There's a new kid in town...

.....and I'm not banging on about this blog. I am talking about Maggie's.

I picked up something was going on in late 2013 when wandering down the Uxbridge rd on one of my Ealing bimbles (BTW "bimble" is a word invented by my parents to mean wandering aimlessly with the ultimate goal being food and usually a pub - I bimble a lot). 

Anyway I strolled past Pizza Hut (not on my bimbling agenda) and saw the 80's signage had been ripped down (hurrah!) and the site was mysteriously encased in a hoarding carrying the above logo. Needless to say I was intrigued! Having done some, admittedly pretty basic, detective work I found them on Twitter and was told they were opening in January.

So here we are, it is January and they are open.

There was one problem though, myself and my fiancé weren't drinking booze, and although they talk more about 'beats & breakfasts' they do cocktails! So, instead of a cocktail we had a coffee and a sparkling water (wild) and waited......................and waited..................and waited...............

Then last night we decided to sod the "Dry January" thing and get our livers pleading for mercy by giving Maggie's cocktail list a thorough going over.

(Mum, if you're reading this, we did have some food as well but I did forget to drink any water - soz!)

I started with a Porn Star Martini - I didn't realise that this comes with a shot of Prosecco, but I was told by the lovely bar man that you can basically neck it or put it in the Martini, I went with the latter as it took the edge off the sweetness. 

Yum. What's next?

 The other half had a beer, so I didn't bother taking a picture of that.

After my aperitif we ordered some food and even though they have a solid selection of all day breakfasts, we went for their burgers (even though we missed it, they have a 2-4-1 offer Sunday - Tuesday after 5pm).

We ordered a Smoke Stack Lightenin' and The Wailer, both with a side of skinny fries. 

The Lightenin' was delicious, the chicken breast was huge and the toppings are my dream combo (errr hello, BBQ and melted cheese!!) but The Wailer fish fingers were a bit too brown and the bread a bit too doughy with not enough sauce to balance it out. Bit of a mixed bag but I do have very exacting standards when it comes to fish fingers.

Alongside the food we had a carafe of house red (this is amazing value, you get a litre for just over £20) and it was really lovely.

Having had this and the Martini we were feeling pretty sleepy so did the logical thing..................that's right, we ordered Espresso Martinis!

They were awesome and the perfect pudding if you're on a diet!

It's worth mentioning that all the time we were eating, there were some serious beats! It was a VERY eclectic mix (Ace of Bass into The Offspring anyone?) but a combo of the cocktails and the tunes had me wishing it was a Friday night. 

Unfortunately it wasn't (booooo, but we're nearly there!)

We left very happy and glad that somewhere like this has opened in Ealing. Maggies' is smack bang opposite Bill's so I expect there will be some competition there, but this is where I think Maggie's can differentiate itself by making the most of it's excellent cocktails (apologies for the serious cocktail bias) - it could even make the seating area around the bar more about the drinks? But hey, these are just the opinions of someone who has jumped off the wagon!

You can find them on Twitter here - say hello, they're a friendly bunch!

What are your favourite new places in Ealing? Have you been to Maggie's too? I'd love to hear what you think!