Kit Sinclair
Freshers are always on the look out for memorable experiences when they come to University. The Pudding Pantry in Nottingham serves many delicious edibles, and offers both bottomless brunch and afternoon tea. Kit Sinclair recently partook in an afternoon of bottomless brunch at The Pudding Pantry in Trinity Square. Here are her thoughts.
This week, having forced ourselves out of bed at the cruel, cruel hour of 10am, my three housemates and I headed to The Pudding Pantry to check out their bottomless brunch.
Cakes, pancakes, cookie dough, brownies, cheesecakes – you name it, they probably make it
The Pudding Pantry, as the name suggests, is a small local chain of restaurants specialising in tantalising homemade desserts. Cakes, pancakes, cookie dough, brownies, cheesecakes – you name it, they probably make it! We headed to the Trinity Square location in the centre of Nottingham, but they also have outposts in Beeston and Sherwood.
Their bottomless brunch experience is £29.95 per person, which includes unlimited refills of your drink (choose between Prosecco, house wine, or two tempting cocktails), one dish from their breakfast or pancakes menu, and a dessert. The two courses actually makes this offering a pretty good deal, compared to other bottomless brunches on the market, which often only offer one course.
You can begin your brunch anytime between 11am and midday, and you have your table for one and a half hours. We were actually allowed to stay and lounge around a bit longer to finish off our desserts, but the drink refills stopped after 90 minutes (which may have been a good thing in our case). We started our meal at 11am, and appeared to be the only group partaking in bottomless brunch.
“It was weird being around people just having their morning coffee.” one of my housemates commented. “Maybe it was because we went before most students had arrived in Nottingham.”
I had the vegetarian version which was excellent
Not to be deterred, two of us plumped for Prosecco, whilst the others chose the Vodka Passion cocktail – joyfully proclaimed “Really nice!” on the first sip. We all went for variations on the Full Pantry breakfast, which is essentially a full English but with pancakes. I had the vegetarian version, which was excellent, although I thought the meat alternatives were a tad uninspiring. No matter if this doesn’t tempt you, however, as there were plenty of other veggie options on the menu, as well as a vegan hash.
The star of the main course were of course the pancakes, which may well have been some of the best I have ever eaten in my life. Enormous, fluffy, but light at the same time; I am still dreaming about them days later. Best of all, if you’re a pancake aficionado, you can swap out your first course for a loaded serving of just pancakes.
As we recovered from our enormous main, we continued to make the most of our bottomless drinks. The refills were quite efficient (especially compared to some other bottomless brunches I’ve had), although I got caught out by drinking slightly slower than everyone else, and had to wait for them to finish their refill before I could top up my first. That said, we did make it through a bottle of Prosecco each before the end of the meal.
With our time at The Pudding Pantry nearing a close, we steeled our stomachs and ordered our second course: dessert! Despite already being fit to burst with our full English’s, we ordered an array of cookie doughs, cheesecake and brownies. This was a novelty to us.
“You got a pudding!” my housemate exclaimed afterwards. “That was insane.”
Indeed it was. So insane, in fact, that we all struggled to finish our generous portions. Luckily, a kind waitress boxed up our leftovers, whereupon they were taken home and lovingly stored in the fridge, waiting to rescue us from our inevitable hangovers!
“It’s a special occasion thing, a birthday thing maybe”
After thanking our lovely hosts, we staggered gently out the door and into town, where we were immediately faced by the food market in Market Square and nearly collapsed at the thought of consuming anything else within the next week.
Back home and reflecting on our experience, we all agreed it was an excellent group bonding activity. Would we do it again?
“Definitely. Although it’s a special occasion thing, a birthday thing maybe, not every week.”
“Absolutely,” my housemate mused. “It’s something to do with the girlies.”
Kit Sinclair
Featured image courtesy of Alex Watkin. Permission to use granted to Impact. No changes were made to this image.
