When one becomes too old to walk up-hills there’s only one way to help yourself… Get a taxi!
Defining culinary experiences is all well and good but when everything is beautiful it’s hard not to delight in it all too much.
The goal today was to go from one 
️️️️ hotel, where we were staying the night to another ️️️️️ hotel where we were having a three course slap up meal.
(And yes there are photos).
But first we had to get to the seafront and get on our sunglasses.
This journey to the seafront was one in which we have done many times and to be honest l, the four star Hydro is a comfortable inn for us and reminds us of happy days where family parties shone as bright as diamonds.
The last one was Mums 78th birthday party when we celebrated like lunatics two years before we should have in place of an 80th we thought we’d never reach.
In the end Mum reached her 80th with months to spare but believe me when I say it was touch and go in the end, but not today.
We had been given a voucher for the here three course dinner tonight and we were going to enjoy it.
———
Forty years ago in Eastbourne in the back doors of the old Hotel on the sea-front a young girl named Darling was getting used to the new found freedoms of work in the old country.
All the way from County Meath, the place of her own and her 14 siblings birth. She’d come to stay initially with her aunties who lived nearby and who would help her get and keep her job at The Grand.
After forty years had flown by in which the aforementioned woman had become a wife and mother and things were very different in the way we lived our lives together. In fact it felt like we were about to celebrate in style how we have both survived since we were basically kids; kids that had just found jobs and ourselves, after meeting up and becoming adult.
Anyway, there was nothing on show that we had remembered from those far off days and the smell of food was leading us on down a corridor to the posh seats.
We were lost so we asked where the Mirabelle Restaurant was and the kind girl pointed us back the way we came and along a different passage to the rooms.
We were getting the most fantastic smells in our nostrils as we started to feel more hungry with every step but when we got to the rostrum where the Maitre Dee was standing we were told to ease back and talk five. We were early.
Actually we weee eager. Ha ha.
We had strolled down the hill from the Hydro which was up a great hill and we hadn’t noticed that 18:30 was not upon us just yet, such was our pace down the hill.
The other problem was that the wedged shaped sandals my Darling was wearing were too constricting on her little toes and there was no was we were walking back, a taxi would be called, or else! She said.
I felt sorry for my Darling about her tiny toes because I was in the comfort of the most comfy pair of shoes ever. I had bought them to go with this suit and boy they fitted beautifully. I could walk miles.
But my Darling couldn’t and that was that.
Mr and Mrs U?. At last we were called by the timekeeper and manager to our two seater table by the window and now the nerves and excitement piqued.
What was next?
How good would this be?
We were hungry, and ready for this. Bring it on.
As we, the first diners, sat down and surveyed the large restaurant room we started to feel at home. Not because we had been there before but because the staff made us so welcome & the atmosphere soon brightened as more guests and restauranteurs filled the place. Now we had the menus and a brief explanation about this was the tasting menu and that (pointing at the other side of the page) was an al a carte menu. What do you want to drink… water?
Yep still and sparkly thanks, we said, then I started to have a ganda at the wine list.
Page 24 the Australian wines. Shiraz, Barossa Vally, yes please. That will do.
And with that the sommelier arrived to take our order of wines and as he could do no more due to us not needing his advice, he disappeared at a run to find the bottle we were interested in. Then ran back. I don’t know why he was in so much of a rush but he was bless him an as the screw cap came off at the table the bottle was held in one of his hands, lowered and then chugged out and spilt all over the table cloth to a roar of giggles from us and a very red face from him.
Apparently that was not the done thing (giggling) and the young sommelier was not as happy as he aught to have been, and his white fabric gloves were dark red with a Barossa or three. Ha ha.
The table was scarred but the wine glasses were now ready to taste the wine choice so my Darling first, had a sip.
Oh my. Her face lit up and there was a smile all over it saying this is it, it’s beautiful.
So I had a fill from the clumsy Som, and my face lit up with the lovely grapes.
(Stockyard bin 5).
We were left to ourselves for a while to look over the food menu and decide which menu we were going to use. While we did we chatted and relaxed into our chairs while the room filled up with diners.
Now is the part where we were given plates and plates of food one after the other for me next three and a half hours and it’s also where we say how luscious the food was, which it was, so you will have to imagine all the flavours and sights to behold as the menu was pushed into our mouthes and memories.
It was absolutely magic. Just out of this world.
We had never tasted food like it… but we hope to, sometime soon. Ha ha.
In essence we had ordered a simple three course meal of Crab, Bass and a mini chocolate Gateaux for her and a Ox Cheek, Mackerel and Big Cheese for him (me). What we got was a sensation and as we ate our way through the complex and delicious food we noticed that the size of the meal was increasing as the plates came and went.
By the end of it we were both holding our tummies in an awkward way. Yes, we had eaten our fill and drunk our bottle which made the whole night go with a bang.
What we supposed to be a stiff and starchy restaurant with these truly tremendous dishes on display was a much more casual affair that actually we would have believed.
Shorts and t-shirts were evident and some ladies were such smart dresses but it was entirely up to you. There were no rules on dress.
So the Mirribelle is a calm and friendly restaurant within the Grand and has all the attributes of a top class restaurant that can give you a good time.
What a fabulous night.
We obviously loved the food and wine but the service was steady and staff a friendly and delightful group of people.
We left the Grand in great shape and waited on a taxi to take us two minutes up the hill to our own hotel for the night and had a night cap, well why shouldn’t we.
The lounges were quiet and the lifts clear when we caved in to the sleepy eyes and a cosy bed.
Back upstairs to our room overlooking the sea and the gardens below us.
Soon it will be morning and the breakfast will await.
What a lovely thought.
Take care
Good night
