UK – Epic Epicurean

YARD & COOP, Liverpool

Posted on December 16, 2016January 14, 2017 by chantellepic

All Chicken lovers, keep calm! There is an epic restaurant that has come to town with a devotion to buttermilk chicken! It is a chilled and quirky place to pop down for a a few cheeky drinks after work.

It is neatly tucked away downstairs under Bem Brazil on Hanover street. The entrance is on the corner of the building whereby you will be welcomed by the lovely staff. There is a tree in the middle of the entrance hall to start off the theme of the foxes den dining experience!

I was lucky enough to dine at YARD & COOP prior to the official opening night. It was lovely to have a sneak peek of the restaurant. I can definitely see it bringing fun and liveliness to The bottom of Hanover Street.

It was not difficult to find the entrance of the restaurant. Arriving through the entrance I was pleasantly surprised by the tree indoor and it being a feature in introducing the theme of the restaurant. Once down the stairs there are so many little areas perfect to have catch up or after work drinks to wind down and enjoy by the bar area (Yard).

which then leads to the restaurant area (Coop), which is themed perfectly to the name. I absolutely love the quirky den themed seating areas! I’m not very tall so dining downstairs of the den area was no problem! I could not stop thinking that the dining environment is not only a fun way of dining for kids but also adults too.

The menu is absolutely full of a range of buttermilk chicken cuts, sauce and sides to choose from it most definitely beats Colonel’s if I say so myself.

I had a lovely non-alcoholic cocktail (unfortunately unsure of the name, sorry!) to start the evening off. At the time I was not too hungry to eat too much, so a starter wings and a portion of chips were ordered for myself. but there is so much to choose from and as you’ll see from the photos below all thee different variety of dishes available not only for chicken lovers but vegetarians too. all dishes were delicious!

An epicly colourful non-alcoholic cocktail.
Chips and Bourbon BBQ wings were devine!

All dishes were generously portioned and the meal was thoroughly enjoyed by of us girls. Even sitting in the den coop area made it more cosy and gave a lovely chance to chat away without realising the where the time went.
This is a must visit restaurant for all chicken lovers or even vegetarians! as they offer halloumi, and if you’re not hungry its perfect for a wind down drink after work or a day full of shopping in Liverpool.

Find out more at http://yardandcoop.com/liverpool/

First – third photos credits to YARD&COOP.

Thank you for taking some time out to read my post about the YARD&COOP!

Ice Festival Liverpool⛸❄️

Posted on December 10, 2016 by chantellepic

It’s been a while since I’ve skated on an ice rink! I’ll be honest I am a bit scared to ice skate due to the blades and being afraid that if I fall that once someone could easily cut me accidentally when they go past me.

I was given the opportunity to take my younger cousin to the Ice Festival on Piers Head! She absolutely loved it!

The ice rink itself is covered which is perfect as it had rained all day! The Ice Festival not only offers ice skating but there is also a ice slide too! Which is lots of fun! There’s also a viewing area and a indoor bar area.

There are also funfair rides for young and older ones! And if rides aren’t your thing why not enjoy a few funfair games to win a prize or go get yourself a hotdog and a drink 😋

I definitely recommend going to the Ice Festival as it’s suits all members of the family!

Cars and Coffee Liverpool November

Posted on December 2, 2016December 4, 2016 by chantellepic

If you are a car fanatic then this is a good one for you! Every month on a Sunday the Chung ku restaurant, Liverpool host a morning of showcasing cars and a chance to enjoy a coffee and Char Sui Bao…

Chung ku restaurant is located on Columbus Quay, Liverpool. This event gives car fanatics and owners a chance to get together once a month for a few hours.

There is a chosen charity every month where by volunteers bucket collect for the charity they represent. Inside the restaurant coffee and char siu buns are available with other drinks of your choice (I.e hot choc, tea or juice). Each is priced at £2 each or £3 for a bun and a drink!

There was such a variety of cars in the two car parks, from your classics to the fast speedy cars. I managed to snap a few pictures below.

The following car I was lucky enough to be able to sit in!

This is a lovely family friendly event that is FREE to attend! Every third Sunday of the month 9a.m-12p.m.

I’ll admit it does bring a little car dream envy but also inspiration to aim to succeed.

Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram or Twitter to find out the next date for Cars&Coffee Liverpool!
Or check out the following official links for Cars and Coffee Liverpool:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/Carsandcoffeeliverpool

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cars-and-Coffee-Liverpool

Www.chungku.co

https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/1020065331/

I hope to see you at the next one next year!

