The Cornerhouse Nottingham

I was asked recently if I fancied visiting The Cornerhouse in Nottingham city center to see what it has to offer, and so last Sunday I did just that with the teen (14) Miss A (7) and my husband aka The Tall Fella.

The first thing I did was to pop on to the Cornerhouse website to see if there was anything new that I needed to know. Whilst I was on there I signed up for a FREE Cornerhouse Card, which gives you exclusive benefits including discounts on food, drinks and admission. I spotted 25% off at Saltwater, so it’s definitely worth getting.

We had three things planned, starting off at The Lost City – Adventure Golf.

Apologies for the quality of the images, because of the type of theme the Lost City has, it was quite dark, with different coloured lighting as you go through the game.

I honestly had no idea that the corner house was this big. Having been to the Cinema here many, many times, I always thought most of the space was taken up with each of the screens. Well the golf is really big too, it even has two courses, set at basement level.

You are all given a different coloured ball and golf club, with smaller ones available for the kids. There are handy push along baskets for your belongings. Perfect if you have jackets, bags or shopping.

Each hole is different, with obstacles and changes in levels, but not too difficult for the younger players.

There is a chance to win a free game (inca gold) at the end, if you get a hole in one. Miss A (7) unbelievably managed this, and she was so chuffed with herself. We had a fab time, and will definitely be visiting again. I think next time we’ll do it combined with the cinema, as it’s a great idea to do something a bit more active I think before or after watching a movie.

Bella Italia was our next stop, and we enjoyed a leisurely late lunch. We were so full we didn’t even have any room for dinner that evening.

We tried to order different things so that we got a good idea of the what was on offer. The menu isn’t huge (which is always a plus to me) I favour restaurants who do a few things really well, than many dishes that taste average. I think the prices were standard for an Italian family friendly style restaurant.

Each course was well presented tasty and hot. We are all fans of Italian food, but there were a few wild cards too on the menu. My husband really enjoyed the Tempura Prawns as a starter you can see below :

Unusually Miss A opted for Fish and Chips, she’s a pasta or pizza obsessed kinda girl really! It was a well sized portion, and came with a skewer of cherry toms and cucumber which I thought was a nice touch. As parents any help getting your children to each salad and vegetables is always a bonus.

There are two different sizes of kids meal, which is a brilliant idea, as we all know children have very different appetites, but most restaurants don’t accomodate for this. You get unlimited drink refills (served with a fun curly straw) plus bread sticks on arrival.

3 Courses plus Drinks & Nibbles in two sizes
Piccolo £5.95 – perfect for little tummies (2-6 year olds)
and
Grande £7.95 – for growing kids (7-11 year olds)

My eldest daughter and husband both went for a Calzone – Pollo Spinaci, which they loved. They said it was hot, nicely seasoned and filled to the brim with chicken, spinach, garlic butter, mozzarella and Granello cheese.

They also had a selection of lower calorie dishes, which I nearly tried but then I spotted a new dish to the menu – Ricotta Spinaci, that had my name on it! Layers of fresh pasta, ricotta, spinach with a béchamel and tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. Oh wow, it was so delicious, I would definitely recommend it. I hate when a restaurant falsley says fresh pasta and it isn’t. This pasta would rival the very best restaurant in the heart of Italy in my opinion!

Onto dessert:

The ice cream cart was screaming out for both of my girls so they opted for that and loved choosing from the big selection of flavours.

My husband hasn’t got a sweet tooth, so I ate for both if us 😉 and opted for these three mini deserts in shot glasses. The perfect ending to the meal!

It was then time to head to the Fun Station!

You get a reloadable card (from the main counter) to use on all of the machines, swiping the card to activate the games. We tried a few different games, some more active than others. It’s not something we’ve ever really done as a family so we didn’t really know what to expect.

The games we enjoyed tended to be the more active ones, basket ball, bike racing and mini bowling.

Miss A was the champion!

It was very busy, and lots of families were also enjoying their time there. Most of the games give out tickets, which you collect. Once you are ready to go, you use one of the machines to add up the total amount of tickets you’ve won which you then transfer back onto your fun card. You can then visit the counter to exchange those for prizes.

I made a short video showing you our time at The Corner House :