Why hello hello everybody! A very belated Merry Christmas to you all too! I hope you've all had a lovely break and are still relaxing, eating and enjoying yourselves. I will be doing a 'Little Gems' post soon of all my festive antics, but until then, I thought I would do a little "eating out' post on The Con Club.
So many of you have been asking if I have been and so I thought I would stop wasting time and do a quick post on the place!
For those who are not aware, The Con Club has only just opened a few weeks ago opposite Altrincham Market (One of my all time fav foodie places!). I've bee dying to check it out for some time and so the other day, whilst in the midst of some last minute Christmas shopping, I thought I would bob in. It was a very last minute thing, I had my car being washed and so had some time to kill, so I thought why not check it out.
For those wondering, I went by myself. This to me is heaven! I appreciate a lot of you might think I'm a bit nuts, but I adore eating by myself. If I remember I take my laptop and headphones or a magazine and I'm away. I order what I want, eat what I want, leave what I want and go when I want! To be fair, they were very busy, but as I was on my own I managed to get a seat on one of their 'sharing tables'. I wasn't too fussed and it was a big enough table too so I wasn't sat facing anybody or anything too weird (don't get me wrong, I don't mind sharing a table, but don't get too close, I need my space ha ha!).
So, firstly, check out this decor! It's pretty cool right! Very laid back, industrial style. I guess it all works so well with The Market across the road too, it keeps with the same theme of that 'chilled out' vibe. I love a great meal where you can be dressed as casual as you like but the food is amazing! Just because I'm in trainers and a hoodie, doesn't mean I'm only able to eat in McDonalds! I was so excited to eat in this place, really chuffed I got a table too. I sat near the back at the gantry part. Can you see how busy it is! They said they were full till New Year on bookings which is so great - especially for Alty. I am loving seeing this place thrive again, makes me so happy!
Ok, so the food! I have heard such mixed reviews about this place. Some people say it's really good - 'Em, you've got to try the sushi! It's as good as Victors if not better!' Then others, not so much! 'My friends went and ordered the steak - apparently it came by itself with nothing else - no presentation, no nothing! I don't think they really enjoyed it, plus it's very overpriced!'
So, I decided to give the sushi a go, if everybody says the sushi is the best then why not give it a try. I ordered myself a green tea too, plus they also give out big bottles of tap water if needed as well.
Now, let's remember that it had only recently opened and so I'm guessing they will be having teething problems with staff and the kitchen etc. I really want to like this place, so you might find me making excuses a little here and there! My green tea took ages to arrive unfortunately. When it came though it was good. It had a really lovely big cup and saucer too which was nice. I think the little touches are so important in a restaurant - the plates/cups/cutlery etc can really make or break the experience of a place. In this case, I was happy :)
I ordered 2 plates of sushi too. The flamed salmon roll and also the prawn (tempura I think) rolls. Ok, so I will be honest, the food took ages! I understand it was busy, but it took ages! The most annoying part was that for around 15 minutes of this time my food was sat in the gantry just waiting to be served. I kept looking thinking 'that's my food!' which was a bit of a pain. Plus, the staff were all so busy running around, that when I asked the server she looked and said - oh look it's just come out now! Erm... no, it's been sat there ages!! Anyway, forget that! It arrived finally and looked like this...
Now I'm not a sushi connoisseur by any means. I like to eat sushi when I go out and I try it in quite a few places so please don't shout if you know better than me. This sushi came and the rolls were huge! Like massive! They also tasted AMAZING! I know I didn't try all the sushi - seriously, I struggled eating these two rolls! They were good though, maybe because I had waited a lifetime and was starving, but they were good! I would definitely go back for this
I think this was my fav too. The prawn rolls were super tasty and the prawns were warm! I can't say the service was bad at all, but it wasn't amazing. I think everybody was a little bit lost - not knowing who's table they were looking after but hopefully this will improve over time.
Anyhoo, today I decided to venture back with hubs! I needed some comfort food and thought it would be good to check it out again. I called up asking for a table and they said they could fit us in on a 'sharing table' again which was fine by me. As it's the day after Boxing Day, they only had a Boxing Day menu on. Kind of a lunch menu, not sushi at all. Instead it was a mix of brunch and sandwiches. I was so hungry this was perfect for me and so we both ended up having the fish finger sandwich. Check it out! :) Happy Days!
I can see why some people are not so keen, the food is plated very simply, but I think that's the style of the place. It's not meant to be over the top fancy, just good, comfort food. The sandwiches did take ages to come again - but at least they were served as soon as they arrived on the gantry. It's pretty simple too, it was literally fish fingers and watercress on the bread. No butter, no sauce, no nothing. The fish though was cooked perfectly. I asked for extra sauces and slathered mine in tartare sauce and ketchup. The chips were pretty good (if not a little cold though!) but all in all I was happy. We had a large bottle of water, one green tea and two fish finger butties and it came to £22. I'm not going to say it's really cheap, but I was quite happy with that.
I guess it's the type of place you would go to for some good, simple food. The sushi was really good and really filling. So were the sandwiches. Don't expect fancy plated food or feel any need to dress up either. This is just good, honest comfort food - (albeit the food took a while). I hope that this improves and I know I will definitely be back. What have you heard? Have you been? Did you enjoy it? I would love to know what you think - I'm not sure if it was just me waiting a while for the food or does everybody experience this?
Thanks so much for reading! I hope you have a fab time over New Year and I will be back soon with more posts and lots more to come in January I hope. Watch this space!
Big love to you all,