I have a motto – I’ll try anything twice.
This is why, despite my previous experience, when those lovely people from Manchester Confidential sent me an invite to Dog Bowl, including bowling, I had to go.
The last time I went bowling I was absolutely rubbish, comically so. Which is why I’ve avoided going for a second time, but I am a woman of principles and if I have a motto, I’ve got to live by it, right?
So grabbing a mutually bowling averse friend, Keeley, we dutifully booked in. We then spent a couple of hours putting off the actual bowling bit by eating and drinking. I am a champion procrastinator.
Determined to find a bit of enthusiasm in a glass, I started the afternoon off with a roasted pineapple margarita and Keeley kicked off with a porn star martini. The margarita had an added sweetness that was lovely, but I couldn’t pick up on the roasted element which left me a little disappointed. Keeley’s martini was perfect and her sweet tooth was definitely satisfied.
Now for some more procrastination in the form of food. The menu leans heavily on the USA, edging towards Tex Mex, with tacos, fajitas and burgers. We settled on southern fried dill pickles and South Carolina fried chicken. Something light to get us going.
The pickles were perfect, crisp batter, crunchy pickle, dunked in a touch of sour cream and quickly disappeared between us. The chicken was a little disappointing, I was expecting tender chicken and heavily seasoned coating. Unfortunately that’s not what we got, but I’m certain with a little tweaking this would be easily fixed.
Onto mains and a southern shrimp quesadilla for me, and for Keeley the pulled pork sandwich and between us a pile of Rock n Roll fries – chips, cheese, gravy and hot sauce.
The pulled pork I am assured was fabulous and my quesadilla was gorgeous – perfect level of spice, juicy prawns, creamy avocado, just delicious. And the fries? Dirty in a good way. Spicy, cheesy, salty, and soaked in gravy. Wait. I need a minute, my tummy is growling.
We weren’t sure about how much room we had left, but we needed to do our research properly, for you of course, not to put off the bowling any further, so we moved onto dessert. Keely opted for churros and I went for the classic hot fudge sundae. And another couple of drinks to try and find some Dutch courage.
How we fit these in, we’re still not sure, but we did. We had a couple of teeny niggles, the churros were a little too soft in the centre and my hot fudge sundae wasn’t very warm, but the flavour was just what I wanted, sweet, creamy, sticky, I was just missing that contrast in hot and cold. Keeley’s churros were sweet and crisp on the outside with a gorgeous toffee sauce and with a little change to the cooking process would be perfect.
However, we couldn’t put it off any longer. It was time to bowl. Grabbing socks out of our handbags, we headed over to swap our summer sandals for bowling shoes.
I’m just as bad as I remembered. Awful. I’ve the coordination on the bowling alley of a newborn zombie.
Shockingly, I managed to beat Keeley. I put this down to luck. No other reason for it. She didn’t commit any fouls and I was all over the place.
So, I don’t think I’ll be back for the bowling – unless it involves scenes like these
For another quesadilla or two? Why yes, but that’s a whole other ballgame…
It’s lovely and with a few tweaks would be even better!