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| Celebrating my birthday with my boyfriend and brother |
Forest Row is a quiet, picturesque village just outside East
Grinstead in the Sussex countryside (for clarity East Grinstead is in West
Sussex and Forest Row is in East Sussex – these places are on the county
borders). Locally it has a reputation for being full of hippies, but it is
friendly and welcoming (and I didn’t notice anyone smelling funky). There
are two pubs and a cafe on the main high street which is small and often used as a
through road. Forest Row is somewhere you pass through on the way to somewhere
but if you have the time it’s not a bad place to stop for something to eat (of
course!). It was my birthday in early February (happy birthday to me!) and I
came home for the weekend to celebrate with my family so we went out for a
meal. After a lot of deliberating we decided on the Swan in Forest Row and what
a marvellous decision...
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| The Grazer |
The Swan is part of a company called Mountain Range
Restaurants, who have three restaurants in the South East, one in Forest Row,
one in West Wickham (South London) and one in Findon (Near Worthing) all with a
ski lodge/alpine style. What attracted me to this restaurant was the hot rocks
that they offer as a main. If you don’t know what a hot rock it is basically a
square rock which is really hot (as in “don’t touch that you’ll burn yourself!”
hot) so you can cook your food on it. Options include fillet steak, bison
steak, lamb, pork or halloumi, or you can go for a selection of meats. They
come with a selection of dips and you can choose your own rub.
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| Hot Rocks |
After a sharing starter called “the Grazer” which included (to
list some of the ingredients) some incredible hot smoked salmon, sweet grilled
vegetables and warm ciabatta bread, I had the selection hot rock. It includes
sliced pieces of pork, lamb and beef steak. Normally I’m not a huge fan of
lamb, it can be really fatty and chewy but this lamb was excellent. It was so
easy to eat. The pork and beef were also really tasty. The manager ordered us a
selection of dips as the whole table was having hot rocks and this meant that
garlic mayonnaise was flying one way while the BBQ sauce was hiding behind my
brother’s wine glass and I was hogging the teriyaki sauce. It was really good
fun cooking your own food.
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| trio of desserts |
For dessert I had the trio of desserts because why not have
three if you can? It came with a waffle, a brownie and a mini banoffee pie. They
were all really tasty, I particularly liked the banoffee pie, how can you go
wrong with banana, toffee and cream? It was just the right size after the huge
main, especially as I’m the type of person who cannot leave without
dessert.
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| birthday fizz! |
I really enjoyed the meal and the atmosphere was
amazing. When the manager found out it
was my birthday he brought glasses of sparkling rose to our table which really
made us feel special. It was a lovely evening filled with good food, good
wine and good company, that makes an evening right?
A wonderful place I would definitely recommend to anyone!
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