Restaurant review | Brickyard

Where I ate:

The Brickyard, South Street, Romford

Three weeks ago now I went out for dinner and a catch up with Vicky (BeautyBloggingBrunette). As I mentioned in my OOTN post, I hadn’t seen her for ages so a catch up was well overdue and I was really looking forward to it – even more so when she recommended The Brickyard in Romford, somewhere I’d never been to but heard many good things about. I got the train so I could have a couple of drinks (plus it’s cheaper and much more convenient) and met Vicky at Romford station before we walked to the restaurant (it’s a straight road and only about five minutes away).

The phrase don’t judge a book by its cover couldn’t be more apt when describing Brickyard, it’s well away from the town centre, next to a tyre place and doesn’t look that aesthetically pleasing from the exterior, but once inside, I was pleasantly surprised. Modern, sophisticated and a great aura thanks to mood lighting, we went straight to the bar for pre-dinner drinks while our table was being set. We didn’t have long to wait though – and the staff brought our cocktails from the bar to our table, excellent service if you ask me.

What I drank:

Strawberry daiquiris

Cocktails are two-for-one every evening until 9pm and the strawberry daiquiris came highly recommended by Vicky, so we took advantage and ordered two each pre-dinner and a further two each during! I concur, they were incredible and even nicer than the one I had at Alec’s (so high praise indeed). The strawberries were perfectly blitzed and the ice was smooth; they were effectively boozy slush puppies! Just divine.

What I ate:

Trio of Melon (Grilled Honey Dew and Parma Ham. Sesame Coated Watermelon. Port and Charentis) followed by Chicken Kebab with peppers and onions (served with chips, coleslaw and pitta bread)

I wasn’t initially going to order a starter and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, you can’t really go wrong with parma ham and melon! The watermelon coated in sesame and poppy seeds was interesting but worked and I loved the port drizzle. There wasn’t very much parma ham and given the cost (£5.95), I was slightly disappointed. It was a refreshing way to begin the meal.

When the main course arrived, I instantly regretting ordering the starter and extra drinks and knew there was no way I was going to be able to eat it all! The skewer itself was huge, with large chunks of chicken, red onion and mixed peppers – which it was accompanied by chips, a garlic and herb pitta bread and coleslaw; talk about carbocide. I don’t think the photo does any justice to the actual size of the meal, but it’s certainly great value for money – there’s no scrimping on portion size at Brickyard! I think we would have been better off sharing a main course! The skewer itself was well-cooked and I’m a huge fan of creamy coleslaw. I barely touched the chips and was hoping for the skewer to be inside the pitta, but never mind. I’m still annoyed that I couldn’t eat more because it was very good.

The service was good, considering the restaurant was full, but it seems like the kind of place where the staff would go above and beyond to make their customers happy. The only thing that let the place down was the loud music, even at 8:30pm! The restaurant is separated from the bar by a divide and it’s nice to be out the way of those coming for the live music and not food, but it made conversation impossible at times. That said, I was very impressed and will definitely be returning – hopefully next time I’ll be able to eat more... and not drown on the way home!