Cumberland Hotel Bournemouth Ventana Restaurant Review

Well I’ve just had a great weekend staying at The Cumberland Hotel in Bournemouth watching the fantastic Bournemouth Air Festival from my hotel room balcony!

During my time there I had a BBQ outside on the Saturday and a meal on Saturday Evening and breakfast on the Monday morning so I’ll do a quick run through on all of them.

Saturday was an BBQ Air Show special deal or not so special in terms of price but the setting was excellent. The Cumberland Hotel was perfectly situated inbetween Bournemouth & Boscombe pier – exactly where the various aircraft would be doing their displays!

The BBQ was priced at £25 per person as against their normal price of just £9.95 but with over 200,000 people coming to watch the Airshow just oni the Saturday spaces were at a premium.

There were a good variety of meats on offer including Steak, Shark,Tuna steaks,Pork Kebabs and chicken together with a range of salad, cold meats, breads, new potatoes etc.

It was actually the first time I had tried shark – not bad but not as nice as a Tuna steak in my opinion, shark has quite a salty taste.

Overall the BBQ was very nice though I wouldn’t have paid £25 normally but as it was the Air Festival and it included your own table it wasn’t to bad.

For dinner I had mushroom soup to start followed by chicken pasta with tomato and basil. The soup was fine, nothing special but nice all the same. The chicken pasta however I really enjoyed as it also had a large blob of cream in the middle which really added to the dish, somehting I have never seen before.

For desert I had a mousee, strawberry and mandarin I think it was with some fruit at the bottom of the glass.  Service was fine as there was plenty of staff with dedicated staff for each service as is often the case in hotels. The meal cost £25 per person for three coarses and a coffee which wasn’t too bad I guess and the Cumberland has recently been refurbished to so the surroundings are nice – very art deco.

On the Monday morning it was time for a full English and I’m glad to say the actually had an automatic toaster that actually worked! So many hotels have those toasters you feed the toast in, wait ages and then have to put them through again because they didn’t toast your bread enough.

There were a good range of cereals and also crossiants, cold meats etc for those who like a continental breakfast but I must admit if there is a full english breakfast around I will usually go for that.

Overall breakfast was fine, a typical hotel help your self breakfast buffet and I found the staff helpful and friendly, though speaking of staff I found a mix there – some friendly and helpful others abrupt and even rude on ocassion. Perhaps they were doing to many hours and not getting enough sleep, highly possible as we saw them in the day and evening working too.

If you go to the Cumberland Hotel in Bournemouth and eat on their Ventana Restaurant or Mirabelle dining room let us know below how you got on and for more information about the hotel visit: http://www.cumberlandbournemouth.co.uk

Le Bateau Lower Parkstone Review

My wife had been here previously and insisted we give it a try as she enjoyed it last time. We ate from the Bistro menu on a Saturday lunch time and it is one of those menu’s you may struggle to pick something from as it’s got some great meals.

As an example there are wraps, salads, jacket potatoes, steak, chicken with bbq sauce and the classic full English breakfast amongst a few.

I went for the full English as it had been a while since I had one and for £4.95 at the time of writing represented good value for a filling meal.

As you can see from the photo there’s plenty of it and bit of everything. I can’t really fault the meal actually and I will almost certainly be back for another one at some point. Those with hangovers know nothing beats a full English too!

The staff were on the ball which is always nice and there is a nice atmosphere here. I’d be interested to try out the A La Carte menu one night so when I do I let you know how it was.

In the evenings you’ll find the bar gets quite busy and in fact Lower Parkstone has becoming quite a nice place to go out on the Weekend now as there are a few nice bars and pubs and a more sophisticated crowd than Bournemouth town centre.

The bar has a whole surfer vibe and indeed many top surfers pop in due to it being near the famous Sandbanks area. The last time I came in for a drink it was with our British Super Middleweight Champion, Jo Calzaghe and in fact you’ll see his signature on the wall at the back of the bar!

If you visit Le Bateau in Lower Parkstone, Poole let us know below and if you want more information, visit Le Bateau’s Website at: www.lebateau.co.uk