We’re lucky enough to try out family lunch out at a popular community hub in Bath
We love a family Sunday roast – potatoes, loads of veggies, all the trimmings – it’s just the clearing up that puts a bit of a damper on the proceedings. Of course, the solution is to eat out and leave all the work to someone else, and we’ve just discovered a great place for a Sunday roast in Bath that doesn’t cost a fortune.
The Hub, Mulberry Park in Combe Down Bath is a great community venue, offering events, rooms for hire and a smashing cafe which supplies its many regular visitors with a range of breakfasts, lunches and snacks, many from local suppliers, as well as pizzas all week from 12-3pm as well as on Fridays 5-8pm, and – most importantly for us – a selection of very decent roasts on Sundays from 12-3pm.
The Hub is a light and airy venue, with a selection of places to sit inside and out. With the early Autumn breeze making its presence felt, we chose a table inside, with plenty of room for two adults and three children. Of course, before we’d even looked at the menu, the children had zoomed in on the wifi code and password, to make sure they could Instagram their every waking movement. Fortunately, from my previous visit I know that the signal is very good indeed.
The team at the Hub are a friendly bunch and soon supplied us with menus, a walk through the drinks available and how everything worked. While the menu changes from week to week, we were given the choice of chicken (£10.45), pork loin (£9.95) and nut roast (£11.45), with kids versions available for £7.95. With our choices made, along with a selection of drinks – beer for dad, various fizzies for everyone else – we sat back and started making plans for next summer’s holidays, with the children liking the idea of Canada and Vietnam, and we grown-ups pushing for a lower budget return to South Wales.
Around us, the tables were busy with a variety of couples and families, all seemingly very happy with their food and enjoying the easy going atmosphere. Chatting with a mum and her four children, she explained that for her, these lunches meant she could have a day off the family meals and it was something that all of her lot would enjoy.
With the drinks already served, it didn’t take long for the main courses to follow and the result was really impressive. The packed plates full of beautifully roasted potatoes, a mix of cauliflower cheese, honey roasted carrots, peas, cabbage, parsnips, Yorkshire pud and gravy, and our choice of meat or nut roast were all piping hot and looked fantastic. And I’m glad to say that the looks did not disappoint.
The meals were gorgeous, really tasty with the food perfectly prepared. Best of all were the potatoes were properly roasted and the veggies firm and clearly freshly cooked. As for the portions, well, it was only greedy old dad who managed to eat the lot… No change there then.
And yes, in case you’re wondering, the team at the Hub happily dealt with the inevitable requests for no carrots on this plate or slightly fewer potatoes on that one, as well as a call for extra gravy.
It’s funny how the children always struggle to eat the mains but somehow find room for the pudding… In this case, it was one helping of ice cream, one warm chocolate brownie (£4.85) and several warm sticky toffee puddings (£4.55). The almost clean plates just a few minutes’ later are probably the best response to how good these were, with teas and coffees available to round the meal off.
Chatting with manager Richard after the meal, he explained that The Hub has become a popular venue for Sunday lunch with families across Bath and as far as Bristol, and it’s easy to see why. Very good food, excellent service, very reasonable prices and there’s even free parking outside. We’ll be back for the Friday night pizza while the cooked breakfasts look like a great excuse for a business breakfast.