Pub meal in the Mansion House

What an interesting night I've had! I am just back from my first travel bloggers dinner.
Karen Bryan from Europe a la carte , kindly invited me to meet her, her son Simon and fellow blogger Linda  Fairbairn from journeyjottings to a meal at the Mansion house on Grassford street.

I arrived at 10 to the hour, and found myself in an empty room. Quite confused I asked the barman if there was any reservation for Bryan at 6pm, to which he responded: "Uh, you want a bite to eat?". I raised my "I'm not impressed" eyebrow and said that yes, surely it would involve eating at some point, but was any of the party there yet?
-"it'll be next door!"
Second eyebrow. But more of a "what the ..." kind of eyebrow.

I therefore went next door and yes, next door was also mansion house. How odd.

I then saw some wild white curly hair popping out of a booth and I knew straight who that was.

Karen was as I imagined, outgoing personality, very chatty and , even if they had just met, her and Linda were really getting on. I just put my feet under the table and then started off our night of tips sharing, Delight.

I must admit that three women taking pictures of every fork and every light bulb in the place must be something rather strange to witness, though.

The meal now. I frowned at the menu, I found it quite dodgy, like a dirty old piece of paper. Even the specials were on an old paper which suggests they weren't so special after all.

The two ladies ordered steak pie. I (don't ask why) went with the steak ciabatta, while Simon went with my first choice of chicken fajita (I then stared at it for the next thirty minutes in regret, he did not seem to notice, thank God!)

My meal arrived without the chips. When I pointed it to the waiter, his face went oops and I got them in the next two minutes, which made me think the cook was maybe watching the game or playing jigsaw, but surely not paying attention to my plate (sulky face).
My steak was too well done, all I could taste was the burnt meat. Maybe I should have told medium cooking, but I was never asked, it's a sandwich after all. Never mind.

The rest of the party seemed to enjoy their food, the ladies said something about the mash that was too bland, and the gravy too cold, but I think overall they had a good experience. I was told the fajita was nice (whyyyyyyyy?) so really , not too much to moan about.

At the end of the meal we all agreed that their website was confusing (looks like a club), that having two entrance was funny and that even if it was a nice place (at exceptional good value with a groupon deal of 18 pounds for 4 main and 4 soft drinks) we would not particularly recommend it.

It did the job, but as we say in France: it wouldn't break bricks.