What's special about Specials?

At the tea rooms we have a core menu. We like to think it is varied enough that it will take our regulars a while to try everything, and tight enough to be sure everything can be cooked and served perfectly every time. So, we serve oodles of Windsor Picnic Pie, heaps of Sticky Toffee Pudding, lashings of Thai Curry and stacks upon stacks of savoury crepes every week and, twelve weeks in, we (and, importantly, you) are pretty happy with our core menu. But our Weekly Specials are where you will find something truly different. Certainly you will find dishes not available elsewhere around here. We get to introduce

you to some of our favourites from home and thus far everything has proved so popular we would be hard pushed to name an outright winner. We've baked Cornish Pasties and Steak and Stilton Pasties, and Scotch Eggs (which customers dashed in to get once they knew they were on the menu). We've introduced a lot of people to the deliciousness that is a Croque Monsieur or Madame. We've had Italian-brunch pudding and Alsace's original Quiche Lorraine. We like to be very seasonal, making the best use of seasonal produce and marking the little celebrations throughout the year. Burns' Week saw us serving scores of our Haggis-inspired pies with neeps and tatties and this week we have Irish-themed fare on offer in recognition of St Patrick's Day. It is a little puzzling to us why the Irish Saint's

Day is marked so passionately here (when St Andrew's Day is not recognized, nor St George's, nor St David's...although we at Birkinshaw's do mark them in a culinary sense) but it has certainly been a timely occasion to serve our Beef in Guinness and twice baked Jacket Potato with Cabbage and Bacon. And our fun Saint Patrick's Day Freakshake has had its fans, to be sure!

We have more specials planned than there are weeks in the year, so be sure to keep an eye out (on Facebook or Instagram) for what is on each week. You never know, you might just discover a new culinary favourite. And let us know if there is something you have had on your travels that you would like to see amongst our Specials. We love to hear about your favourite foods.

Above: A traditional Simnel cake - now associated with Easter but originally a Mothering Sunday gift from girls in service to their mothers.

Top image: Cornish pasty

Middle image: Beef in Guinness