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

A round up of the past few days

I was home from Saturday through to tomorrow to with with her through her 2nd session at Clatterbridge which took place today. Ok, it's a pretty poor reason to be home but I do enjoy hanging out with Mum and seeing friends and family who are based on the Wirral. Obviously I miss Jo, but I am lucky to have the best fiancee who understands the reasons why I need to be here and she supports me 100% - thanks biscuits!!x

Anyway, here is a whistle stop tour of the last few days;


On Friday after work, Jo and I stopped for a post work drink and a couple of Oysters at Stew and Oyster - our new favourite venue in Leeds.

Jo

Joe

 

On Saturday I left Jo to head home and after a few hours with Mum I joined Smartie, Al and Jess to sample wedding wines with the Champions League final in the background (which I hardly saw any of which I was pleased with)......Al and Jess get married in July and we are really looking forward to being with them on their big day.

Al and Jess

Joe and Smartie

Sunday started with a hangover after getting through all the wine from the night before. Yuck. I managed to drag myself out for a run, then to a game of snooker with Unc the Punk, followed being dragged out onto Caldy Hill by Mum - she has more energy than me!! The day was rounded off by a stir fry cooked by my fair hand and a nice relaxing night in for us.

Mum on Caldy Hill

Today started with blood checks at Clatterbridge for Mum and an all day chemo session. I managed to sneak away to go and visit an old friend of mine, Andy Pimbley at Claremont Farm. It's a brilliant farm with loads going on, but best of all loads of exciting plans for the future. Andy has really taken the bull by the horns and I have no doubt that he will build on the current successes.  Good work pal! After a difficult few months with the weather, the Asparagus has come out to play at last and he was kind enough to give me some to sample. I also bought a few other bits in the well stocked and good value farm shop. I'll be back soon as Jo really wants to visit too.

Mr Asparagus

Some asparagus bounty

The asparagus was put to work this evening at the Hosnys - after a difficult day I couldn't think of a better place to be to raise the spirits with good food, a couple of drinks, laughs and even a bit of dancing thrown in....our second home.

Pimbley asparagus, salmon and new potatoes

Pastilla all the way from Libiya

Barbara's lemon cake and Mollie's chocolate and Hazelnut ice cream

Here are more photos from this evening (non of Mummy Hosny as she is camera shy!):

Raf the chef and music maestro

Mummy Rees

The brothers grim

I'll be heading back to Leeds tomorrow after leaving Mum in Brother Dave's capable hands....thanks for reading!

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

Wednesday - Stir-Fry Noodles and a Spicy Grilled Chicken

It's been a bit of an adjustment getting back into the swing of normal life, but I think I managed it today with a solid day at work followed by a lovely evening with Jo who made stir-fry. The only fly in the ointment is that Chelski are currently winning in the football but that may still change! Over the next few weeks things will get a little bit more hectic with Mum, so I am glad for some quiet time so I can give her all the support and energy she needs when treatment starts!

Stir-fry noodles

Spicy grilled chicken

My plate (number one)

Monday - Cautious Optimism for Mum

To keep the blog real, I need to write about some bad news our family and friends had over the past week or so, as it will be impossible to continue without mentioning it. I am on the Wirral with Mum at the moment and I have discussed it with her; she is comfortable for us to be upfront and open with her situation and for the journey to be documented along with other stuff that we talk about here.

On Thursday 5th April Mum got diagnosed with cancer which was a huge shock to us all. Today we went to Arrow Park Hospital to get a clearer picture of what we are dealing with along with a plan of action. This is not the time to go into all the details but she has ovarian cancer and a treatment plan of chemotherapy over coming months.

Mum is a fit and strong lady with a natural optimism that has helped her through some very challenging situations in the past. I have absolutely no doubt that she will draw on her own strength and the strength of all the family and friends in fighting the cancer. We will be there every step of the way Mum....love xx

Me and Mum today

Mum did make me dinner yesterday (with the help of Auntie Karen) - good effort considering!!!xx

Thursday - Motorway M&S, The Wirral & Choc Torte

As were were in North Wales for the weekend and had Friday off work, we decided to head back to the Wirral after work on Thursday to spend some time at home. As I have become accustomed to, Jo was later to finish work that expected so we didn't get on the road until 6.45ish. We were both starving, so decided to stop at M&S on the m62 for a dinner of sandwiches and a packet of Percy Pig & Pals for pudding.....

My Club Sandwich

Jo's Prawn & Salmon

Percy Pig & Pals

As we were staying with Shereef & Steph, we met @mrs_ordinary (aka my Mum!) for a quick drink and it was great to catch up with here....hi Mum!

Jo & Mum

 We headed over to Shereef & Stephs at 9.30ish and it was great to spend some time with them. Smartie was also at theirs who is a good friend who I have known since I was a kid, but not quite as long as I have known Shereef!.....here we are in our younger days!

Me at the front, my bro to the left & Shereef in the back seat

Jo and I were delighted to discover that there had been a special delivery from Whitto of the below slice of chocolate tort that Commodore and Mrs Andrew had made.....DELICIOUS!

Chocolate Torte

Me munching it!

Monday - Happy Birthday Mum (and Chicken Stir Fry)

Happy Birthday Mum! 

These are cup cakes that Jo made for her last year (with her face on!) for her birthday with some pictures from a day out at the Harewood House Country Fair. (the was a semi-colon here but I have had to replace it with a full stop as it was 'illegal grammar' - I didn't know there was such a thing!)

Brilliantly fun treats

Mum and a parrot

Jo and Mum

Mum, Auntie Karen, Dave Bro & me

All of us!!

For tonights dinner, Jo made good use of the veg that is filling the fridge with a fresh and zingy chicken stir-fry with rice noodles...

Prawn crackers - I am addicted!

Thursday - Riverford Veg Medley with Egg and yesterday's Pesto

It's Mums birthday on Monday so it was late night shopping for me, while Jo had a few drinks on a work night out. I obviously can't say what we have got her, but she may mention it on her blog on Monday.

Also, yesterday I created my sponsorship page for my running, which will be for the Seve Ballesteros Foundation - I am aiming for a £1000 and am on zero at the moment so feel free to put your hand in your pockets for a good cause!....click here to find it.

Back to the food, Jo whipped up a Veg Medley (made from today's Riverford delivery) topped with an egg and the left-over pesto that I made yesterday.

Ps. This is a quick mention about some of the brilliant work an old friend of mine is doing on the Wirral at Claremont Farm - check it out here

Sunday - 10k Runs and Rib Eye!

If you read this you will know that I manged to rope Jo into doing a 10k run with me. We entered the Hoylake 10k which is in my home town and was  all for these guys so a very good cause....Nick Bro also joined us (much to his despair as he had a cold or something - boo hoo!). After the run at 11am, the plan was to watch the Liverpool game - it was great to see Family Hosny but the match was terrible with a 4 - 0 Spurs win..pah!!

The day started with porridge which Jo (being Scottish) is an expert at making

A pre run shot. As you can see Jo was overjoyed to be involved

I can speak for us all (including Nick Bro) that we enjoyed the run. The weather was pretty good and the wind wasn't too bad considering the seaside location. The official times are not on the website but I think I finished in around 42.40 mins and Jo in around 53 mins which is a great 1st 10k time, with Nick close behind - I don't think I have ever seen anyone so sweaty as him and he borrowed by headphones - YUCK!!!!

We got back to Leeds with a the rib eye from yesterday with us (thanks Mum), so Jo did a perfectly cooked steak with oven baked chips - just what we needed after the days exercise.

Oven baked chips

Steak

Perfect for us - rare!!!

All the good stuff

A well deserved beer