Vapiano: review

Last week, myself and Jon took ourselves off to London for the day with Tyne to review a new restaurant called Vapiano.

Here's how Vapiano describe themselves on their website:

Somewhere between the nicest of fast casual and hippest of casual dining restaurants is Vapiano.

Defining the future of fresh casual - a new and refreshing niche in the restaurant industry - Vapiano is an innovative European concept serving made-to-order fire roasted pizzas, fresh, house-made pasta and hand tossed gourmet salads. An established concept with more than 30 worldwide locations and another 100 in development in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, Vapiano puts a new spin on the dining experience with its urban upscale Italian decor and its modern customer service.

Seaview International Holiday Park, Cornwall: REVIEW

 

Seaview International are both a campsite and caravan park combined, meaning that families can take their own tents or tourers along to pitch up - or they can rent Seaview International's own caravans or lodges.

 

 

The free facilities on site include: an outdoor heated swimming pool with baby & toddler area, tennis courts, badmington, volley ball and a childrens play area. 

Morrisons M Range: Review

I can't be the only one out there who finds it just a bit TOO stressful to spend all day looking after a teething baby alone AND preparing a delicious meal for my partner to come home after work too?!

I'd love to be that perfect little housewife/mum but it just isn't me I'm afraid - and so given the chance to try out some of Morrisons new M range of convenience meals, I was very excited!

I have to admit though - as much as I love the idea of convenient ready-made meals, I do find them to be very lacking in quality most of the time - otherwise we'd all be using them all the time wouldn't we?!

So I was little nervous to try the range out but keen to give them a try after a particularly trying day!

We were went a huge array of meals to try!

Giraffe: Review

Last week, on my birthday, we were very kindly given a complimentary meal at Giraffe restaurant in Exeter for review purposes.

I had experienced Giraffe only once before - it was the same branch, and I had gone along for a quick bite after work. I had one course only and opted for the Thai Green Curry, I really didn't enjoy it and felt rather ill afterwards. I ended up feeling a bit off put and never tried Giraffe again.

However, that was the first time I'd EVER had Thai Green Curry and having since eating it from other places I came to realise that it may well have been the dish itself that I disliked rather than the actual restaurant as I have never enjoyed it from anywhere and always feel a bit unwell if I try to eat it! 

So with that in mind, I thought it may be good to give Giraffe another try.

We were invited to start with some cocktails - I opted for the Berry Bellini, and Jon (being the driver!) had a Wavebreaker mocktail.

Both of them were really lovely, and the presentation was outstanding - we both particularly loved the unusual jug with a handle that Jon's Wavebreaker came in!

For starter, we opted for a Bruschetta Board -  These were triangles of crisp, warm bruschetta topped with melting mozarella cheese and marinara sauce. Half were topped with pesto, and the other topped with artichoke, black olive and red pepper salsa.

Prezzo: Review

We were lucky enough to have recently been given the opportunity to go along to Prezzo for a meal*

For anybody who is not familiar with Prezzo, they are a nationwide chain of Italian restaurants who offer high quality food at very reasonable prices.

I've visited a few Prezzo restaurants and have always been impressed with the menu, the special offers which always seem to be running up until 5pm most days, and the surroundings.

The branch we visited was in Torquay - it is a refurbished bank and the building itself is really stunning

I wasn't able to snap a decent picture of inside the restaurant as I didn't want to inconvenience other diners or get them in the shot, but take my word for it - it is a beautiful restaurant inside! Very impressive decor.

We were greeted by the on duty manager Monika who was very welcoming, and explained the specials menu to us.

Dining that night were myself, Jon & my sister - we each browsed the menu and selected a starter, main course and dessert.

We chatted over drinks while we waited for the starter to arrive, and within no more than 7 or 8 minutes there it was!

Travelodge Manchester: Review

A couple of weeks ago, we were kindly invited to spend the night at Travelodge's Manchester Central Arena hotel to try out their newly refurbished rooms.

It had been about 6 years since I had last visited Manchester so I was excited to go and have a night away - although it was my first night away from Tyne so I was also quite unsure and apprehensive! But my Mum looked after him and I doubt he even noticed I was gone!

We arrived at the hotel at around 4 pm, I was worried that we wouldn't be able to find it as I don't know my way around Manchester at all but we put the post code into the sat nav and it took us straight there - we didn't get lost once which is quite rare for us!

Redhot Buffet Liverpool: Review

Welcome to a new bi-monthly feature on my blog - Sparkles Life!

I have wanted to incorporate more Lifestyle posts on my blog for a while now - I will be featuring them every other Tuesday, alternating them with my bi-monthly Baby Watch posts!

The Lifestyle posts could be anything from reviews of places I've been to, family trips, cooking/recipe posts, etc - to start with I have my very first restaurant review!

Last week, I was invited along to Red Hot World Buffet in Liverpool.

The restaurant is part of the Liverpool One shopping complex, and I had heard lots of good things about it from family members so I was excited to go along and try it for myself.