Review

Birthday Lunch at Granny Mouse

 

On Saturday 10 May was my 41st birthday!  I woke up early as usual and Neil gave me rooibos tea in bed.  There was a bucket of school shirts that I had to put into the washing machine, but that was the only housework I was going to do.  I climbed back into bed and Neil brought me a delicious croissant with apricot jam and thin sliver of brie on – so yummy!  And of course the all important cup of coffee!!

Then Laura brought my presents – beautiful bunch of flowers, box of chocolates, 2 x nougat and fudge.
All from Woolworths which are my favourites.

Our lunch booking was at 12pm at Granny Mouse Country House & Spa so we needed to leave by 10:30am to make the drive from Kloof to the Midlands.  We dropped Laura at my parents on the way.  Where was Caleb?  Well he was away down the coast with a friend!  I did get a happy birthday message from him – at 12:30pm!

Now let me tell you a bit about our history with Granny Mouse.  When we got married in 1994 (yes it is 20 years this year!), Neil booked at Granny Mouse for the first night of our honeymoon.  We drove straight there after the reception, in the dark with a toilet paper etc covered car, along windy roads.  Granny Mouse was a warm and
welcome sight when we arrived and we had a beautiful room with a balcony looking out over the river and a gorgeous four poster bed.  We had parked our car under pine trees and we could take our suitcases out and walk straight across to our room.  They even washed our car for us in the morning.

Wedding Chapel

 

 

One of the Rooms

 

Water Feature outside Reception

 

Water Feature outside the Spa

 

So when we drove into Granny Mouse yesterday, we were amazed at the changes.  There was covered parking under the pine trees and no longer could you walk straight across to the room.  There was now a spa, chapel, conference centre and extra rooms added.  Even the entrance/reception had changed.  What hadn’t changed was the warm welcome and service.  We walked into the reception area and were warmly welcomed and once we said we were here for lunch were whisked off to the Bistro restaurant.  We bypassed lovely comfortable couches in warm rooms on the way.

We chose a table next to the fireplace in the restaurant as it was a bit of a chilly day.  We ordered Appletisers to drink (if you didn’t know Neil and I don’t drink alcohol, a decision we made 20 years ago) and then had to try decide what to choose to eat.  There was a nice array of starters from calamari, Thai fishcakes and snails but we both chose to have the Tempura Prawns.  They were really crunchy and delicious.  My mains order was for Beef fillet medallions with creamed spinach and potato rosti and I chose a mushroom sauce with.  Neil ordered a rump steak with chips and onion rings and chose a pepper sauce.  Oh My!  The beef fillet was melt in the mouth and the potato rosti was lovely and crunchy.  I really enjoyed that dish.  Neil was making appreciative noises about his food as well.

 

Tempura Prawns

 

Beef Fillet Medallions

 

Black Cherry Tart

 

Our very attentive waitress took our empty plates away and asked if we would like to see the desserts – YES!!  We looked at the choices and now we just had to make a decision.  We decided to choose two different desserts and then share.  We actually do this regularly.  I chose the black cherry tart and Neil chose white chocolate mousse.  What pretty creations were delivered to the table.  The desserts were so delicious and I especially loved the black cherry tart.

The General Manager of Granny Mouse, Sean Granger came over to our table to wish me happy birthday – knew from twitter!!  We chatted for a bit and told him about our honeymoon and how amazed we were about all the changes.  We had ordered cappuccinos to round out our meal, so we sat back to chat and relax.  The cappys were very good!  The foam was very fine and creamy and the coffee was delicious.  We finished our cappys and then it was time
to go.  Well that is what we had decided to do.  We couldn’t understand why our attentive waitress was nowhere to be seen.  I thought I might have to get up and find her.

Suddenly she appeared with a large white plate with happy birthday piped on it in dark chocolate and two pretty cupcakes.  Awwww that really made my day so extra special.  Neil and I were just too full to eat cupcakes so we took them home.

My Cupcake Birthday Surprise

We went for a bit of a walk before leaving, down to the viewing deck and swimming pool.  It was much colder outside than when we had arrived so we didn’t stay out there too long.  It looks like a beautiful place to have a cappy and look at the scenery.

Pool on the Deck
We slowly made our way to the car to leave.  It would have been wonderful to have had a room to go and collapse in as we were both feeling a bit tired, from all the good food and fun.  If you are visiting the Midlands you have to
either stay or have lunch at Granny Mouse.  It is beautiful there and we had such a lovely time.

I was sad to leave but Neil said he would take me to Typo on the way home.  No way was I saying no to that!!  Typo always has such beautiful stationery, but I managed to restrain myself to just buying 5 x file folders for myself and earphones for Laura for her birthday.

I had a wonderful and blessed 41st birthday!

Telephone : 033 234 4071
www.grannymouse.co.za

Author: Nicola Meyer

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