Review : The Hotel Piccadilly, Bournemouth

Hotel Piccadilly, Bath Road, Bournemouth Dorset BH1 2NN

I had mentioned to my parents that the Piccadilly were doing a three-course Sunday Carvery lunch that we were quite keen to try. So, their having decided to join the party, we all sallied forth to do just that. The Piccadilly has its own car park and, as we arrived some 20 minutes early, we were able to get parked with no difficulty. Mum & Dad had a slightly more difficult job, but coincided with somebody leaving, so all was ultimately well. However, it did set in my mind that it is good to arrive early.

After a short time spent in the airy and comfortable art deco styled lounge, chatting and watching the other guests go by, we made our way to the Restaurant where we were instantly seated at a very acceptable table. The waitress was friendly and cheerful in bringing us a jug of water and took an additional drinks order. We didn’t opt for wine, however a good choice of wine is available, priced in addition to the meal. Ultimately, there were only two small tables left vacant by the end of lunch and the lively atmosphere amongst the guests was greatly enhanced by the gentleman in high heels and sequinned union jack dress!

As we were fairly ravenous, we didn’t wait very long before descending upon the Chef’s Table to collect our starters. There were salads to suit every palate, plus seafood salad, smoked salmon and charcuterie. In fact, it was difficult not to overdo ones choices. My selection of a pork terrine, seafood salad, smoked salmon, potato salad, coleslaw and chorizo went down very well and I’d certainly have been back for more, if the knowledge of the roast to come hadn’t been enough to put the brakes on. The family chose, in addition, the bean salad, rice salad, green salad, salami and prawns and all were unanimous in their praise.

On then to the main event, the roast carvery. There were two meats on offer, a roast beef and a gammon joint. I was hard pressed to decide between the two and was saved by the chef offering a slice of each. There were the usual accompaniments of horseradish sauce, mustard and a delicious beef gravy. Of note has to be the Yorkshire Puddings, which were quite the biggest I have ever been offered! Vegetables included roast potatoes, buttered new potatoes, red cabbage and a medley of broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and green beans.

The meal was something of a game of two halves. The meat was absolutely gorgeous, being full of flavour and tender to the knife – faultless, provided you don’t like your beef to still be mooing! I think it would be difficult to produce beef that is still pink in the middle for a carvery, bearing in mind it is going to be standing around for, potentially, a long time. The vegetables were very acceptable to my taste in that they were slightly under-done, however they were rather under-seasoned. I suspect that a change in species of potato wouldn’t go amiss for the roasties, as these were oddly wet in the middle – like as though a baking potato had been used, instead of a good old King Edward. Maybe it’s a personal taste thing, but I like my roasties to be crisp on the outside and fluffy in the middle.

For dessert, I had bread & butter pudding with custard and the family’s choices ranged from Lemon Posset through to a chocolate brownie with custard. The winner in the dessert stakes was very definitely the Lemon Posset, as it’s freshness and lemony flavour left us hankering to slip a couple into our pockets on the way out!

Overall, we were agreed that for £9.95, it made for an extremely acceptable and enjoyable lunch, which we would all be very happy to make a habit of!