When everything is getting a bit busy (and I can promise you that being a final year student midwife is like that ALL THE TIME!) the first thing to go is date night. It just doesn’t seem to be the most important thing to be doing with your very-limited time and so it goes out the window for something that is not nearly as fun, like laundry or revision.
We are all guilty of it but this past few months, M and I have really struggled to fit in a proper date night, which is why it was such a treat to be invited to have dinner at Rump & Wade in Stevenage a few weeks back, and then stay overnight at The Old Cromwell Hotel afterwards – a proper staycation and the perfect opportunity for a proper date night with no distractions.
I published my post on our stay at The Old Cromwell Hotel a little while back (give it a read here) so now I am going to share the food porn and absolute indulgence that was our dinner at Rump & Wade.
Rump & Wade is located just next door to The Old Cromwell Hotel in Stevenage Old Town that has “good, honest, flavourful food” at its heart.
On arrival the restaurant was lively and bubbling with happy customers, all enjoying their Saturday night out. It’s a really homely environment and our waitress, Georgie, was so friendly and happy to share her tips on the menu and suggestions on what to drink – it was lovely!
We started with a couple of drinks – M went for a beer and I, on Georgie’s suggestion, decided on their “cocktail of the month”, a delicious mix of gin, elderflower and more delicious citrusy flavours called “English Garden” – YUM!
We decided to pick one of the sharing platters to start – the cheese fondue with chipolatas and fresh homebaked bread. This was absolutely delicious – gooey melty cheese, scrummy sausages and fresh warm bread, I mean what more could you ask for?!? Needless to say it didn’t last long!
By this point we had both finished our drinks and so ordered a bottle of wine – a beautiful and very drinkable Malbec called Santa Julia to go with our main course.
For mains M had ordered a Rump Steak, with a bit of cheese melted over the top and some chips. The chips were perfectly crisp while still soft and fluffy in the middle, and the steak was cooked just as he asked for it, rare (we are both of the firm belief that if you order a steak well done you should probably be shot….) He was slightly disappointed with the cut of the beef, which was much more fatty than you would expect of a Rump steak, and which had a huge chunk of fat on one side which he just had to leave, but overall he was pleased with it, clearing the plate of all but that chunk of the steak.
I went for the Cod Loin, served with seafood linguine, which was delicious. The sauce on the linguine was creamy and fresh and the mussels that were mixed in were chunky and really tasty. For my taste, the cod was slightly overcooked, expecting a really soft and flaky piece of fish, but it was still very tasty and I ate the whole thing (I did leave some of the pasta though, but simply because it was a rather large portion after our bowl of melty cheese!)
Dessert for me was a huge highlight – I, very predictably for me, went for the chocolate option; a warm chocolate fudge brownie, and I totally didn’t regret it! It came with a delicious dollop of creamy salted caramel ice cream, and smothered in rich chocolate sauce – just what a chocoholic like myself dreams of for pudding. The brownie was soft and squidgy, with just the right amount of chewy mixed in for good measure – SCRUMMY!
M went for the baked lemon tart which came with raspberry sorbet and meringue. M absolutely loves anything with lemon in it so he was absolutely in his element with this pudding; plus, it looked stunning!
After pudding the restaurant manager, Dan, came over to offer us a little treat – he was going to make us each a night-cap cocktail. He asked us if there was anything we each didn’t like and then headed off to whip something up. He came back minutes later having read us like a book. For M, an old fashioned (the drink he will always order if we go to a cocktail bar!) and for me, a fantastic mix of disaronno, baileys and some other yummy things (all of which I love and which mixed together was just incredible!)
He served them with a little bag of Rhubarb & Custard sweets which we quickly worked our way through as an added treat! I still can’t believe quite how right Dan got those cocktails; he knew exactly what we would like without us asking!
After our drinks and sweeties we headed upstairs to bed – all I can say is thank goodness we were staying there because we were full to bursting with good food and definitely feeling a little tipsy after the red wine and cocktails!
Overall we had a really lovely evening at Rump & Wade; the food was lovely, the staff were wonderful and the environment was so friendly and homely – it’s definitely worth a visit – particularly if you can stumble upstairs after dinner and curl up in fresh crisp white sheets too!
Thanks for having us, Rump & Wade, and to Georgie & Dan for looking after us so well – we will be back!
*Our Meal was gifted, however as usual all opinions are my own*
Rump & Wade can be found on the High Street of Stevenage Old Town – find them online at www.rumpandwade.co.uk
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