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Fantastic Mr Bus' Birthday


For the fantastic Mr Bus’ birthday we celebrated in style all weekend.  The proceedings started with coming home a day early so I was there to wake up with him on his birthday.  I brought him breakfast in bed while he opened his cards and presents.

Unfortunately as where he works they don’t have flexible holidays (archaic if you ask me) he had to go off to work.  In the mean time I did some boring chores and then made his wonderful Despicable Me Birthday cake.

Upon his return we had a spot of lunch and chill out before getting ready for our meal out in the evening.  We decided on booking a table at the Swan Hotel in Stafford as it had recently been renovated and the menu looked delightful.  The fantastic Mr Bus’ parents joined us for our meal, which was lovely.  We had a very warm welcome and they showed us to our table.  This was a great booth out of the way and we were pleased far from the hen party that was booked in that evening.

We decided to have a starter, the birthday boy went for a homemade pork and apricot scotch egg with smoked paprika ketchup, daddy bus had smoked salmon and cream cheese roulade with pickled fennel, cucumber, toasted rye bread, crème fraiche and dill, Mummy bus and I shared a Rosemary and garlic share and tare bread with garlic butter dip.  These all looked and tasted divine, and the share and tare bread was enough to go around the four of us.

For main the birthday boy had a Staffordshire Beef Burger in a bun (meant to be a brioche bun but they didn’t have any) with tomato, gem lettuce, crisp pancetta, tomato sauce, onion rings, corn relish and chunky chips.  Daddy Bus had the Hake fillet, Mummy Bus had the fish and chips, and this was a fair portion but looked delicious.  I had the Pork Belly, it was gorgeous and just the right amount on the plate as well.  We were all so full from our meals we decided against desert and just had a coffee instead. 

Overall the experience was wonderful, I would definitely recommend the Swan to anyone for any kind of occasion.  The only slight negative was towards the end of our dining experience the service became a little slow especially while we were waiting to pay.

The following day we did some boring chores around the house and then decided to head into town to check out the cheese and ale festival, unfortunately this was a little later than we had planned and we had missed most of it but we still managed to pick up some nice cheese.  We decided for a bite to eat we would head to our local Ye Olde Rose and Crown.  We go here quite often and have always admired the menu but not eaten there.  Today was the day.  We both went for burgers and I have to say they were gorgeous served with lovely coleslaw and proper home style chips like the ones your mum used to make when you were little.  I have to say for the price you pay it was an absolute bargain and delicious.  I couldn’t even finish all of mine and had to give it to Mr Bus to polish off.  Much better than a very substandard burger from McDonalds!!!  I would recommend this little gem to anyone.

Ye Olde Rose and Crown is in the heart of Stafford town and is a Joules Brewery.  It has many good types of ale on tap and there is something for everyone.  One of the reasons I like this pub is that the atmosphere is lovely and the locals and staff are friendly, one local even looks like Michael Palin, also no children are allowed (hurrah).  Upon moving to Stafford last year we quickly grew fond of this pub and is now our local even though it’s not the nearest pub to us, but certainly the best.  Around 5pm most days you can find free bar snacks on the bar as well which are little sausage balls, a little piece of heaven that go nicely with your pint.

We finished off the Birthday celebrations with a birthday buffet on the Sunday with Mr Bus’ family; it was a glorious day, which meant we could make use of the garden and conservatory, a lovely end to a lovely weekend.
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