phoned my mother-in-law Mary to let her know that we were on our way to come and pick her up so that we could all go for late lunch at The Hollybank Restaurant  (http://www.thehollybank.co.uk) in Stirling for ladies lunch!  Yahoo!!!  We were all relaxed, feeling great, looking forward to our impending lunch at the Hollybank, just with 4 'girls', salivating whilst discussing what to eat off the menu. Soon after leaving Dunblane however we got stuck in terrible traffic jam, found out that the motorway was temporarily closed and there was a long tailback on the back road all the way to Stirling. We were surrounded by erratic, rude and impatient drivers. So much for the relaxing massage we had just had.... we were now tense!

After almost one hour later instead of what it would have only taken 15 minutes journey Mary's house from Dunblane, we finally arrived in Stirling, picked Mary up and went to the Hollybank at last.

The Hollybank is a family restaurant, serving hearty meals to locals in many many years. I forgot to take photo but had Hollybank bruschetta for starter which I shared with Emily and Maria.
For main course, Mary had half portion of breast of chicken and pepper sauce on rice. Sorry, forgot to take this photo too.... I am doing not well, am I?  Maria had Chef's home made burger with chilli, I had scampi and chips and Emily had hot chilli bowl of home made chilli with cheese, nachos and rice.

Chili burger

Scampi and chips

Chili bowl with nachos ad rice

Maria's burger was really dense, meaty and proper burger, none of those processed meat rubbish, but it was too big so she could not finish. Between Maria and I there were quite a bit of chips left so all these left overs were carefully wrapped with napkins for Robbie, Mary's beloved family dog.  So Mary's doggy has doggy bag!

Anyway, overall, we had a great Girls' Weekend. I love to do this again some day.

Stunning Stirling Castle, taken by Emily.
I actually work at Stirling, not far from this castle
and in fact, I pass by this every morning to drive to work, isn't this great!!!

 That's all forks!