I’ve never been one to turn down a discount, particularly when food is involved, so when I heard about the 50% discount that was being offered at Meating, a new restaurant at the Arcadian in Birmingham for their soft launch week, I was emailing them as fast as my little fingers could type.

I haven’t eaten at the Arcadian before (although I have indulged in many cocktail-fuelled dance and comedy evenings with friends there), so I was intrigued to see how well this new restaurant fit with the rest of the styles on offer.

It turns out, quite well in fact! In a relatively small place, they have created almost an industrial feel in their decor, although it looks a little bare at the minute, but The Bloke and I were warmly welcomed as soon as we walked through the door. Of course, the first thing I did was order a raspberry mojito – my standard for testing the quality of what to expect – and was given one of the best I’ve ever tasted. A good start!

The menu was simple, presented on a clipboard, and we quickly decided what we wanted to order. If you’re a fan of meat, then this is certainly the restaurant for you – burgers, steak, ribs galore – but there was also a selection of pescetarian and vegetarian dishes available. Yum! We started with some flatbreads with various dips, and then I went for ‘Porkies’ (bacon cheeseburger) and The Bloke had a ‘Big Dipper’ (chicken burger) from the ‘Lovely Bun’ section, which came with fries and access to the salad bar.

Inside the restaurant

Raspberry Mojito

Flats and Dip at Meating

Porkies

The Menu

MEATING, The Arcadian

Truly, it was one of the best burgers I have ever eaten. Perfectly cooked, and piled high with just the right amount of sauce, crispy onions and salad, I could have eaten it again, and again. Combined with the lovely fries, I didn’t have room for the salad bar (wanting to try a dessert instead), but I could see that there was a variety of it on offer.

For dessert, I ordered a Cinema Club sundae – ice-cream, caramel sauce, nuts, toffee popcorn – can’t go wrong! They had run out of whipped cream, so added extra ice-cream to make up for it instead. Bargain. Again, it was nice, but I couldn’t finish it all. Fortunately, The Bloke took it upon himself to help me (he’s kind like that) and promptly finished it off after he’d worked his way through his own After Eight inspired sundae.

It was a really enjoyable evening – the food was beautiful, the staff were lovely and we ate a wonderful meal… Definitely somewhere to revisit in the future!

Disclaimer: I was given a 50% discount voucher on all food, but was under no obligation to write a positive review, or indeed a review at all. Meating was not aware that I had a blog until I received conformation of the booking.

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