Restaurant: The Peppermill

Before I flew back today, I had an appointment to take my car for its first ever (ahh) NCT (MOT in Britain). It passed (clever little car), and afterwards we were in a somewhat celebratory mood (and hungry) and my mother had heard of a decent restaurant - The Peppermill - nearby, in the Quin Road Business Park, Ennis. I couldn't get accurate information about where exactly in the business park it was, but asked around at the test centre and got directions.

So, we exited the test centre, turned left and took the next right onto the business park side road. There's actually a signpost for it at this point. We carried on to the end, as instructed, and there it was, with plenty of parking. It happens to be self-service, with a carvery; there was salmon for my mother, and the chicken looked delicious, so we said we'd stay, got drinks (including wine) in the fridge, asked for the chicken and salmon respectively (the salmon without the prawn on the top, please!), paid, and got a handy little table by the wall - just about the last one downstairs, although there's seating upstairs too. And where we were, we were perfectly positioned to see the telly, which was showing a news cycle, and the dessert fridge. Clever positioning of the latter.

You get glasses by the dessert fridge, and serviettes from a dispenser. And we proceeded to eat. And that was absolutely the best chicken I've had in years! tenderly cooked, marinated in a lovely, sweet, BBQ sauce. Not overdone, perfectly balanced. My mother also enjoyed her salmon. The mash was good, the gravy was good. When we had dessert (of course!) - and there's a good range - both the raspberry roulade and the chocolate truffle cake were excellent, served with a berry compote and cream on the side.

Portion sizes were large - mine was a half chicken - and in total, two mains, two desserts, wine and a bottle of water cost us about €33. Fantastic value, and far above normal self-service quality. Very friendly staff. Kid-friendly too - indeed, we even ran into a friend of mine, her husband, and their baby. And my friend was a tad embarrassed, because she's meant to have got in touch with me before now! ;-) But anyway, highly recommended if you're in the area.

After Electra in the Tricycle tomorrow, followed by two Meetups - a talk on Palestinian cinema, hosted by Film Nite in Soho House on Tuesday, and a walk around the City on Wednesday, with a theme of horses, with the Central London Outdoor Group. And the weather's supposed to be gorgeous for it!