Should be hanging my head in shame as it’s so long since I have posted on here but sure that if you were  in this wonderful country with sunny days, a glistening pool, a golden beach and most importantly 2 wonderful grandchildren to distract you you wouldn’t want to be sat on the computer either!

Since the last post delighted to tell you that both No 5 Bridge St, Winchester and The White Horse, Otterbourne, our joint Restaurants of the Month for February, are now participating in our Discount Directory and offering discount on the TOTAL lunch bill! Our Discount Cards have no expiry date & only cost £15, a bargain for all the discounts on offer to Card Holders! Buy 1 HERE using PayPal.

A new venture Nothing But The Grape Organic Fine Wines  are offering, for all fans of Ladies who Lunch, an introductory offer; mention LWL  in an email to get 10% discount on your 1st order no matter how big or small or tel:01488 683717.

The other 3 LWL have been eating out on your behalf and have reviewed The River Rat in Hamble (even better than last time we reviewed), The Milbury’s in Beauworth (not impressed), the excellent Badi Mirchi in Eastleigh (wonderful Indian food) and The Bishop on The Bridge in Winchester, pub grub with lovely views of the River Itchen.

Dates for your Diary…

25/2/12 A bit short notice but if you fancy an evening of Magic at The Three Horseshoes Nr Alton Click here for details, a few places left.

8/3/12 Oxfam’s Get together for International Women’s Day

16^th & 17^th March The Winchester Real Ale & Cider Festival (oh come on ladies surely you love real ale??)

9^th – 15^th April Milford on Sea Food Festival, tickets selling fast!

Many congratulations to Alex Aitken at The Jetty, they have received yet another accolade; a Gold Winner for best restaurant at Taste of the South West Awards!

And finally… the new kids on the block www.babieswholunch.co.uk ???

Happy everything, CJ x

PS The secret of enjoying a good wine… 1. Open the bottle to allow it to breathe 2. If it does not look like its breathing, give it mouth-to-mouth.

SM has been on a weeks holiday in Gloucestershire; she and her gang of 14 once again used www.sleeps12.com to book a house. They have never been disappointed with the gorgeous big houses they have rented and there is usually an indoor pool to add to the attraction. With so many sharing they do not work out to be very expensive per head. They usually have their boots (the car boots not their walking boots!) full of booze and food and have a really good time. She has done a couple of reviews for us so if you are ever in that area try  The Cock Inn at Blakeney

  & The Ship at Newnham. 

Penman’s Antiques Fair in Petersfield is from 3^rd – 5^th Feb inc. If you’d like complimentary entry tickets go HERE  and please don’t forget to say LWL sent you!

Not long until Valentine’s Day; The Jetty in Christchurch is celebrating all day, have a look at what they are offering HERE 

 The Hoggit in Hook also has plans for a Valentines Dinner, click HERE 

At last my husband has his passport (I could write pages about my disgust at the inefficiency of the Greek Embassy in London, I’d love to sue them but as Greece is broke not a lot of point really!). He’ll be arriving in OZ tonight. Thank goodness… he does the cooking so it will be lovely to be spoilt again. (May not be so lovely having to hand over the remote!) 

Please pass on any restaurant news/gossip; it’s hard to keep up so far away!

CJ x

Had to get over jet lag quickly in time to celebrate my gorgeous g’daughter’s 6^th birthday. Her present, her first pets, 2 guinea pigs, she’s seen here holding Rosie.  The guinea pigs cost $20 the cage $200! The party was held at a craft centre, 14 children making lots of messy things they could take home. I’m very happy that when my kids were young we had their parties at home, now a days there’s pressure to come up with a new and original venue every year. (Should I go into kids’ party planning when I get home???)

 Yesterday was my handsome g’son’s 4^th birthday, his present a guitar, he’s hoping to start lessons soon. He had a bowling party; so funny to watch toddlers sending great big bowling balls down the special ramps for kids, they loved it.

Tomorrow is Australia Day & if we haven’t all drowned by then my son is becoming an Australian Citizen (happy he’ll still be British as well!). After the ceremony having a big party to celebrate, only Aussie food & drink allowed.

