Ad disclosure: We were given a £50 deduction from our bill for the purpose of this post.
James and I have always enjoyed Sizzling Pubs, and over the years have (mostly) had good experiences eating at them, in various locations. We are both fans of a good steak, so Sizzling is a great budget-friendly option for all sorts of meat-lover meals!
We were invited to come along and try out the new menu at the recently refurbished Stag & Three Horseshoes pub over in Halesowen. We used to live around 5 minutes from this particular branch, so have eaten there before in the past, but we haven’t been back there for a few years.
We went along on Saturday evening and although the pub car park was busy we managed to get a space without any issues, as they have ample parking around the back of the building. Once inside we walked through to the dining area and there were a (small) handful of tables available. It is obviously still just as popular as it was 5 years ago. It looked like they have replaced most of the seating and the majority of the tables – unfortunately ours was one of the older ones and annoyingly wobbly, which is not ideal when you have wriggly kids and full drinks!
James and I decided to have starters, and the waitress helpfully gave us some small side plates which made it easy for us to give the girls a few nibbles off our plates while we ate. They were also given activity sheets and pencil crayons to amuse them while they waited for their children’s meals to arrive. The BBQ Glazed Chicken Wings (£4.29) I opted for were really delicious, and James polished off his House-Fried Corn Nachos for One (£3.29) very happily.
Georgie and Lydia both had children’s meal deals, with Lydia opting for the under 5s Mini Toad in the Hole, and Georgie going for the over 5s Toad in the Hole. Included in the price (£3.99 for Lydia & £4.99 for Georgie) they both got a drink and a dessert too; Georgie opted for a fruit shoot while Lydia enjoyed a good sized glass of milk.
For mains James chose a Mixed Grill Burger (£9.29) which included a soft drink of his choice in the price, and he said it was “really good with nice meat”. I went for the 8oz Sirloin Steak (£8.99) cooked rare, and it was delicious. Both of our meals came with the usual sides including some really nice chips.
For our drinks, James opted for a glass of Pepsi while I enjoyed a mini-bottle of prosecco (£3.99) – I really like it when restaurants have these small bottles available, and for a decent price too. I’m not a big drinker and I never want to order a full bottle of wine or fizz when it’s just me, so it is a lovely treat to have one of these when possible.
Time for dessert! The girls were super excited about this as they knew from eating at a Sizzling a few weeks earlier that they now have Build your own Sundae on the menu. You get two scoops of ice cream, a little pack of Cadbury chocolate buttons, chocolate chunks, fresh strawberries, and chocolate sauce, and get to put them together however you like. Lydia is quite methodical about this while Georgie goes for a more “whack it all on higgedly piggedly” approach.
I chose the Cookie Dough Cream Pie (£3.69) for my dessert and Oh My Goodness it was as good as it sounds. I’d not tried it before but it was absolutely delicious. I didn’t think I’d be able to manage more than half of it but I almost cleared my plate. I think I need to try to recreate the recipe at home. James enjoyed a portion of the Irish Cream Profiteroles (£3.69), and we headed home very full and satisfied with our meal!
The meal for our family of four, including 3 courses for the adults, 2 courses for the children, and drinks for all of us (and one of those alcoholic) came to less than the £50 deduction we had been given. I think this is great value.
Overall we were very pleased with our meal; the food was tasty and well cooked, the service was excellent and the pub was comfortable – if a little warm where we were sat next to the radiator! It was lovely to go back to one of our old haunts, too – I’m pretty sure it was one of the first places we ate out together after Lydia was born.
