Dinner At The Six Halts In Clay Cross
Published On Thursday 6 Apr 2023 by Sticky Beak
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I’ve mentioned before the fact that His Nibs likes a bargain, but no-one is a bigger ‘Save a Quid’ Queen than Mummy Bird! We brought her shopping in a couple of weeks ago and were greeted by something chirpier than Busby telling the world about his latest deal (those of a certain age will know Busby); the reason? A money saving coupon! The Six Halts’ coupon booklet was thrust under our noses, along with the statement “So, when are we going? Book us a table”. Fast forward a couple of weeks and we were pulling into the ample car park which, incidentally, has a couple of EV charging points: top marks for forward thinking, Marston’s.
The Six Halts isn’t a new venue to residents of ‘The Cross’, but we’ve never been before, despite it being just down the road from Mummy Birds’ gaff. There’s a similar venue up near Geordie Birds (which His Nibs and I have been to) and when we stepped inside, the layout was strikingly familiar. We were greeted by a young lady and the first thing I would say is that booking ahead is definitely advisable; most tables had got ‘reserved’ signs on them, so if you want to guarantee a seat – book it!
A lot of folks can be a bit snobby about chain pubs/restaurants but I have to say that our first impressions of The Six Halts were good so far: easy parking, friendly greeting and the place was spotlessly clean. Tuesday night’s offer is a free drink (from a selection) with any Burger, and both Mummy and The Man fancied that, whilst I’d spied the Mac n Cheese (£10.75, but I added Spicy Pulled Pork so it cost £12.75). Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not dissing independent venues by any means, but not everyone can afford to go to them, especially if they’ve got children. Diversity is what keeps communities interesting and a mix of chains and independents is the ideal, but we don’t live in an ideal world, sadly. Anyway, back to The Six Halts…
One of the vouchers we’d got offered selected drinks 2-4-£5, and the other was for 30% discount off the food bill. Once we’d chosen our food, His Nibs went to the bar (you need to remember your table number) to place our order and this was where we got some more exceptional customer service. The lady behind the bar informed The Man Bird that he could just get another glass of wine if he wanted to take advantage of the drinks offer (which Mummy Bird gladly drank; well, when you’ve got chauffeur service for the evening, why not?!) and also figured out how to get him the most discount with the food – now that’s what you call going above and beyond; well done Marston’s for training your staff to look after their customers.
In our section of the venue there were a couple of large family groups, clearly out celebrating occasions, and it was lovely to see multiple generations all sitting down and eating together. I’ve always been a big believer that children should be included in dining out as soon as possible (Fledge was brought out in her baby carrier!). I think it was because there were larger groups in our section that it was taking a bit longer than ideal to get our meals out to us but, when they did arrive, they were very scrummy.
Both the burgers were nice and juicy with a fab flavour to them. Mummy had gone for a classic interpretation, ’The Cowboy’ (£10.95) that paired the two Beef patties with crispy Bacon, melted American style cheese and crisp Iceberg Lettuce. The Man Bird had done his usual trick of going all out with the ‘Ultimate Spicy Beef Burger’ (£12.50), a combo of two 3oz Beef Patties smothered in American style Cheese, Spicy Pulled Pork, Crisp Bacon, loads of tangy Jalapenos, Cheese sauce and crunchy Onions…. I was going to be in for a fun night of ‘smells’, wasn’t I?! In each red basket were huge portions of crisp, non-greasy Fries and a pot of zingy Burger Dip, which Mummy Bird was soon addicted to. Those red plastic, open-weave baskets reminded me of the good old days of pub meals that were offered in the bar area – crikey, I miss those days of Scampi n Chips in a basket , cheesy though they were. The Man Bird and Mummy both said that their meals were lovely and hot, temperature-wise, and there was certainly no moaning about portion size.
I had gone for Mac ‘n’ Cheese from the ‘All Time Favourites’ section of the menu, and when I’d had the first mouthful it was certainly an apt description. The Macaroni tubes were the perfect vessel for the Croxton Manor Cheddar sauce to hide in as well as coat, and then there was even more dairy delight to savour with the deep Mozzarella and Cheddar topping! I’d zhuzhed up this pasta classic by adding Spicy Pulled Pork to it and the kitchen team certainly didn’t hold back with this sticky, tasty minx. I also liked how the rich colour of the BBQ Pork shreds contrasted nicely with the paler cheese, and its flavour was superb. For those of you who, like me, enjoy mopping up every last vestige of sauce, you will be pleased to hear that a pair of Garlic Bread slices come with this meal, so in no time at all my bowl was squeaky clean! A simple side salad of mixed leaves, Tomato, Red Onion and Cucumber added a lovely bit of crunch in the mouth, as well as a contrast in temperature. As with my companions, my meal was piping hot, so no complaints here.
Now nobody’s pretending that The Six Halts is going to win Rosettes or Stars, and neither is it intending to, but for the market it’s targeting, it’s bob on. I have no doubt that there will be plenty of snarky comments when this review gets published, for whatever reason, and basically this is what I think: for the money, don’t be expecting haute cuisine or silver service; it ain’t gonna happen buddy! - if that’s what you want, stop being tight and splash the cash in a swanky restaurant, not a mass-market chain. Similarly, if you like your butt kissing, go to a venue where the staff are happy to do this, not somewhere that is mainly staffed by college youngsters or mums that aren’t gonna take your BS! Also, for those that whinge and say ‘it’s ding meals’, yes there probably is an element of that in there, especially with curries that will be made in bulk off-site. Again, if it’s tasty and hot (and a decent price), does it matter when you’re at a chain venue that some pre-prep has been done? As long as the quality is there in the end result, that’s what matters.
However, if you want somewhere simple and uncomplicated, with a basic (but tasty) menu then The Six Halts will do you nicely. We went to use the voucher, figuring that if it wasn’t to our liking we hadn’t spent much dosh and, to be honest, with the positive experience we’d had, we said that we’d happily go back to try the pizzas that are on the menu. For a moment we were tempted to have a pud but seeing as it was a weekday (and it had been a heavy weekend, what with Mother’s Day), I thought best to rein it in a bit – there’s always next time.
We probably won’t be able to use our second 30% discount voucher due to other commitments, but if you’ve got one at home, get it used. The only thing I would criticise, if I’m being picky, is that we didn’t have a check-back to see if we were enjoying our food; it wasn’t an issue for us, because we were happy with our choices, but it is something that really should be done. In saying that, I’m still going to give this Clay Cross venue Hot Wings because the food was plentiful and hot, priced very competitively, and the friendly staff kept the premises spotless.
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