Anyone know Farnborough?

[svrich]

We're off to Legoland at the end of the week and are staying at the Holiday Inn in Farnborough on the friday night. At the end of a very long journey with a 4 and 3 year old we'd like to eat somewhere other than a motorway services :D. Can any of you lovely lot reccomend anyhere?
Cheers.

[maviczap]

Holiday Inn food is ok, but pricey. I'm in one at the mo,

[svrich]

Lucky man!
We are meeting up with the rest of my family later in the evening and going together in the morning. I think a Holiday Inn breakfast will be enough to satisfy our experience, I'd like to eat in a non-chain place if possible, especially as we'll be eating in Legoland for two meals on the Saturday.

[missjhb]

There is an Italian place called manhattans I'm north camp about 5 minutes from farnborough. Or if you want a nandos or franki and bennys then best off going to camberley. About 10 min drive

[svrich]

Cheers for that. The Italian sounds like a good option, and my wife loves Nandos. Choices, choices!

[Tomor]

Nando's!!!! (my useful little input there :) )

[Bordtea]

Yep Nandos Camberley haha! Mcdonalds down in Fboro gate... Subway in Fboro and Camberley aswell.

[vjones777]

Manhattens has the feel of a yuppie restaurant - big glass windows, showie. More of a place to be seen IMO. If you want really good italian food, run by italians, try the Dolce Italia a street or two away. Still within walking distance of the Holiday Inn at North Camp.
Really good food and if you're friendly with the staff and treat them as people, you'll get great service too - I always do.
https://plus.google.com/109505327772562198572/about?gl=uk&hl=en

A little bit of a drive away is the Swan in Ash Vale - REALLY good british fayre and real ale too. Just on the canal so makes a nice family spot. Can get busy though so don't be in too much of a rush. https://plus.google.com/101354912844139318534/about?gl=uk&hl=en

The Quays is closer - nice lakeside setting, but foods not as good as the swan. https://plus.google.com/102061843175485692416/about?gl=uk&hl=en

My abs fav is the nepalese - Gurkha palace. Food's reminiscent of Indian but a lot more flavour. They do a range of heat from mild to red hot. Bloody marvelous. Try and grab one meal there - staff are great and I cant say enough about the food. Mind you, not everyone's taste is the same, but everyone I've taken there has loved it. https://plus.google.com/110825702053432690455/about?gl=uk&hl=en

Enjoy.

[missjhb]

Everytime I have been to Manhattans it has been a great experience but each to their own.

There are great pubs around though in north camp towards camberley way. Guildford has some good places too just depends how far you want to drive really. There is a lovely Indian in Farnham but again about a 15-20 min drive

[kiggles]

there are two harvesters not too far away as well, food is okay. price is good and free salad.

one in frimley, and one in puttenham.

frimley is the better of the two. hope that helps

[Mark_h]

You've got all the big, kid friendly chains in Camberly (3-4 miles one way) by the Cinema complex. If you venture into Fleet (3-4 miles the other way) you've got some good Italian and Asian (Indian, Thai, Nepalise, Chinese etc) at some reasonable prices.

Loads of good country pubs that do food too but some are now Gastro pubs so damn pricey and not too kid friendly. Can give you a few pointers if you want to go for that option but need to know what you want first.

With kids I'd go for Fleet as it'll not be overrun with Cinema goers in the early evening like Camberly when you'll be eating with kids.

If your kids are anything like mine then the only safe bet away from home is Pizza or pasta. Fleet has a Pizza Express and an Ask but also a really nice independent Italian called El Castello which does kids portions and shouldn't be too busy early evening.

All the Chinese/Indian places do an eat all you want option with kids prices too but you'd need to be pretty certain they like that stuff before making them sleep somewhere strange then having a full-on day in Legoland after. Tired, hungry, grumpy kids oh joy!

Oh and if you're a right tight-wad like me, put some goodies in your bag before you go as things like foam swords (which they will want), lego kits etc are a lot cheaper in the supermarket than at Legoland. Oh and start getting angry now (it'll save time later) that they charge you for parking after you've spend a few hundred quid getting into the place. That said they'll love it. If you get down this way again Poulton's park is damn good too at that age and you feel slightly less like everyone wants your cash!

Legoland is also pretty close to the park and ride for the Olympic rowing at Eton so make sure you leave plenty of time to get there. There will be a massive queue for the little train that takes you down into the main park. Walk past than and just take the 5 minute walk down the hill, beat the queues then go up and down on the little train later when there is no queue in the middle of the day.

Enjoy .....

[svrich]

Thanks so much for all the tips and info.
The restaurant choices seem good so we'll have a good meal before the long Saturday.
And Mark, the tips for the day are very welcome. We're all stocked up on snacks and drinks for the day but its good to know what else is going to cost us. Toby (4) has been looking on the internet today (I know, it's crazy how he manages to use a computer. He can out navigate me around cbeebies!) and has spotted everything he wants a go on. My parents are taking us four, and my sisters tribe. It's going to be an epic trip!