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Sian Victoria © - Cookhouse and Pub, Family Restaurant, Oldbury

Best Family-friendly Pubs in West Midlands

Cookhouse and Pub has recently opened in Oldbury, West Midlands. It’s a casual restaurant serving quality food for all the family within a contemporary setting and the affordability of a pub. The Whitbread owned restaurant boasts an open kitchen, a delightful selection of vegetarian food and offers unlimited breakfasts every morning at they’re new locations in Holystone, Ripley, Kilmarnock and Oldbury.

Oldbury’s new go-to destination for dining & drinking kindly invited me and a plus one to enjoy a complementary three course meal with drinks. As another Birmingham blogger friend of mine really wanted to visit, I bought along a paying guest, so it turned out to be a great evening catching up with friends over plenty of food and unlimited soft drinks (£2.80).

We arrived at Cookhouse and Pub at 7pm and we were quickly shown to our table. Once seated we ordered some fruity drinks while we checked out the menu. I went for the Fentimans Wild Elderflower (£2.50) and my plus one went for the Rose Lemonade, these were both refreshing and fruity.

Starters

Sian Victoria © - Garlic flatbread, Hummus & breadsticks, Cookhouse and Pub, Family Restaurant, Oldbury

For starters we shared two solo grazers of ‘Garlic Flatbread with Cheese’ and ‘Oven Roasted Vegetables’. The garlic flatbread came out fresh from the wood fired oven, we could see it ourselves roaring in the open kitchen. The oven roasted vegetables came with houmous and fresh bread twists.

We all really enjoyed these and soon got tucked in, although my half of the bread wasnt that garlicky the bread itself was lovely and so was the bread twists, they were soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. I’ve never been that keen on houmous, however this one was gorgeous, it was sprinkled with paprika, so it was great to dip the bread into accompanied with roasted pepper slices.

We were pleasantly surprised to see such a great offer on the grazers, making a family feast affordable, there’s 3 grazers for £9.49, 4 for £11.99, 5 for £14.79 and 5 for £16.49.

Mains

Sian Victoria © - Smokey BBQ Vegan burger, Cookhouse and Pub

Sian Victoria © - Lasagna, Cookhouse and Pub

For my main I went for the Smokey Vegan Burger (£8.49), it came with shredded BBQ toppings in a Brioche style bun with chips and salad. The burger was delicious, and the BBQ sauce was sweet, perhaps too sweet either way there wasn’t a crumb left in sight.

For a vegan burger it had a very meaty texture, so I did double check the menu to make sure it was meat-free. It came with a patty topped with shredded pieces on top, I also enjoyed the fresh vinaigrette salad dressing and the crispy fries.

My guest had the Classic Lasagne (£7.49) this came with beef and pork ragu, salad and a garlic flatbread. She was pleased with the generous portion size and loved how cheesy the lasagne was.

Desserts

Sian Victoria © - Chocolate brownie dessert, Cookhouse and Pub

Sian Victoria © - Cookie dough, Cookhouse and Pub

Now to my favourite part of every restaurant visit, the dessert. When it comes to ordering from the main menu I’m always indecisive, however when it comes to pudding I know exactly what I want. I went for the Half-Baked Cookie Dough (£4.49), obviously! The warm gooey cookie dough came with chocolate and caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream, this was heavenly and was demolished in less than 60 seconds.

My guest had the Triple Chocolate Brownie (£3.99) which is something I usually choose when cookie dough isn’t on the menu. It was a chunky Belgian, white and milk chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

My guest said it was beautiful and loved how gooey it was, unlike me my guest is slow at eating desserts so when I got to the end of mine and she was still eating I was so tempted to sneak a spoonful when she wasn’t looking.

Coffees

Sian Victoria © - Costa hot chocolate & Smarties, Cookhouse and Pub

Being the chocolate junkie, I am, I finished the evening with a hot chocolate accompanied by marshmallows and Smarties. If you watched my Instagram stories that evening, you would have seen me sprinkling Smarties into my hot chocolate and scooping up the crispy melted goodness with my spoon – It was amazing! I’ll be adding Smarties to my hot chocolate again when I’m at home, snuggled under my duvet binging on Netflix over the festive season.

To conclude

Overall, we all had a lovely evening and the service was great too. We did struggle to find a parking space as its shared with the hotel Premier Inn, but nonetheless, the next time I’m in Oldbury I would visit again.

If it was local to me I could imagine my friends and I visiting often as the food and drinks were affordable and there’s a good choice of vegetarian meals on the menu including two vegan meals.

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