Revolution at the Cornerhouse, the place you probably only go on a night out for cheap cocktails. With a massive bar and huge amount of seating it’s easy to see why this bar attracts a crowd of an evening. However until recently it wasn’t a place I would suggest to my friends for dinner. A few months ago that changed when I went and had an amazing veggie burger, the bean dreamin’ burger. I have had this at both Cornerhouse & Hockley Revolution bars and have loved it both times, check out my review HERE. So when the lovely team invited me to try out their new summer menu, I was really looking forward to it.

They have a fantastic 2-for-1 cocktail menu and so my friend Johnny and I started the night strong. Not all cocktails on the two-for-one menu but there is definitely plenty of choice. We started off with a gin-and-juice (Beefeater gin, elderflower liqueur and strawberry purée, strained over ice and topped with Ting) which at £8.95 would have been expensive for one of the two seems like a bargain. We then had Aviations: Hints of lavender, citrus fruit, spice and sweetness. Served with lemon and fresh strawberry garnish. There is also a new Gin Fest 2018 cocktail menu but we weren’t given this. Gutted as I love Gin! We then moved on to a cherry woo woo. (Very Cherry and Peach Revolution Handcrafted Flavours, strawberry purée, lime, cranberry juice and Rainbow Drops). Delicious!

Starter

We decided to go for the mezze board (priced at £11) and featuring sticky chicken skewers, harissa houmous, tortilla chips, guacamole, calamari, charred tortilla and olives. This was great value for money. The chicken was perfectly cooked and glazed with a sweet sticky sauce. The calamari was tender and coated lightly. The guacamole was alright, if a little brown in colour. Succulent fat green olives rounded it off perfectly. A great starter.

Mains

For main we were asked to eat off the new spring menu. This wouldn’t have been an issue at all if I wasn’t lactose intolerant. As it was, of the 4 main courses I could only eat one, and I wasn’t able to have the dessert as it was cream based. OK I thought, lets go for the ‘Botanical summer salad’. I would have loved the lobster and crab mezzaluna if it wasn’t in a cream sauce!

So, on to the salad. It consisted of tender seasonal leaves, radicchio, sorrel and lemon cress with beetroot, sweet raspberries, strawberries and grapes, in a light cilantro dressing. I topped it with smoked salmon and marinated king prawns. Let me start with the good points. The salad was huge and the smoked salmon was lovely. Soft and buttery with a lovely smoked taste. The prawns were also delicious. It was just a shame that there were only three in the salad. Now for the not so good points. Now usually I wouldn’t ever choose a salad at a restaurant, coz you know… I like my food. However if a salad is good, I will rave about it. This just wasn’t one of those salads. The flavours, although lovely individually, just did not work well together at all. My taste buds just couldn’t work out whether I was eating a main or a dessert. In my opinion, grapes should never go in a salad, and certainly not with smoked salmon. My friend and I tried to get the weirdest combo in the end… I think that the sorrel, strawberries and prawns were probably the oddest. As much as I wanted to like this, I just couldn’t. All the ingredients were fresh and delicious separately but together it just wasn’t pleasant. We both ended up leaving quite a bit and were just grateful we had ordered the sharing board.

Overall, the spring menu does sound great (if you avoid the salad) but it doesn’t cater to me. The normal menu is definitely better in my opinion for someone like myself who can’t eat dairy. Having dined at both Revolution Cornerhouse & Hockley, and really enjoyed both venues, I would go back but not for the spring menu.

Thank you to the lovely team at Revolution for inviting me to try out the menu. As always my opinions are my own