The Wro

Last friday it was off to West Kirby for a stag night, a quiet affair with six of us, the groom, best man, two ushers a friend and me, father of the bride. Now I had never had a run ashore in West Kirby, nor have I watched the television programme Cougar Town, however, I get the impression that on a Friday night, that is just what West Kirby transforms itself into.

We met first at the Wro bar, and had a pint of Boddingtons, the beer people stock when they can't be bothered to install a hand pump, and then we moved over the road to the Wro lounge to have something to eat. There is a third Wro, the loft, but that is for special evenings and major sporting events.

The menu in the bar and lounge is the same, but the lounge is more geared up to eating than the bar which can get a bit crowded . So we were shown to our tale, and ordered some more drinks while we ordered. We passed on starters and went straight in to mains, one steak, medium rare, two hot pizza's, and two chillies for the guests, a burger for the groom and away we go.

The young Irish waitress who took our order was a bit miserable, but the other staff were cheery enough. The older lady ( the owner?) who is normally in there was not evident on Friday, and given she can be a bit 'strange', that may have been why the mood of the place was lighter than normal. We did have to wait an hour or so for our food which might have been a problem if you were a cosy twosome, but the reason was evident when we walked in, there were two large groups already seated so we were a bit behind in the pecking order.

Still, the food when it came was fine, although the burger was a bit heavy on bread and light on burger. The chilli was hot and not at all cooked to suit the middle of the road gang, and the steak was cooked as ordered. It could have been a bit pinker, so rare would be my call next time i am in there.

Only mild irritation was the cutlery and condiments arriving in a small metal bucket which you would expect in a family oriented diner, not an adult eating establishment.

The clientele made for great people watching, with loads of  mixed age couples being the subject of our rather basic lines in conversation. The Wirral's answer to Alderley Edge is right on our doorstep!!

The Manor

Now I think first impressions are vital when deciding whether or not to select a particular outlet for Sunday lunch, so it was lucky that we had been to The Manor, in Greasby, before. I rang up to make a reservation a few days before hand and found that they had introduced a selective telephone service. I duly went through the options , arriving at the future reservations menu, only to be informed that this option  only functioned until 18:00, would I ring back later? Bit of a nuisance, but I rang back on the day to book. The maitre d' was fairly brusk on the telephone which made me a bit suspicious that the restaurant may have changed hands, but I booked anyway and we turned up as planned at 4pm.

We had already been informed that we could have the table for two hours and we had no problem with this, and given it was barbecue weather we had not anticipated it would be rammed. We had a drink as we scanned the menu and then were approached by the maitre d' for our orders.

Now they had two on during the afternoon, and the grumpy one looked like Greg Wallace from MasterChef ,  iIt was he who took the order.  SWMBO selected the roast beef, and luckily we knew it came rare, but 'Greg' failed to ask how we wanted it, we mentioned it to the waiter when we sat down and it was presented medium no problem.

We are also regular enough to know the service can be a bit brisk, so we asked 'Greg' if we could have a good 15-20 minute break between courses. This was greeted with a ' I'll ask the chef' ' in a manner that suggested eating a three course meal in half an hour was one of the attractions of the establishment.

So caveat emptor, if you are going to the manor for the first time.

Now onto the food and service. All of it was very enjoyable. We had the black pudding as one starter, and the terrine of ham hock as the other. The bread was a bit doughy with the pate, but other than that it was fine. The mains were aforesaid Sunday roast beef and trimmings, and I had a shank of lamb which was very pleasant. We had two bottles of Viognier through the meal, and without the break between courses we may have only had one, so there is a good reason to allow people to pace their eating, you can sell more wine!

The waiting on staff are mostly young people dressed impeccably in French style white shirt and black apron, and the other maitre d' was very pleasant and polite. we even found out they have just opened a new restaurant in West Kirby, called Milan, on the site of the previously named Green Room. we will give that a try.

The meal was £13.95 for two courses, we passed on the desert, and jumped on the bus home!!