restaurant review: Beefeater Balmoral

Well it's been a while since I last posted! Since my stay in London last month and all of those restaurant reviews, life has been extremely hectic. After an intense week of interviews, I'm over the moon to say I've been offered a graduate job in PR with a wonderful company so all the hard work has paid off! And what better way to celebrate the new job than with another humongous meal with my boyfriend?

Last weekend I was kindly invited to review the recently renovated Beefeater Balmoral in Southampton, just outside of Romsey (would recommend driving to this fellow Southampton students if possible, not the easiest place to get to!). Though you can find a Beefeater in most cities, I admit I'd never actually been before so it was fun trying out the chain for the first time.

And boy did we explore the menu. Since we were celebrating, we ordered a starter to share, the Beefeater Sharing Platter, and to drink, for me a glass of rosé, and for the boy, a Bailey's Milkshake. How on earth he manages to eat so much honestly baffles me. I did try some of it though, and I was impressed as I love Bailey's! He was very happy with it as well as the bartender who made it for him (he popped over during the meal to ask how it was bless him!). 

The starter arrived promptly, and was a lovely mix of crispy chicken legs, slices upon slices of breaded crispy flat cap mushrooms, 2 beef koftas, potato dippers and grilled flatbread pieces. I am a mushroom fan for life so my favourite of the platter had to be those! Jack on the other hand loved the beef kofta. For people who like a bit of everything, this platter is great for starting off a meal and is good value too!

 For our mains, we went for quite classic menu options: Jack went for the Mixed Grill, whilst I opted for the BBQ Chicken 'n' Ribs, since I'm a huge fan of sticky ribs! On Jack's incredibly generous plate was flat iron steak, chicken breast, 5oz gammon steak and pork sausages, finished off with a half a slow-roasted tomato and mushrom, beer-battered onion rings, a fried egg and triple-cooked chips. Phew! As you can see, his main was amazing value, with all the meat cooked to perfection (bar the slight charring of the sausages haha!).

Safe to say, he was incredibly happy with his main! I was similarly impressed with mine. The pork on the ribs was tender and soft, and the chicken juicy, cleverly hidden underneath! I wasn't completely keen on the chips, I would recommend choosing the triple-cooked chips instead of the usual french fries, as they are both offered as sides with the dish. I was feeling very full afterwards.

It took us a while to decide on a dessert to have, and there was definitely something to suit everyone's tastes! I have quite the sweet tooth, as does Jack, so we both went for chocolatey options. Jack had the Cookie Dough Sundae, a huge glass filled with vanilla ice cream, complete with brownie and cookie dough chunks, finished off with whipped cream and gooey chocolate sauce.

I on the other hand, chose the Mississipi Mud Pie, which was a gorgeous combination of crunchy chocolatey biscuit on the bottom, along with soft and rich chocolate frosted on the top. This is perfect for brownie fans like myself! Unfortunately in the restaurant I couldn't get a good picture of this, and didn't realise til I got back (doh!) but here's how it looks. I was positively in chocolate heaven, especially with the same goosey chocolate sauce drizzled across the plate. 

Overall, I would say I was very pleasantly surprised with my first visit to a Beefeater restaurant! The atmosphere of it was quite family-based, with lots of small and big families sat around us for Sunday Roast or a treat. I sensed many of the diners were locals, and the staff were incredibly welcoming and chatty. I love how they've changed up the decor, which should help to freshen up their image as a traditional pub chain.

Whilst it's not the easiest place to get to if you don't drive around Southampton, I would highly recommend as a comforting dinner with family or friends during a chilled weekend!

Thanks for reading! Have you visited Beefeater since its refurb? What did you think?

This is a sponsored post. I was invited to review the restaurant in return for compensation. However, all views in this post are my own. For more information, visit my disclaimer.