You can see I’ve been having a very happy family time sadly my poor husband is in Greece trying to get his passport renewed. You will remember from an earlier post that he started trying to renew it in late November. We found out that the Greek Embassy did not send any passport renewals that had been submitted since the beginning of December (350 of them) to Greece until the 16^th January!!! They said they could not afford to send the diplomatic bag. The way they have treated their citizens in UK is just disgusting and all the time the only information they would give was that they would phone when the passport was ready. The only solution was for him to fly to Greece, we are praying he gets it very soon but it is so sad he has missed all these lovely celebrations.

  Before I left home 5 of us met up (4 LWL & a spare!) at The Heath, Dibden Purlieu for a farewell lunch. It’s a good venue for relaxed dining, not wonderful food but it’s very reasonable and nice surroundings!

Not long after I left the others went for a wonderful lunch to  The White Horse in Otterbourne, so wonderful they have given the food 5/5 and a total score of 23/25! (Sorry I missed it!) It’s the 2^nd new venue that has been recently renovated and opened by the local company Ideal Collection mentioned in the previous post. They are to be congratulated; like No 5 Bridge Street in Winchester they have once again got a wonderful team running the White Horse and the décor is gorgeous.

We’ve only been out to eat once since I got here; we went to a Hog’s Breath Café, they are famous for their 18 hr slow cooked steaks! The steaks are OK but not amazing, quite a fun atmosphere though so worth a try if you ever come down under.

I’ve been very brave and not only stroked the guinea pigs (they look like rats to me) but also a local friendly kookaburra  so really getting into Aussie wild life! We are very near The Currumbin Wild Life Sanctuary where they feed the birds daily so we think that is why many of the birds that land on our balcony are so tame.  Will still not be sea swimming though, the Aussies laugh at my fear (hearing music from Jaws!) but there have been 2 shark attacks since I arrived! Not in this area but still scary.

Before the rain started I was spending my time in the pool, walking on the beach and admiring the views!

Forgive me if these posts are few and far between until I get back to UK. The other 3 are out there eating on your behalf and new reviews will be appearing on the site so no worries!

Would love to hear your eating out experiences  and Guest Book entries are always very welcome!

CJ X

 
Of course we’ve all started the obligatory post-Christmas diet but willingly went off it to review the delightful No5 Bridge Street in Winchester. Very attractive décor and delicious food; it’s the sort of place you can enjoy either a full on meal or to pop in for a graze! They specialise in Small Plates; ideal with a glass of wine and for sharing a selection. We highly recommend and if you go (to No 5 or any other venue) please remember tell them LWL sent you!

 
It’s a new year and we are making a small change to our marking system. We’ve decided that to get a GOLD award a venue needs to have a 5/5 in at least one category so now a score of 21/25 will receive GOLD. 20/25 will now, along with 19/25 & 18/25, receive a  SILVER award and as before 17/25, 16/25 and 15/25 will receive a  BRONZE award.

 
Our Restaurant of the Month for January is an all-time favourite of ours Clos du Marquis in Stockbridge. It’s the place to go for authentic French food and they now have the added attraction of their delicatessen, The French Pantry. The only trouble is I have just discovered they are on a well deserved holiday until 17th January so make a note in your diaries to give them a call after that date!

 
Recently I re-Tweeted an interesting link from Heston Blumenthal

“The 10 food ideas that changed the way we eat in 2011”

Apparently the word Restaurant is so over, any suggestions for alternatives??

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 18,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

A Very Special Offer to help you with your Christmas Shopping ……

Until December 18^th BUY A LADIES WHO LUNCH DISCOUNT CARD for only £10!

Remember they have no expiry date so they make Wonderful Christmas Presents; they are a gift for life!
An ideal present for family, friends or yourself of course and so easy to buy JUST CLICK HERE

(Please don’t forget to enter the name you want on the card).

Check out all the Discounts on Offer HERE!

Unfortunately Thursday was one of the wettest and windiest days of the year and we went to the Christmas Market in Winchester . I had long looked forward to this as I hadn’t been before but the weather did rather ruin the atmosphere, I’m sure it would be lovely for a long browse on a nice day. It’s open until 21st December.

.      We did have a lovely lunch at The Old Vine near the Cathedral and the warm atmosphere in there and the lovely food really cheered us up! Lots of people have recommended the Old Vine to us and now we know why.        

