In uphill Lincoln, there’s a cosy little establishment named Café Zoot.
Unlike the name suggests, it is in fact a restaurant. Continue reading
What To Expect From Café Zoot Restaurant
Category Archives: What To Expect
What To Expect From The Barge On The Brayford
The Barge on the Brayford is basically a little restaurant-boat-thing floating on the Brayford. But unlike Wagamama’s, it doesn’t completely trash the nice view – in fact, it probably wouldn’t look right without it.
It’s a very romantic little vessel. Especially if you like things to be “cosy”. It’s quite small, as boats usually are, and you don’t have “that” much personal space when it’s busy in there. It’s like being packed in a tin of sardines.
You could go there with a significant other, friend or someone that you like to share your “romantic” moments with. The posh table cloths, mellow lighting and candles will make things even more lovey dovey as you stare longingly into one another’s eyes. Ew.
As for the menu, well, it’s pretty well known for serving fish courses. Lots and lots and lots of fish courses. If you can think of a fish, they probably have it. It’s kind of like being in an aquarium. And no, that isn’t a euphemism (remember, they have lots of fish courses).
They even serve duckling. Yes, DUCKLING. Lincolnshire duckling, to be exact.
There are lots of other wonderful foods on offer, including meats and salads. Which is good, because personally, the idea of eating a duckling makes me want to vomit.
I’m not a fussy eater, but I also have odd cravings? So, whilst on a barge full of wonderful sea food, what did I have? Lincolnshire sausage & mash, of course. But it was wonderful. The mash was cooked perfectly and the sausages were very meaty (and I do like a good sausage). There was also plenty of gravy, which is of course a necessity.
The atmosphere is great and there’s also a really nice view. Even when it’s dark, the night time view of the Brayford looks really pretty. (It’s basically the perfect Instagram moment).
The Barge on The Brayford is much more than just a barge. It’s an M&S barge. Well not really, but it is pretty much as perfect as some of the reduced things you might find in there. To get you in the mood, here’s a lovely boat themed song…
What To Expect From Churchills Lincoln
So, picture this, you’re in Lincoln and someone mentions a stop off for coffee/tea/cake.
Then you remember you’re never more than a metre from a tea or coffee shop.
Our latest find is Churchills Restaurant & Coffee Bar.
Located on the High Street, opposite Carluccio’s, this cosy coffee shop is modern with a relaxed atmosphere. Not the usual tatty looking leather sofas and patterned bucket chairs placed round a coffee table. It definitely feels more like a restaurant, with cushions on the seats to soften the mood (and the seats).
The menu contains a selection of hot and cold drinks, all at reasonable prices. They also serve meals, as it’s also a restaurant. How lovely if you’re struggling to choose between food or coffee.
The desserts and cake selection is definitely amazing, so many different puddings. So many we spent several minutes umm-ing and ahh-ing over what to get. Eventually I opted for a warm scone, you may pronounce this as ‘scon’ (we’ll save that debate for another time), with jam and cream.
Finally the staff are really friendly and welcoming, which makes everything so much better. It runs on waitress service too, so there’s none of the embarrassing slow walk across with a tray of hot beverages. If you’re in hurry, (you’re obviously busy), you might as well stop by to pick up something to take away.
What To Expect From Steep Hill…Part 2
If you read the first part of this guide last week, you may have spent the last few days lost, trapped in the fog and eagerly anticipating what to do next. Well, fear not, here is part 2.
The first shop you’ll encounter here may be 44, which is easily our favourite Steep Hill spectacular. It’s basically a really cute craft shop which sells notebooks, postcards, cushions and general household objects. Some of these are imported from places like Japan, making them totally unique in Lincoln. So oriental!
Next there are a couple more little boutiques and clothes shops that sell lots more vintage items. We tend to spend awfully long in these, but as we said earlier, we’re basically all grannies. Seriously, you should see my mothballs. That’s not a euphemism. The rest of the customers too are either grannies, or ‘young’ grannies like us. It’s like a wild little OAP party.
If you’re an avid reader, you’ll have noticed our rather incredible review of Bell’s tea and coffee house the other week. This should most definitely be your next stop as it sells some amazingly tasty home-made cakes. If you don’t like cake, just get out. Stop reading now and leave.
Anyway, after this, you can wash down the cake with a wonderful mini pub crawl. This should include pubs like the Wig & Mitre and Widow Cullen’s Well. These are like proper old school, stereotypically English pubs. They’re complete with comfy armchairs, massive rugs (ooh, raunchy) and even portraits of random, slightly creepy bearded men for your perusal. They do very cheap cider though and are friendly, which is always nice.
You’ve now made it to the top of 2012’s best street ever in the universe or something. Congratulations. Here you’ll find another cafe and another pub (woop). If you’re one of the ridiculously slow path hogging tourists who’ve come to see Lincoln after watching the Da Vinci Code, you’ll be happy to hear that the Cathedral is up here, too. Exciting times, dear readers!
