Hamilton
Frankie & Benny's

Frankie & Benny's

Palace Grounds, ML3 6AD, Hamilton, United Kingdom

Pizza • Vegan • Italian • American


"Decided to go in here for dinner the other night with the other half and our friend, and was not disappointed! We arrived about 8pm on Guy Fawkes Night, and as there was a massive bonfire display in Strathclyde Park 2 minutes away, the roads were mobbed, the exact opposite of the restaurant. We were surprised that upon entering there was maybe only 10 tables in, but sure as can be they filled up over the course of the display finishing. As it was relatively quiet when we went in, we were taken to our table by the host and drinks were ordered efficiently! We did experience a bit of a wait for the drinks coming back, but the chat was good so it didn't affect the experience. We decided on starters and he took our order to the kitchen. Between us we ordered the bruschetta, the crispy coated chicken strips, and the warm dough sticks with a garlic butter dip. The starters were brought out within 10 minutes, and I like the fact in Frankie and Benny's you can see your food being made and when it's ready, so you know if your food's sitting for longer than it needs to be. Despite cleaning the plate of the magnificently season bruchetta I was given, I think I probably ate half of the dough sticks as well. Oh my heavenly lord, the garlic butter was like the melted body of God himself. After I had calmed down from the taste explosion that garlic butter was, we had our table cleared and prepped for our main courses. We did wait a good 25 minutes for the mains which was a pest, as the starters had made us hungry for more. Colin ordered the simple, yet always incredibly appealing on any menu Spaghetti Bolognese, and our friend had the Cajun Chicken Melt Wrap with chips. I opted for the New Yorker Calzone, a gorgeous calzone filled with spicy pepperoni, ham, bacon and mozzarella, and topped with a homemade Neapolitan tomato and herb sauce. To. Die. For. I've never actually tried a calzone before, but I would definitely have this one again and again, that's how good it was. The waiter came shortly after finishing and collected my wiped-clean plate, and Colin and I decided we'd have some sorbet to finish off the meal. I went for the lemon, one of the only desserts I'll eat (not a big dessert person! , and Colin chose the strawberry. I kid you not, this was the most superb lemon sorbet I have ever tasted, and believe me I have tried a lot! This is somewhere I will definitely be returning to once in a while, and somewhere you should go too! Just go for dinner tonight, you know you want to!"

Mushtaq's

Mushtaq's

154 Almada St, ML3 0EW, Hamilton, United Kingdom

Sushi • Pizza • Indian • Buffet


"The amazing Martyn M organised a Pakora Passport outing to Mushtaq's and I was super excited about it. They have a pretty funny website if you check it out they are really proud of having a clean kitchen and 100% natural ingredients. By the time I arrived, Martyn was well versed on the Mushtaqs Faqts and regaled us with some beauties, including the fact they will be able to cater for 4,000 meals in their newly expanded kitchen. Amazing. Anyway, the restaurant is nice, kind of small but modern. I don't remember seeing a menu, it seemed like they wanted us to have the buffet which is around £13pp. I was happy with this but normally I'd rather just order what I fancy as I don't really like buffets as I will always overeat. Haha! The starters were great poppadums and sauces at the buffet, a plate of pakora and some chicken pieces served fresh. I really liked the pakora and also discovered alu tikki potato in pakora batter, kind of like a potato fritter. (Fun fact: I call them a potato cake. Other Australians call them a potato scallop). There was a good selection of curries at the buffet, about 8 10 in varying degrees of hotness. I tried the chasni and korma as well as one of the hotter ones and thought they were both delicious. You could really see these were proper fillets of chicken which were cut quite large, obviously no dubious chicken plumping going on here. We had to wait a little while for the nan bread to arrive but that's because they cooked it fresh. I know it was cooked fresh because it was hotter than hell when it arrived. It was really tasty though and had a really light, soft consistency to it. Yum. With drinks it came to around £16 each which is really great for that much food. I didn't make return trips to the buffet as I'd definitely over eaten by the end of it. There were only a couple of things I didn't love about here parking in the pitch black car park out the back felt like the start of a Law Order episode and I was sure I was going to get attacked by someone hiding behind the earth moving equipment. Thankfully when we were leaving we went to our cars as a group. The other thing I didn't like were the chairs in the restaurant. They were big arm chairs and made it difficult to get out without pushing your chair really far back, into the path of the waiter and probably the person next to you (sorry Austen). Maybe it's to stop you going back to the buffet so much? Haha! I'd like to try the full menu before going up to 5 stars, as I said I don't tend to love a buffet!"