A week or two ago we were fortunate to be asked to review the local Brewer’s Fayre with a view to checking out their facilities for half term facilities. The very friendly and professional staff were great to talk to, and it turned out that we were there the day they were planning half term activities, to include arts, crafts and an end of week disco.
The soft play at our local pub, the Swallow in Ispwich, has just had a complete overhaul and is really well set out, with tables for adults within the play space, as well as a couple of tables within the pub proper with a view through the window. And this is when we came across the only negative – the seating area in the soft play itself is a bit on the cold side. The children are fine, bouncing around the place, but we retreated to the inner table to eat. I did raise this with the staff at the time – I don’t know what they’ve done to address the problem, but they are aware of it.
The food offerings on the lunch menu are excellent value. We got food and drinks (and that’s main courses and dessert) for 5 of us, with the £3 a head soft play charge for the younger two, all for £50. I thought that was extremely good value for basically 3 adult two course meals (yes, Small might only be 12, but he’s in a growing phase, all right?) and two children. I also liked that you get free refills of the coffee machine coffee, although I will one day remember that actually, I don’t really like cappucino 😉
I *did* have a piece of paper, once upon a time, that explained the pricing that allowed us to get our food for such good value. I’ve no idea where that is now 🙁 But we got 2 for £12 deals on the two main meals, if I remember correctly, and then the desserts were on a 2 for £2.50 (seriously!) so we had 4 desserts between the four of us, and the brownies in particular were very good. (I was rather tempted by the sharing plate of desserts as well – we might have to go back and try that sometime. Pictured above is my chicken curry, which was good, and Tim’s mixed grill which made him very happy, particularly as he ordered the steak rare, and that was how it actually came. (Doesn’t happen often, so definitely worth noting when it does.)
All in all, if you’re within reach of Ipswich and looking for indoor amusement to finish off your half term, I can definitely recommend the Swallow Brewer’s Fayre. For more details, visit the website here
Disclosure: we were supplied with a voucher to cover our meal. Opinions remain my own.
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