SM has tried two new venues; the atmospheric  Cenos in Portswood Southampton

and the very traditional  Grosvenor Hotel in Stockbridge

I’m frazzled because I have hardly written a card, have hardly any presents and the  house is still not decorated… I spend far too much time trying to keep up with LWL!

The answer is to shop online for gifts. Obviously I am going to recommend to you our Ladies who Lunch in Hampshire Discount Cards; they are still only £10 (we have extended the offer until 18th December). You can click here to BUY NOW  they are a gift that lasts forever and they can be slipped into a Christmas Card so don’t take much effort to wrap!

I’m a great fan of giving vouchers and can recommend the ones from Austen’s Hair & Beauty in Chandlers Ford  and from Rejuvenate Me ; nothing makes a more welcome  present than a little pampering.

Seek & Adore  is there for lots of unique and unusual last minute gifts like jewellery for example AND they are offering 10% discount to all, just enter LUNCH at checkout!

I have also found the Handbag Hooks from So Hooked make a great stocking filler, they keep your handbag clean, safe & out of the way! (20% discount on all purchases, email their site, say you are a LWL card holder and you will be sent discount code so you can buy on line).

They are not online but I’m going to buy lots of Christmas foodie treats from The French Pantry at Clos du Marquis

My wine rack is full c/o Tesco Wine online (next day delivery) and hopefully the 2 large food deliveries booked with Tesco will arrive with no substitutes. (Best to make sure there’s time to go to the shop if they are out of stock of anything) Fingers crossed I will soon have enough to feed the 5000!

Have to say I’ve been very impressed with the service from the old faithfuls… Amazon,   M&S  & John Lewis  so excuse me whilst I get clicking and hopefully finish my present shopping!

As I am having a big family “fake” Christmas on the 16th (son & d in law off to OZ for a holiday) and then lots of other family and friends get togethers I think this will be the last offering before Christmas so we “Ladies” would like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year filled with delicious Dining! XX

The highlight of London was a lovely lunch with a friend at Bibendum in the fabulous Michelin building… did you know that Bibendum is the name of the  Michelin Man? No neither did I, read all about it HERE.

On Thursday I was very lucky as a friend invited me to use some free tickets she had to see the production of White Christmas at The Mayflower, Southampton. I absolutely loved it, shame it’s not still on because if it was I’d urge you all to go. It had a great cast, wonderful singing, dancing and costumes, very uplifting! Click HERE to read about it and don’t forget to look at the photo gallery.

On Friday I had a dinner party; I love eating but get very stressed about cooking so was happy that everyone, including me, enjoyed themselves. No I’m not going to tell you what I cooked because it was very simple in comparison to most of the restaurants we go to. On Saturday I had a horrible hangover and on Sunday a cold started so a wasted weekend. Still have the cold and feeling very sorry for myself especially as there is so much to do at this time of year.

If you are feeling rushed why not consider buying Ladies who Lunch in Hampshire Discount Cards as Christmas Presents? You can buy them with a quick click of the mouse, they can be popped into a Christmas card and best of all they last forever (no expiry date)! At the moment they are on offer for only £10; it’s easily possible to recoup this outlay on a meal for 4 in some of the participating restaurants so why not get one for yourself as well? Click for more details and to .

We have been to some super restaurants recently and last Friday we went to another to dinner (yes we ventured out after dark) to The Jetty in Mudeford, Nr Christchurch (we are old enough to remember when it was in Hampshire!). Michelin starred chef Alex Aitken (pictured) has come up with the novel idea of “ad hoc” evenings… fun, simple, affordable… Alex chooses great produce for some new dishes or old favourites & creates a four course menu…  all for just £25! Click here to read all about it.

NEXT Alex ‘Ad Hoc’

Sunday 27th November – 4pm to 7pm

This Sunday, check out the Sunset while you dine with Alex ‘Ad Hoc’

The Menu

Alex cooks Mudeford Paella
~~~~~
Whole honey roast ducks to share with roasted roots and apple sauce
~~~~~
Apple sorbet with Calvados
~~~~~
Baked skin on rice pudding with jam

£25 per person

To book call ‘the jetty’ restaurant on 01202 400950 and quote Alex ‘Ad Hoc’