Shh… it’s the Lord Mayor of Liverpools’ 3rd Charity Supper Club

Posted on November 25, 2016November 25, 2016 by chantellepic

Lord Mayor Roz Gladden hosted her third Charity Supper Club of the year! If you didn’t know already, once a month since September 2016 the Lord Mayor of Liverpool hosts a supper club event where by part of the ticket price is donated to this years chosen charities.

Shhh… this month was hosted at a secret bar! Ex-Directory is a new secret bar in Liverpool, if you check out my previous post “shh.. it’s a secret”, you’ll see I have already done a review of the two popular cocktails of the bar.

Every guest was emailed a ticket with the three clues of location and the secret password to enter past the red phone box!

It took a few people a little longer than others to find the location but as soon as each guest arrived they were kindly greated by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, Ben (General Manager) and Charalene (one of the member of committee).

As we waited for all to arrive before seating… the first course was given to us, Mulled wine ice lolly. It was certainly a quirky twist to your usual warm mulled wine! On a personal view, I found it to be better than a hot mug of mulled wine.

Once all guests had arrived and were seated. A lovely introduction to the evening was given by Ben to inform us of the itinary including the five cocktails, a demonstration of a cocktail being made from the Lord Mayor herself and the sponsors of the evening.

The second course came swiftly, this was a healthy cocktail 😉 Red pepper gazpacho. There was certainly a strong flavour of red peppers, a mix of gin and a zest of lemon.

Third one was “7 streets of Liverpool”. This cocktail was chosen specifically by the Lord Mayor herself from a internal competition the bar staff had. The bartenders competed against one another to create a cocktail of their choice with a strong history/ reason for the ingredients chosen. The cocktails had been created for gin lovers, there was aviation gin, pea purée, egg white, lemon, velvet falernum and mangetoute. This was a refreshing cocktail.

Small Canapés came at a good time as a little mid break snack of the liquid courses.

The forth cocktails was the Cherry spritz! This was a lovely sweet cocktail that had a nice mix of cherry Herring liqueur, rose prosecco and ginger ale.

Fifth and final cocktail was the special Ex-Directory Digestif! The Teelings whisky had a strong taste with a twist of orange giving it a little zest of extra flavour. A truffle and a piece of dark chocolate was served to compliment the final cocktail which was very nice!

Those not drinking received non alcoholic cocktails instead the following are a couple I managed to take a sip of!

This mixed berry virgin Daiquiri was a refreshing blend of Icy summer berries and a splash of lime.

This other non alcoholic cocktail I managed to get a sip of was a Virgin Porn Star which was a nice mix of passion fruit juice and soda!

There was also a raffle

All in all it was a fabulous evening raising £700 for charity! Ben and the team at Ex-Directorh did an amazing job with the cocktails and the service was top notch!

I highly recommend people to visit the Ex-Dorectory for a cocktail or two when in Liverpool! Whether it be alcoholic or non-alcoholic! They are open various hours and can accommodate for meetings, team building, birthdays etc.

I look forward to the next Lord Mayor of Liverpool Supper Club!

Friday night vibes!!

Posted on November 19, 2016November 20, 2016 by chantellepic

After a busy week last week and having a friend visiting Liverpool, a few hours of spa time was much needed!

As we stayed in the lovely spacious Titanic Hotel Liverpool Thursday evening, we decided to take the opportunity to use the thermal suite in the Maya Blue Spa! (At a cost of £25 for residents)

The Maya Blue spa is located in the basement of the hotel. The thermal suite was nice and quiet as we chose to go in late afternoon! The spa itself closes at 8p.m. Which was perfect for our booking in a newly opened restaurant. The poolside was something that made you feel the vibes of the titanic.

Many people have recommended the Neighbourhood restaurant in Manchester to me, so when I heard about the opening of the Neighbourhood opening in Liverpool.. ensuring a table booked within its first week of opening had to be done!

Walking through the doors we were greated by a lovely lady who asked us to wait in the bar area. After a bit of a wait (for a better table than opposite the bar) we were seated.

A live singer sang whilst we chose of food, which was nice as it makes the wait seem shorter! There is a nice selection of food available on the menu!

For starters there was so much to choose from! As a light starter was craved, I couldn’t resist having a couple of oysters and salmon sashimi for starters! Although I’d admit the salmon sashimi wasn’t quite what we expected (for sashimi lovers!) never the less it was still nice.

