The Geordie Tourist.

Breakfast, they say, is the most important meal of the day. I’d have to agree, but more than that it’s definitely my favourite meal of the day. Half the time I’ll skip lunch as I’m off pottering about doing something that seems more important than eating. (Bold words for an eater like me.)

Some days soggy cereal just won’t do though, and the only other option is to go out into the world and see what else is on offer. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and spend some quality time with my brother whilst also having a bite to eat at my all time favourite place. I swear one of these days I’ll venture further afield, but if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Isn’t that what they say? 

We went to Garden Kitchen. (If you haven't already guessed.) The snug little bistro/quirky eatery in the quiet segment of Eldon Gardens. Believe me the quietness makes all of the difference. Granted, it was early in the morning so there weren’t many people there to start with, but it was definitely away from the hustle and bustle. 

The place never gets old for me. I love the mixtures of wood and leather and the odd perspex chair dotted about. Besides that, the food is always good quality.

I had a Living Social voucher to use up for The Brownie Bar in Newcastle. So I dragged by brother along who was more than happy knowing he was about to get some free food.

The Brownie Bar is located in Eldon Gardens. They sell over 30 different flavours of brownie; have monthly specials, and new flavours coming out all of the time too. It was set up by sisters Sarah and Rachael cawkwell in 2010, who started off making brownies in their kitchen at home. Their aim is to bring the gooiest brownies in the widest flavours to the brownie loving public, or the ‘don’t really have a clue about brownies’ person like myself. As well as the shop, you can find them at markets and things too.

The voucher I had was for two to get a hot drink and two brownies each. I paid £6 which is really good value I think.

I had never been to the Brownie Bar before, but had passed it on a couple of occasions. I love the look of it. It’s like its own little island just sitting there. I love the mixture of the bright white counter tops and lit up signs mixed in with the dark woods on the floor and the other fixtures. They have little stools, making it an actual bar. You can see all of the gorgeous looking brownies waiting to be picked in the display cabinets too.

I managed to get a couple of photos (I took the majority of them at home), not many though as we got our stuff to takeaway. Sometimes I hate when you get discount vouchers and you aren't allowed to eat in. Fair enough I know you're getting it for a fraction of the cost, but it takes away from the experience for someone like me. Especially if I've never been to the place before. It was empty too, so we could have squeezed in somewhere.

We made thew mistake of getting our brownies as soon as we went to Town (we still had shopping to do) Not knowing that we would have to carry them around with us. I got a hot chocolate for my drink which I had to just bin. It was far too hot and after carrying it around for half an hour I couldn't go in any of the shops. It was a bit of a waste actually.

Since we had to take them home, we got to share them with everyone else. (every cloud and all.) It was a good job really. They were quite rich and there's no way we could have ate two full brownies each.

The flavours we went for were Millionaire, Pistachio, Crème Egg and I’m sure the other one was a mixture of Nutella and Peanut Butter. They were nice in small quantities, I just think brownies aren't for me, they're quite rich. I reckon if I had of warmed them up and had them with cream or ice cream it might have been a different story. You live and you learn though. 

You can order brownies online if you can't make it to the shop. If you want the shop instead, opening hours are Monday to Friday 10:00-19:00. Saturday 10:00-18:00, and Sunday 11:00-17:00.

What's you favourite brownie flavour from The Brownie Bar?

On Thursday I found myself over in town with my mam and her friend Margaret. We went so my mam could try on some wedding dresses. I can finally say that she’s chosen a dress and is happy with it. If you’ve been reading any of the weddingy type posts I’ve been writing you’ll know that she was nowhere near sorting a dress out. So this is some serious progress. (Happy faces all around.)

So we went to have a look around the shops for a while and then thought we’d find somewhere to go for a quick cuppa and a slice of cake. It was Margaret’s birthday so my mam wanted to treat her and take her somewhere. (I automatically get treated because I’m the daughter.)

None of us were sure where to go. We went into Eldon Gardens and that’s when I saw it. Standing there in all its rustic, yet shiny glory was Garden Kitchen. It was about half 11 in the morning so it wasn’t very full. I can imagine it would get very busy in the afternoon and at weekends. It’s just so unique and has a charm about it. I doubt people would be able to stay away from the place. The decor was gorgeous. There were picnic tables, clear plastic chairs mixed in with posh leather sofas, lots of wood. It's in an open area so there is lots of natural light too. As soon as we went in I was snapping away, not even caring that people were looking at me like I was some kind of weirdo tourist. (It happens a lot now haha)

We got a couple of hot chocolates for my mam and me, Margaret got tea. I had the chocolate brownie, my mam a croissant and Margaret a slice of Victoria sponge cake. I’ll admit when I was looking at the cakes in the display cabinet, I was a bit disappointed because there didn’t seem to be a lot of choice and they didn’t look too appealing. When they came to the table though I was shocked. My brownie had been heated up and there was a nice dollop of cream beside it, chocolate sauce drizzled over the top. My friends, presentation is everything. The hot chocolate came in a nice deep cup and had some groovy patterns on the top of it. They both tasted amazing too.

Our cakes and drinks today came in at about £16 which is ok value. You can tell from the pictures that it's decent food so that price tag is fine by me. (Plus my mam paid so technically I got it free anyways.) It's ok though because I'll treat her to one of those garden picnics. (Can you tell I'm dying to try one haha)

You can hire the Garden Kitchen out for ‘garden parties’ corporate events and such. They even have events which you can keep up to date with on their website.  I've already signed up to the newsletter. I guess it's pretty obvious that I'm already a big fan.

Have any of you been to Garden Kitchen? Tell me about the picnics...