London is such a great place to find discounts and deals that I try not to pay full price unless I need to. I hope that doesn’t make me cheap but if the offer is there why not spend a bit of time finding it. When Rita and Rachel said they wanted to go see Sister Act I knew straight away that there was going to be some sort of offer out there. Being a new production there weren’t that many but we managed to find one offering best available top price, but not premium, seats normally £60 and a two-course pre-theatre meal at Ascot Bar and Restaurant at the Berkshire Hotel for £60. So effectively we were getting the meal for free.

When we got to Ascot Bar and Restaurant it was pretty much empty so we thought we’d be in and out of there pretty quickly. However service turned out to be a little on the slow side, even if it was friendly. At one point our waiter remarked that “it was really busy.” I thought he was joking so laughing at him (at the time I thought I was laughing with him) I turned around to check out the room but it was empty but for one table. He was actually being serious about being busy! Rita thought I was mean to laugh at him but I honestly thought he was joking.

The pre-threatre menu is not extensive but still manages to offer a meat, fish or veg dish for starters and mains. With the promise of waffles for dessert we decided to go with a starter and main for our two courses. We all three went with the Poached egg and baby spinach on toasted muffin with hollandaise sauce followed by the 10oz rib of rare breed pork with Savoy cabbage, mashed potatoes and grain mustard sauce for Rita and I and Tartlet filled with spinach, young vegetables and morel sauce, watercress salad for Rachel. Our serves weren’t gigantic but they were fairly tasty. For the portion sizes, even considering the relatively good quality of the food, I’m not sure the two-course meal is worth the £19.50 that Ascot’s charges for it normally.

Unfortunately due to the rather slow service by our waiter we didn’t have time to get any waffles for dessert. Poor Rita. Instead we settled for ice-cream at the theatre.