Cheap and Cheerful Lunchtime: Revolution

On Mondays, myself and my course mates have the day off University, and seeing as the sun was shining and everyone was in a fabulous mood, me and Aaron decided to head off for a nice lunch together. On deciding where to go we came up with two criteria that we wanted the place to adhere to: cheap and tasty. And boy did Revolution deliver! 

On Mondays they have a Mega Monday 50% Off menu. When I first saw the sign I thought 'yeah, that's all well and good, but I bet there's hardly any choice on the menu' - I was so wrong! The 50% off menu included a huge variety of delicious dishes from fish and chips to stone baked pizza. It basically includes their entire menu, which caused much anxiety for us as we attempted to choose between the variety of delicious-sounding dishes on the menu. In order to buy ourselves some more time to choose our main we ordered a bowl of nachos to share.

The nachos were topped with cheese, jalapeños, sour cream, guacamole and salsa (they aren't included in the 50% off deal, but we couldn't resist!). The nachos were nice, but not as nice as I have had in other restaurants. In all honesty they were quite dry as there was a distinct lack of dip and the cheese:chip ratio wasn't what I'd usually like. If anything I'd have just liked more salsa as I love a soggy tortilla chip! Having said that, we didn't complain and polished off the lot between us within probably about 50 seconds.

After much deliberation, I finally settled on the chicken, chorizo and pesto pappardelle and it was lush! The thick ribbon pasta was tossed in rosemary, chorizo and sun blushed tomatoes, covered in a creamy pesto sauce, and topped with sugar snap peas. From the first bite the flavours were intense and delicious. I loved the creamy pesto and the sugar snap peas gave an added texture which worked incredibly well with the soft pasta. I also liked the fact that the staff served the added parmesan cheese in a container with a spoon and didn't put it on my food themselves, this meaning I could add as much or as little cheese as I'd like (perfecto!). The only complaint that I have is that it was slightly over seasoned - the extra salt in the dish made me quite thirsty but it was totally worth it for the scrumptious flavour!

Aaron decided to try out the blackened chicken burger and quickly announced that it was beautiful. The burger consisted of two pan-fried chicken breasts, coated in a blend of herbs and spices, with salad, mayonnaise, and served with a portion of chips and coleslaw on the side. The chicken itself was succulent and flavoursome, and spiced very well. There was a seeming abundance of chicken and it took him a while to chomp through it all (which is unusual for him as he's pretty much the king of burgers). I have to mention though, that he absolutely fell in love with the chips! He usually dislikes pre-salted chips, but he adored these as they were seasoned to perfection! The chips were perfectly crispy and came with the skin of the potato still on, which added texture. 

In total we ordered 2 mains, a portion of nachos to share and 2 soft drinks and it came to £21.84 - a wonderfully delicious student friendly lunch! I would definitely recommend you visit Revs for food (not just for an intoxicated night of fun and frolics) as it's fabulous quality and such a great price. You can check out the menu here if you'd like to have a little look before trying for yourself.

Have you been to Revolution for lunch before?

What did you think of the food?

My 20th Birthday: Dining at the Bosphorus Restaurant

I celebrated my 20th birthday on Tuesday surrounded by those that I love - what better way to see out your teenage years than with those special people who made your teens unforgettable? 

As I'm at University in Cardiff my parents decided to visit on the Saturday to go out for a birthday meal and get me a birthday present (a blog post about the lovely Bobbi Brown make-up products that they bought me will be posted within the week!) As a family we've holidayed in Turkey around 5 times, and absolutely love the cuisine, so naturally, when I heard fantastic things about the Bosphorus Restaurant in Cardiff Bay I couldn't wait to take them there to try it out! 

The location of the restaurant is stunning. It stands apart from the rest of the restaurants down at the bay as it is situated upon a jetty which pokes out into the water of the bay itself (as you can see from the image above). The glass walls provide stunning views across the bay and it was particularly gorgeous in the spring sunshine that we were lucky enough to have on the day! The restaurant itself is nice and spacious with a warm atmosphere - it was the perfect place for a little chin-wag with my parents over lunch. For food, we all opted for the 'healthy meal lunch' as it provided a selection of small dishes that would allow us to try out a range of their delicacies. The set meal is priced at £11.50 per person and I found it to be good value for money as it includes your starter and your main course! 

 

When the food arrived it came on one large plate. In Turkey dishes like this would have been served in multiple small bowls allowing everyone on the table to dip in and out of the foods they wished to sample - this didn't detract from the flavour of the food however. Each of us had humous, taramasalata, mixed nut salad, stuffed vine leaves, saksuka (a traditional middle-eastern tomato and aubergine dish), tzatziki (a yogurt based dish with mint and cucumber), a cheese and herb filled filo pastry, a lamb kebab, a chicken kebab and a Turkish meatball. The flavours of the food were really lovely - nothing in comparison to the food out in Turkey, but as good as you will find in this country. My faves on the plate had to be the cheese and herb filled filo pastry and the Turkish meatballs, they were stunning and had a perfect balance of flavour! One thing I love about Turkish cuisine is their ability to get portion sizes absolutely right. I ate the lot, was suitably full but not overly so - perfect for a pre-shopping meal! Of course we washed our lunch down with a couple of Efes beers (a Turkish-brand beer that my Dad absolutely loves) and a bottle of pink champagne to toast to my birthday.

On the day of my actual birthday I celebrated with my friends at my favourite night of the week (Sync at Revs!) A few free bottles of free champagne and some intoxicated dancing with my besties, what more could a girl want? Of course, being totally spoilt by my housemates with a gorgeous new dress was the cherry on top of the cake!

Have you tried the Bosphorus Restaurant? 

What's your favourite Cardiff night out of the week?

I look forward to reading your comments :)