What To Expect From La Trattoria Da Vincenzo
Where is La Trattoria Da Vincenzo? Well here it is on Google Maps. 4.7 stars and it’s reviewed by 8 people! They can’t be wrong.
Yeah, we can’t pronounce it either, we just call it that Italian Place on West Parade. Or you can try it with a fake Italian accent like Luigi from The Simpsons (just don’t be a racist about it) or let Google Translate do the hard work. (Click on the speaker button). Continue reading
What to Expect From Odeon Cinema
There is only one cinema in Lincoln…well that’s a lie.In fact Lincoln has two cinemas, on Odeon and The Ritz. Today, we are reviewing the lovely Odeon cinema with the Costa and the Ben and Jerry’s on the side.
What To Expect From Steep Hill…Part 1
It’s a pretty well known fact that Lincoln’s award winning Steep Hill is actually completely flat.
And if you believe that, you’ve clearly never been to Lincoln. Steep Hill is actually very, very steep.
What To Expect From Bells’ Tea And Coffee House
Now, I know in Lincoln you’ll probably be spoilt for choice when it comes to looking for a cafe or tea room. If you think Lincoln is running short on this type of place then seriously, you must love a hot beverage.
If you like tea rooms and pastel colours, this might just be up your street. Or hill.
What To Expect From The Brand Spanking New Shed.
The Shed. You’ve probably been there and if you’re a Lincolnite, you’re probably a fan.
But at the back end of last year, tragedy hit when they announced they were to close and become an office block… Dun Dun Dun!
The University of Lincoln’s Student Union came to the rescue (such heroic specimens), announcing they’d save The Shed and make it a student bar.
This brand new Shed (a.k.a The Shed Student Bar – what a mouthful) opened today.
They’ve got some shiny new beer pumps (shiny, oooh. They’re like weird round mirrors. Literally, you can check yourself out) along with lots of new beers (yay!) and free wifi that now actually works. This is of course the highlight and means you now have no excuse not to have those group meetings you’ve been putting off for oh so long.
It’s also cheaper. The SU have wangled some much better prices on the drinks. If you like Carlsberg, it’s now £2.
At the moment they’re still using those wonderful old (sometimes a bit sticky) tables that we all know and love. This will be changing soon (yay for a new wood smell)!
The menus and offers will be changed in September, but until then, the ones we know and love will keep going. This means Shed Wednesdays and Half Price Breakfast Thursdays shall live on (wahoo). You may or may not see us writing our posts in there. If you do, approach us with caution.
What To Expect From Kind Bar
Lincoln has a lot of bars, it’s the perfect place to be if you love a good bar crawl. With a delightful mix of big chains and independent bars, Kind is one of Lincoln’s unique bars. You’ve probably passed it without even realising.
What To Expect From Lincoln New Year
In Chinese terms, 2014 is the year of the horse. And if you’re out seeing in this new year tonight, this is hopefully something that won’t be featuring in your post-night-out kebab (that scandal is so 2013, after all).
But if you can’t actually decide what to do with your life tonight, there are an array of events happening across the city to bring the year in with a bang.
What To Expect From TV In 2014
Let’s be honest, it’ll be mostly shit.
But, let’s also try and be positive, it may now all be that bad.
I’ve tried to get together a list of the stuff which I think will be worth watching out for, the stuff you should be watching if you’re not, and compiled them into a sort of “list”.
Only Connect – BBC Four (moving to BBC Two) – This may look boring as hell, and also as difficult as trying to pull a nipple off, but it is actually brilliant. Watch an episode and I promise you it’ll intrigue you enough to watch the next episode on iPlayer, you have to find connections between seemingly unrelated objects. This is the hardest episode ever produced and is available on YouTube. You’ll also see how unbelievably British the whole affair is.
If you don’t get a single question right in that whole episode, don’t worry, no-one does. But isn’t it relaxing to watch, what with it’s nice music and lack of audience? I can’t stop watching it. The first few episodes of every series usually has a few easy questions and then you feel AMAZING having watched it and got a few right. So yeah.
Top Gear – BBC Two – This will invariably return, it always does. Despite it being presented by an idiot and his two much nicer friends, it’s always enjoyable to watch. I find myself increasingly wanting to watch the special episodes these days, and I’m not so bothered about the normal episodes. Judging by Idris Elba hosting a number of shows recently on BBC Two about Motor Racing, it looks like he’s up to take Clarkson’s job upon his eventual leaving of the show. This would make it actually perfect. In case you hadn’t gathered, I dislike Clarkson intensely.
Big Brother – Channel 5 – Am I the only one who stopped watching this once it moved to Channel 5? I actually stopped watching it before then. It’s apparently still around, though.
Sherlock – BBC One – This is a “modern” programme even my parents like (and that is seriously saying something, they hate most things they see), and I love it too. Returns early January, I can’t wait. Presumably he’ll actually be alive this series, I mean, he did die at the end of the last series and all that, unless they’ve got a morbid sense of humour I presume he faked his own death.