Restaurant Review - Frankie's, Hoylake 9/10

I had a lovely few days with Mum, which was rounded off by lunch at Frankie's in Hoylake with Dave Bro joining us on his return from Leeds. Luckily it is a stone throw from Mum's flat and I will definitely be returning with Jo as we all had a great time.

Horse racing little man Frankie Dettori and grumpy/ genius chef Marco Pierre White opened the restaurant this year in the £7m Holiday Inn redevelopment of the Kings Gap Hotel, and is one of 6 other Frankie restaurants including London, Dublin and Dubai. 

As the weather was outstanding the outdoor space really came into its own. We all agreed that we could be anywhere in the world and I for one could have sat there all day soaking up the rays and drinking cocktails. However, I was driving so that wasn't possible.....this time! 

View inside

View outside

The restaurant

As it was lunch time the others were quite restrained, but as I am running the Edinburgh Marathon I got stuck into the fat boy cannelloni. Mum had the caesar salad that came with anchovies! It is one of Jo's pet hates that they aren't always included in the dish so this was a big thumbs up. Dave Bro has the prosciutto and avocado salad which ticked all the right boxes and my cannelloni was the ideal mix of pasta, spinach and cheesy goodness - it was a struggle to finish but I managed to soldier on until the bitter end!! All in we couldn't fault the food at all.

Caesar salad

Prosciutto and avocado

Cannelloni with garlic bread and rocket

I had to leave Mum and Dave Bro to their desserts as I had to rush to miss the traffic so I have no pictures and am unsure what they had. But I am sure they would be been a brilliant finale to our lunch. Overall I would definitely recommend Frankie's to anyone who asks - it certainly puts one or two other restaurants in the local area to shame. 9/10.

Mum and simple Dave Bro

Wednesday - Quick Pasta and Mum Update

Wednesday's cooking was down to me....I was expecting Jo to be home by the time I got back from my run home - but she wasn't as she had to work late. So by the time she got back I had managed to cobble together vegetable pasta with a tomato sauce which was actually quite nice - go me!

Quite nice pasta

In more important news, Mum is in good spirits and is waiting to have the date for her chemo to start. We are hoping that it will be a week next Monday as she is quite rightly keen to get things moving - Brother Dave was home with her on Wednesday and below is a picture of them both....obviously it is not as nice as the one of me and Mum from a week or so ago, as I sure you can see he is the ugly duckling of the family.

Mum and Dave

A Round Up From Joe - Saturday, Sunday and Monday!

Ok, Jo isn't too pleased that I am doing a round up blog but I don't care! I've had a long day and my head is frazzled and I am feeling lazy....so here it is....

On Saturday Smartie visited and we had a great day out in Leeds drinking! After meeting with Dave Bro and Mike Work we went to Aire Bar, Elbow Room, Leeds Uni (briefly), The Wrens then took in a lovely drunk dinner at Darvish which is ever was great. We then headed back to ours for drinking, chatting and dancing until the early hours - I went to bed at one-ish and left Dave and Smartie setting the world to rights and getting through my whisky!

Smartie

Dave Bro

Me

Darvish delights

If you read the blog you will know that Jo was in Edinburgh, and I was looking forward for her getting back. I was expecting to have a big hangover, but for once I didn't and I put it down to not smoking when drinking. I am very much a part-time smoker, but saturday was the first time for as long as I remember that I haven't had a cigarette or five when out on the lash. Smartie and I agreed that we wouldn't smoke and neither of us did - great success and long may it continue....

For dinner Jo made fish pie with a puff pastry lid - is this controversial?? I get the impression most have mash on top but the pie goes a little mushy for us!!

Fish pie

Dinner yesterday was bolognese that had been in the freezer for a month or so....rather than pasta, Jo wanted to have it with rice as she had a sore throat. I thought that was a little strange but who an I  to argue with the chef!

Bolognese and rice