The Crown at Wergs, Wolverhampton

With a toddler in tow, heading out for a meal is normally a very messy affair. The chaos usually starts the very moment we sit down at the table.

Wine glasses have to be quickly moved out of reach, knives, forks and spoons are replaced with plastic ones, fine bone china is a definite no-no, while table cloths tend to be a disaster waiting to happen.

And when it comes to ordering, we no longer have the luxury of picking what we want – instead both my husband and I often plump for whatever will be cooked the quickest. And when the meal arrives, we are usually too distracted with ensuring the little one keeps his food down to savour ours.

Sadly the days when we went out to actually catch up over food are also long gone. Now we are lucky to be even get a chance to sit down together, most of the time, one of us is to be found chasing our son round the restaurant as he goes off on another 'adventure'.

As you can imagine it is usually somewhat of a relief when we have paid the bill and made our departure (and not just for us – no doubt the other diners are pretty pleased to see the back of us) and, while we wouldn't change him for the world, when the chance of a rare night off comes up, thanks to the wonders of grandparents, we make a point of grabbing it with both hands.

So with the evening to ourselves we were determined to find somewhere a little bit special.

I'll be honest, our first thoughts were that we would need to head to Birmingham.

But then we remembered that we had heard nothing but good things about The Crown just outside Tettenhall and so decided to give it a go.

We hadn't been in the building since the pub was part of the Harvester chain. And to say it has got a bit of a new look these days is the understatement of the year.

Since undergoing its major makeover back in 2009 you would be hard pushed to recognise it as the same building.

The place has captured that rare ability to be both a hip bar and bustling restaurant – something which is a rare find in Wolverhampton.

And when we had to wade through the crowds to head to the bar we knew that we were on to a winner.

We were quickly whisked off to our table where the waiter was keen to tell us all about their specials for the evening – he even impressively dashed off to change one of the menus after spotting a mark on it.

As we sat back, enjoying the chance to peruse the food choices (normally at this point one of us is dashing to the car to collect some milk or toys or some other essential item which we had forgotten) it was nice just to soak up the atmosphere.

From the groups of young friends populating the bar area and the families out celebrating a big occasion with balloons and presents in tow to the work colleagues and couples chatting over food, the Crown it seems is somewhere everyone wants to be seen.

We turned our attention first to the wine list. Thankfully – as we are a bit out of practice – it was helpfully uncomplicated. We went for one from the 'aromatic and interesting' list which apparently came from the famous Rosthchild family wine collection.

So at £20 a bottle it seemed somewhat of a bargain. Getting a bit ahead of myself I also ordered a low fat cocktail – the skinny mojito – which was a fab idea and probably led to me gulping down more than I would have normally before the night was out.

After we turned to the food menu we were delighted when our waiter reappeared with some complimentary popcorn for us to tuck into while perusing the choices.

It is nice to see somewhere doing something a bit different from the usual bread and oil offerings.

The food has been dubbed 'modern British' which I think probably gives the chef a fair bit of leeway when it comes to deciding what to serve up to the diners.

And while there is certainly plenty of choice, if pizza is your thing, you'll need to make a trip there earlier in the day because, somewhat unusually, the lunchtime menu is slightly more extensive, throwing in beefburgers, pizzas and posh sandwiches into the mix.

Having said that we couldn't decide what to order for our starter so we ended up going for both a sharing platter and a more traditional offering of poached egg with hollandaise sauce and asparagus which when it arrived seemed more suited to a breakfast offering but was actually delicious – the sprinkling of parmesan cheese set it off perfectly.

The mezze would have probably been a bit on the small size for the two of us and the flatbread it came with seemed a little burnt in places although we got the impression it was probably meant to be like that. It was served up with dukkah aubergines – or crunchy aubergines as my husband called them – and three different Mediterranean dips which we all but polished off.

But of course the main is what it is all about when it comes to dining out.

My husband is a bit of a steak man and tends to rate his restaurants on how good their meat is. So there was no chance he was going to pass up the opportunity to tuck into a 28-day aged Surrey Farms ribeye.

The fact he barely uttered a word while eating it probably tells you all you need to know about how good the dish was.

Although somewhat embarrassingly we were insistent they had brought out the wrong sauce as the peppercorn one we normally have at home (out of a packet I must confess) is normally a creamy colour.

This was red – apparently down to the peppercorns they use – but regardless of the colour it was very tasty.

In the interests of research I opted for something completely different – the wholefood salad – which came packed full or an array of fruit and vegetables and annoying the grapefruit I asked them to leave out.

It can be a bit frustrating when restaurants get your order wrong but in fairness they were more than happy to switch it even though I could have just left it to the side of my plate.

Again it went down a treat – none of that limp lettuce offering that can make up the salad options in other establishments here.

Now since my son has arrived on the scene we have tended to give the dessert course a miss. Convincing him to stay in his high-chair for another round of food – even if it is custard and chocolate – can be hard work.

So despite the fact we were pretty full we decided to go all out and indulge ourselves with a pudding as well.

Ordering a crumble can be a risky business when you are out and about. One wrong move and you end up with a soggy mess that is reminiscent of the school dining hall.

Thankfully though the apple and strawberry crumble served up here is about as far away from that as you can get.

It looked as good as it tasted as well – coming served up in a miniature copper pan with the custard on the side.

Our second offering of frozen yoghurt and berries was pretty simple in comparison to the indulgent crumble but a refreshing choice to end a meal.

After admitting defeat and putting down our dessert spoons for the final time we cast a glance over to the still heaving bar with grand plans to go and join the revellers for one more drink before we returned home to parenthood.

But full up of cocktails, wine and a hefty three courses each it all seemed like a bit too much effort.

So instead we asked our ever so helpful waiter to ring us a taxi which whisked us home – two very happy customers.

ADDRESS

• The Crown, 83 Wergs Road, Wolverhampton WV6 9BP

• Tel: 01902 753634

• Web: www.thecrownwergs.co.uk