I've mentioned my love of a roast dinner many times around these parts on becc4.co.uk. Many of my Sunday evenings at university were spent whipping up a roast and now that I've moved back home, my sister and I are begging my Mum to cook one pretty much every day of the week. 

At the end of November, my Mum and I were invited to The Riverside in Tuckton to try out their three-course festive menu and we had such a great evening. The meal was complimentary but all of my opinions - as always - are very much my own. 

The Riverside actually have multiple festive menus on offer this Christmas but the Classic Festive Menu was the one we tried. At £26.95 for three courses, it's not a bad deal at allll. The other menus available include four and five courses and a Christmas Day Menu.

We were handed a glass of prosecco on arrival and were treated to a festive cocktail too. My Mum was driving so I happily chose both drinks and sipped away.  I chose the Sipsmith Spiced Bramble Royale; Sipsmith spiced bramble gin topped with decadent prosecco and the Festive Pornstar Martini; Ciroc Vanilla Vodka, Passionfruit and mixed winter spiced syrup with a shot of prosecco on the side. Now, I'm not too sure what I thought of the spiced pornstar martini - don't fix what's not broken and all that! The Spiced Bramble Royale, on the other hand, was delicious and I'd definitely have that again this December! 

To start, I had the deep-fried Brie. Shock horror, I'd never actually had Brie before but figured that I'd probably like it, I mean, anything deep-fried is delicious, right?! Yeah, I was right. The cheese was creamy and melted - almost like baked camembert - whilst the breadcrumbs were crispy in all their deep-fried goodness - yuuuum! 

For our mains, we couldn't have anything but the roast turkey, could we? It came served with lots of INCREDIBLE roast potatoes, a pig in a blanket (that sounds weird in the singular), pork and clementine stuffing, a side dish of seasonal vegetables, bread sauce and a red wine gravy. I absolutely loved the stuffing - honestly, it literally tasted like Christmas. I wasn't a massive fan of the actual turkey itself, however, but I'm not generally a massive turkey fan, give me chicken any day!

To finish, I had the apple and plum crumble which was served with custard, and I loved it. You really can't go wrong with a good crumble, can you? It was a really decent-sized portion and I liked how it was presented, crumbles have a real tendency to look a little dull and beige! 

As we arrived there were reindeer in the carpark - who are there twice more in December if you'd like to see them too - and there was a local church choir whilst we ate. I'm sorry but can you think of anything more festive?! The decor in the Riverside is really nice and the staff were really helpful. My Mum and I had such a great evening and I'd definitely recommend checking out the festive menu if you're in the local area, it's a really good deal! 

Hello and welcome back to my favourite blog series EVER. In case you're new here, my name is Becca and I'm a bit of a cream tea fiend. So, I'm currently on a mission to find the best cream tea on the south coast. You can read my previous posts in this series here, and let me tell you, there have been some goodens. 

Today's location is the Old Mill Tearooms in Christchurch - located right by the Quay. Of all the places I've visited as part of the series this is definitely the most basic one yet. I'm going to be honest, it's a very no-frills tea room with a bit of a supermarket cafe kinda feel to it!

I had a plain and a fruit scone, and let me tell you, they were MASSIVE. I'm talking so big I couldn't actually finish them kinda massive. They weren't the tastiest scones I've ever had and got a bit gritty towards the end... They certainly weren't horrible, but they weren't amazing, yanno?

Now, for what is essentially 4 scones, there definitely wasn't enough cream for all four (in my opinion) as you can tell from the picture! The cream did, however, come in a little china pot - much better than the paper cups provided in other places!

For two massive scones, the jam, cream and a pot of tea, £6.25 isn't too bad of a price, no? The lady serving us also said that we could go up and ask for more tea if we wanted - so the price is very reasonable in my opinion. 

Now, this tea room doesn't score any points on aesthetics. It's very basic indeed and there certainly aren't any instagrammable flourishes - there are no cake stands nor fresh flowers to be seen.

I feel like the next installment of this cream tea series is a little overdue, sorry! I genuinely haven't had time to go for a cream tea recently, but, rest assured, after this post there's another on its way in the next few weeks too. I've received lots of suggestions of places to visit, and I can't wait to get to them all, but if you have any more then do send them my way. There's no such thing as too much research, right?

Today's location is Indulge Yourself in Christchurch. Now, I'm going to be honest, it really does look a little naff on the outside. The name isn't anywhere on the sign and the colours of the branding really aren't that inviting, in my opinion. Nonetheless, we wandered in and the inside was so much nicer than its exterior! A bit of a hidden gem one might say. It's cash only but there are cashpoints on the opposite side of the road, so it's not too much of an issue!

The scone (yep, this cream tea only comes with one and is the first in this series to offer such) was pretty tasty! It definitely wasn't the best one I've ever had but it was good! 

A good size portion was provided, 10/10. It did come in this little paper cup, however, which was a bit of a pain as it sort of disintegrated as time went on and made it hard to get the cream out of it. Let's not talk about the rubbish, lol. 

The standard cream tea - a scone, jam, clotted cream and a pot of tea - is £4.95 which is very reasonable indeed. 

The interior was all white, with wooden tables and white chairs. There were lots of handmade cards for sale as well as other cutesy homeware bits too. It's definitely not the prettiest of places I've been to but it was still really nice!