The Jug and Jester – Leamington Spa

A couple of weeks ago Grandma Gourmand was visiting and offered to babysit while myself and Mr Gourmand went out for dinner so we decided to sample another couple of dishes from the new Wetherspoons menu.

You can read about our previous visit here.

As myself and Mr Gourmand were feeling particulary peckish as well as relieved to get a few hours on our own, we thought we would go for a favourite shared starter which was the Nachos doused in salsa, sour creme, and guacamole alongside jalapenos and a healthy sprinkling of cheese. Wetherspoons states the number of calories, which for this meal was 1437 Calories, which added additional guilt to the experience! As always this was delicious and simple, albeit quite large and a bit of a struggle for even two of us to finish.

I decided to go for a main course  of Southern-fried-style Chicken Strips with coleslaw and chips which was juicy and tasty and all for 1058 Calories. Although this meal wasn’t visually outstanding, it satisfied where it counts which was the taste! My only slight gripe was that I didn’t think the Tennessee sauce suited the chicken. The coleslaw however was really nice with a light flavour that added much needed texture to the dry chicken.

Mr Gourmand decided to go healthy and went for the Superfood wholewheat pesto pasta, with chicken (770 cal) which consisted of wholewheat pasta, nut free pesto, mixed peppers, cherry tomatoes, butternut squash, soya beans, broccoli, sugar snap peas, red onion and sun-dried tomatoes. He really enjoyed it and thought the option of adding chicken gave it the extra oomph which may have been missing without it. His plate was finished, licked clean, and ready to be put back on the rack before I had even finished half of what I ordered!

*Disclaimer* We were provided with Weatherspoons vouchers to use during our visit, this has not affected our opinion of the brand and as always our review is honest and impartial*

Wetherspoons – Jug and Jester

The menu at Wetherspoons offers an enticing mix of traditional British meals, along with popular and innovative international dishes. Most of the food served is sourced from the UK and the brand have strict specifications for all of their products, ensuring that the highest standards of quality and safety are met.

Recently some new additions have been added to the menu such as Hotdogs, Peri Peri Chicken, Gourmet Burgers and we couldn’t wait to try some of these dishes out!

Wetherspoons establishments are family friendly which is great news for the Gourmands as it means if we don’t fancy cooking we can all go as a family and don’t have to arrange a baby sitter for Baby Gourmand.

We shared a Wetherspoon sharer (1794 Cal) which consisted of Spicy British chicken wings, spicy coated king prawns, southern-fried-style chicken strips, beer-battered onion rings, chips and a selection of dips.  I did initially think chips were a strange addition to the platter, I would have personally preferred to maybe have potato wedges or nachos but Mini Gourmand was happy to polish them off!  Everything was cooked well and nothing was greasy. I particularly liked the coating on the chicken wings, it was both hot and tangy and left a nice taste in the mouth.

Mini Gourmand had the Classic hot dog (1120 Cal) which was a pork hot dog, served with chips and a drink.  Usually when you order a hotdog you get a small sausage, this hotdog was a monster!  Mini managed 3/4 of the beast and said it was delicious.

Mr Gourmand had the Gourmet hot dog (1659 Cal)  which was served with chilli con carne, cheese, six beer-battered onion rings, chips  and a drink.  Just like Mini Gourmand’s hotdog this was a beast and was made even bigger by the addition of chilli and cheese.  Mini was upset that she didn’t get onion rings so Mr Gourmand shared some with her.  Mr Gourmand was very impressed with the quality of the dish and thought the chilli was a rather tasty addition.

I had the Tennesee Burger (1343 Cal) which was a chicken breast in a honey glaze made with Jack Daniels Tennesee honey.  This was served with six beer-battered onion rings, chips  and a drink.  The accompanying sauce was a little sweet for my tastes but I did love the smoky flavour.  The Chicken breast was cooked perfectly and was still very juicy.  I really liked the bun that the burger was served in, it was very different from the usual tasteless bap that is usually found with pub burgers.  The presentation of the dish was visually appealing and we all agreed that my dish look the best out of the three.

Overall as a family we were very impressed with the choice of food, the quality and the price at wetherspoons.  We visited the Jug and Jester in Leamington Spa which was filled with families and students on the Saturday afternoon that we visited.  Our starter, 3 main meals and 3 soft drinks came to £23.96 which I’m sure you will agree was very good value for money.

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A few examples of Wetherspoons commitment to quality:

• All steaks are from the British Isles and matured for at least 35 days
• Weatherspoons was the Overall winner of England’s Best Steak Pie 2011 (Sponsored by EBLEX)
• 100% British beef is used in the burgers
• 100% Rainforest-Alliance-certified coffee is served
• All sausages contain only British pork and no artificial colours or flavours
• The waffles are a genuine Belgian recipe, made in Belgium

*Disclaimer* We were provided with Weatherspoons vouchers to use during our visit, this has not affected our opinion of the brand and as always our review is honest and impartial*