They have a good selection of mains offered, a rump (cooked rare) and a fillet steak (cooked medium) was chosen on our table which came with fries! (One was swapped for a side of spinach instead)

Both steaks were beautifully cooked! The food was absolutely mouth watering!

As it was a cold evening I was ready for a warm dessert! The sticky toffee pudding was a delicious way to end the meal!

Dispite the long wait (most probably due it being the first few days opening so they are just getting into the system,team and venue), I would highly recommend this restaurant! Most especially on a weekend evening! As later in the evening, during the dessert there was an EPIC saxophone and bongo drums performance! The performance certainly made the evening and shows that this is a fab place to come for dinner and cocktails before a night out in Liverpool on a weekend!

A little snippet of the performance…

A tip would definitely be… book a table around 20:30/21:00 p.m to give yourself time to eat and enjoy the Friday night vibes of live music performances! I’m not sure if it was just for the first weekend opening but hopefully not!

Our meal worked out to be roughly £44 per head inc service charge. Our bill had been charged for a sushi platter for two when we only had a sashimi, but this was resolved swiftly (I have no problem as it’s a little mistake and they were apologetic).

Shhh It’s a Secret!!

Posted on November 18, 2016November 17, 2016 by chantellepic

I had heard about a secret bar hidden somewhere in the heart of Liverpool, therefore I felt the need to try and find out more!

Ex-Directory is a bar in Liverpool with a secret location, whereby you enter through a red phone box! without a doubt it is a different and exciting night to organise for a catch up, whilst sipping cocktails!

A table was reserved on a Thursday evening, in which following the booking we were sent a few clues for us to find the location ourselves (seeing this got us excited and madly googling the area!). Upon guessing the area from the clues, it took us a little while to find the red phone box which wasn’t an actual phone box (mistaking a real phone box for the location from afar certainly brought laughter)… Once we had found it we were very excited to be entering! (unfortunately I am unable to disclose the location to you! it wouldn’t be a secret otherwise!)

We had stepped into the phone box, picking up the telephone to enter and the door was then opened to be greeted downstairs in the bar area. The bar was quiet but thats normal for an early evening on a Thursday I’d say, this was perfect for a catch up. There’s a wide variety of different cocktails to choose from.

I am a big fan of candyfloss! hence I had chosen a dessert style cocktail ‘Little Fluffy Clouds’ which has gin, limoncella & fresh rasberries, topped with cream soda, candyfloss & a silver lining… The cocktail was very nice and the gin was not too strong which is how I prefer it.

The other cocktail chosen was ‘Two Little Ducks’, consisting of Portobello Road Gin & Violet with lavender bath bubbles! The best part was that the shared cocktail comes in an actual little bath! with two little ducks of course… This cocktail is a lovely cocktail for both gin lovers and those who are not too keen on gin! I am not a massive fan of gin but this cocktail did not have an overpowering taste of gin!

Both cocktails are not just tasty but they are most definitely aesthetically pleasing too! which is a bonus to have fun cocktails on a night out. Of course you also cannot go wrong on a glass of rose too!

I highly recommend Ex-Directory to people who love a little secret bar and fun quirky cocktails! I can imagine that on a weekend there are even more party vibes prepping anyone for a good night out in Liverpool!

Family outing

Posted on November 4, 2016November 10, 2016 by chantellepic

There are 27 of us in my mums side of the family!

we had our first family trip away to Anglesey, North Wales in October 2016! We have never had a trip where all the immediate members of the family are present! as you can guess, it can be difficult to find a restaurant without pre booking in advance!

We wanted to go out for lunch after our morning beach walk, so in the morning we called a few various places but unfortunately our party of 23 and 2 dogs were unable to be accomodated…. until we rang The Marra Grass cafe! The lady on the phone was lovely and said we could be accommodated in the porch area!

We arrived at the cafe to find it was by a caravan site with an outdoor play area. The cafe is quite a small lovely cafe with a covered outdoor courtyard area. As there was 23 of us the whole courtyard section was reserved for us! we all sat around 5 tables which worked out perfectly. There was also water bowls out for the dogs! Which is fab when you have a dog as part of the family.

The courtyard is a covered area with grape branches dangling above us! It was a cute and quaint area to have our family lunch.

Between us all we practically ordered the whole menu! Their menu is organic, fresh and home cooked meal!

On my table we had the classic fish and chips, mushroom risotto and the younger children had a yummy macaroni and cheese (if I say so myself!). All the dishes were delicious, my personalfavourite was the risotto!

The food portions sizes were generous for the price, but we couldn’t resist trying their homemade desserts!