So my lovely wife is still poorly with her cough and off work. Baby G is away for the night so as not to pick up anything. Me I'm fine but conscious I need to stay fit and healthy. The healthy side I try and cover off by cooking fresh at home, drinking skimmed milk, eating lots of fruit. However on the minus side I do like the odd glass of wine, eat too much and have a weakness for Maltesers. The fit side I am reasonably OK on. I recently ran (very slowly) a half marathon, I cycle to work and though big on the outside I feel for my advanced years I am in decent nick. I've always been someone who likes exercise but not necessarily team sports. Running suits me well as I can do it whenever the opportunity arises and it is free. Well this morning I woke to the amazing sight of clear skies and dry pavements so I decided to dress up in the unflattering lycra and run to work. It went OK though next time I will plan a better route. However arriving at work I needed to shower and change and obviously I needed some breakfast.
I slipped out to my gym near Golden Square and showered and spruced myself up. Feeling chipper I decided to try the next concept of casual dining GrillShack. From what I could gather this is an attempt to recreate the American Diner ethos and aesthetic but with some bang up to date innovations like app and internet ordering. It's not a big site but they do cram in a lot of tables so I can imagine at peak times it gets very noisy indeed. Mid morning Wednesday there were only a couple of other people in so I had the run of the place. I'm a bit of a technophobe so I went old school and ordered at the counter. I went for the Big breakfast which is includes pretty much everything they have on the menu. As you can imagine it is all grilled apart from the eggs. It was a good breakfast and top marks for the sausage and bacon which were high quality. I particularly enjoyed the pancakes which were sweet without being too heavy.
The friendly waiter was naturally chatty and a stream of regulars popped in for takeaway breakfasts which the apps must make a lot easier. The filter coffee was decent though the self serve drinks station was a little cramped and I could imagine it getting very messy at peak time. Breakfast with coffee came to under £9 which is good value as the serving was substantial. The self serve aspect may not be for everyone but if you've ever eaten upstairs at Bodeans you should know the drill. I don't think there is anything terribly innovative about the food but it delivers on what it sets out to do. Good honest fayre, friendly staff and affordable all the diner boxes ticked. I'd certainly pop back to check out the day time menu.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Once saw "DJ" Christian O'Connell in here trying to persuade his very reluctant newsreader to go out on the beers with the breakfast show posse!