Eating Sweet finish to birthday steak-out

WE weren’t sure where we wanted to celebrate my baby’s 16th birthday – yes, he is still my baby!

A wee nosey online and we remembered about this Marston’s pub in Forfar.

The menu is extensive, definitely something for everyone, and the range of special offers meant it didn’t have to break the bank.

Birthday boy, who has developed a taste for steak, was happy to see a choice on offer and agreed I could book a table. As a reward for joining the mailing list, I received a free pudding voucher. Bonus!

At the bar we asked, as it is the law that 16-year-olds can have a drink with a meal in UK pubs, if the young man of moment could have a cider. Unfortunately that’s not part of Marston’s policy.

Ach well, too bad. A glass of Pepsi Max (£2.30) it was, though we did pay an extra 85p to make it bottomless. Happy birthday, son.

As said already, steak is the meal of choice and it was decided two of us would have the chef’s recommended 12oz ribeye steak (£18.95).

I was lured by the chicken and ribs combo (£13.50) and my other son, who can’t see past buttermilk chicken on a menu, went for the XL chicken and chorizo burger (£16.25).

I realise these are quite costly dishes, but when you take into account there is a two-for-one offer on main meals every day and so the chicken dishes were free, it becomes quite reasonable.

My eye had drifted to the starters section and I’d seen something called The Filler (£8.45), a combo plate for sharing. Feeling adventurous we added Dough Ball Roulette (£3.45) to the mix.

You place your order at the bar here, no table service.

It didn’t seem like a long wait, though the waitress apologised as she brought our starters over.

The platter had four buttermilk chicken goujons, two slices of garlic bread, and a pile of breaded mushrooms, onion rings and homemade potato wedges, served with garlic mayo and barbecue dips.

Everything was very tasty, even the wedges which I’m often not a fan of, but they did actually taste homemade. The highlight was the succulent, tender chicken, easily the best thing on the plate.