A New 3 Course Takeaway Menu - Hinnies at Home

This is an advertisement feature with Hinnies at Home

Anyone else missing date nights? As we enter another month of lockdown, we're finding ourselves really beginning to miss dining out in our favourite restaurants.  Nothing beats perusing a menu, ordering a glass of wine and having a gossip over something delicious. We can't wait to be able to enjoy eating out again.  But until that time comes we have discovered the next best thing, Hinnies at Whitley Bay have created a takeaway experience with a difference, a really special 3 course dine at home menu.

It's a challenging time for our local restaurants which has seen them having to suddenly come up with new ways to serve their food. With more and more takeaway and collection services available, I love that Hinnies have taken the time to really get together a fantastic idea which truly gives customers a proper restaurant quality meal at home.

Hinnies at Home is a lockdown takeaway with a difference, with freshly prepared meals collected cold so you can follow the heating instructions at home to ensure comforting hot dishes, the way that they are supposed to be enjoyed. Simply pick out your menu choices, place your order and collect from the restaurant for a date night with a difference.

Fed up of the same old boring dishes every weekend (it's getting very boring), Simon and I were keen to give Hinnies at Home a go.  With a choice of three starters, four mains and two desserts we decided to go all out and order a full three course meal, we have really missed enjoying a lovely long meal together and the thought of being able to tuck into a starter and dessert as well as our main course had us giddy in anticipation.

With our order placed we were able to choose our weekend collection slot and decided to go for Friday at 5:00 pm so we'd have plenty of time to prep our table as soon as we got the food home.  Having not been brave enough to go into any takeaways yet and having barely left our estate since lockdown began we were feeling pretty nervous as we made our way to Whitley Bay to collect our order.

Of course, there had been nothing to worry about, we easily found somewhere to park and I was happy to discover a sign on the Hinnies door with the reassuring instructions that only one person at a time could go inside to pick up their order. Tentatively looking through the window I could see no one else was there so made my way inside to the friendliest greeting.

Honestly, there was something so warm and comforting to be somewhere so familiar to me, and despite the empty restaurant I felt at home. I had no idea exactly how much I'd been missing restaurants until I was inside one.  My collection was ready within minutes and before I knew it I was back in the car and heading home with my paper bag of treats sat by my side. In a way we felt kind of daft to have been so worried about everything but these are unnerving times and every slight change to our routines leaves us feeling anxious. I am so thankful that Hinnies ensured our first food collection experience felt so safe.

Setting the oven to preheat we unpackaged all of our containers, happy they were all labelled along with some clear instructions on how to prepare our food.  Both our dishes required the same settings and cooking time so we simply popped them into the oven whilst we tucked into our starters which were both served cold with no prep time. Our main courses both took 25 - 30 minutes to cook, the perfect amount of time to crack open a bottle of wine and get to work.

Un-doing our containers we couldn't believe how beautifully presented the food was. I have never seen a takeaway box as perfect as the Hinnies offering. I was desperate to get it transferred perfectly on to the plate, and whilst I don't think Hinnies will be hiring me to plate up any time soon I'm pretty impressed with our efforts.

Our meal began with Smoked Ham Terrine, Pease Pudding & Pickles for Simon and Smoked Mackerel Pate & Dill Pickled Cucumber for me. Having not enjoyed sitting down for a starter for so long it felt like a real treat having such a wonderful slow start to our meal.  I'll admit we've had far too many "TV dinners" on lap trays recently so Hinnies at Home felt extra special.

Simon, who has never understood pease pudding, was quick to offer me a forkful after announcing that the Hinnies offering could easily change his mind. My Smoked Mackerel Pate was delicious and I really enjoyed the Dill Pickled Cucumbers as the perfect accompaniment. We spent most of our starters toasting to a wonderfully fancy evening in our kitchen (we couldn't quite get over how lovely it all was!)

It wasn't long before it was time to take our main courses out of the oven.  Cooked in the packaging, we carefully lifted our food on to the plates, again giving ourselves top marks for presentation. Hinnies really do make it so easy to serve yourself incredible looking dishes with minimal effort.  In fact if you are seriously wanting to impress the person you are "stuck indoors" with you won't beat this. Banish them to another room, serve up a surprise three course meal from Hinnies and I promise you they will think you are the best housemate and forgive you anything that you may have done (or not done) over the last few months.

My North Sea Fish and Seafood Pie was fantastic, a really generous portion, it completely covered my plate. Buried beneath my pile of perfectly fluffy mash I discovered deliciously flaky salmon and whole pieces of beautiful pink prawns. I know you shouldn't really play with your food but I couldn't resist.

However, it was Simon's Braised Beef Casserole, Horseradish Mash and Roast Carrots that really stole the show. The meat was so tender that I watched in envy as his fork pulled it apart. We spent most of our main courses saying nothing other than "Wow, this is so good!"

We both finished our dining at home experience with Sticky Toffee Pudding & Salted Caramel Sauce.  It took only a couple of minutes to heat in the microwave and was even quicker to devour. It tends to be our dessert of choice whenever we're in a restaurant so it was such a treat to enjoy a restaurant quality pudding at home.

We were completely blown away by our Hinnies at Home dining experience.  The idea has been so well thought out and everything from the collection of our dishes to the preparation and serving of our food was spot on.  I never would have thought it would be possible to have such a high quality meal like this in the comfort of our own home, serving up dishes that not only tasted incredible but also looked beautiful on our plates was really something else.

If you're looking to celebrate a special occasion during lockdown or just fancy treating yourselves to a really lovely date night then I highly recommend trying Hinnies at Home.

What You Need to Know:

• Enjoy 2 courses for £16.00 or 3 courses for £19.00
• You can order Hinnies at Home by calling 0191 447 0500 between 12:00 pm and 7:00 pm Thursday and Friday, 10:00 am - 7:00 pm on Saturday or 10:00 - 2:00 pm on Sunday. 
• Staggered collection slots are between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm Thursday to Saturdays and 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm on Sundays.   
• Food collection is from just inside the door of Hinnies.  Please observe social distancing instructions on the door when collecting.
• Orders must be made in advance.  Payment is cashless 
• Sunday Roasts are also available (served hot) as well as takeout brunch and teas & coffees. 

Find Hinnies at:

East Parade
Whitley Bay
NE26 1AP

hinnies.co.uk/

We were treated to a complimentary three course meal for two in exchange for a review. 

Share:

food, north east