Parkgate is a little village on the Wirral Peninsula, overlooking the Dee Estuary, that we often visit for Ice Cream. Over the years the Estuary has retreated leaving a large swathe of marshland, which is famous for its wildlife. You will often see birdspotters here with their telescopes, and now an RSPB reserve, if the sun is out, it is likely to be busy. Fortunately for us, on this particular day the weather was awful. So we and the dogs parked straight up and went inside The Boathouse.

We had booked a table in the bar area which is dog friendly and were seated in a corner a good distance away from other diners. We had a view of the car park, and were quite cold next to the single glazed window though. I can forgive that as the building is from the early 1900’s but I did have to eat with my coat on. If you do not have dogs, the conservatory area is beautiful, especially on a nice day. The view is stunning and you can watch the birds whilst you eat your meal.

We took our time choosing our food and the staff were very friendly with both us and the dogs. I decided to have the three mini courses and a dessert whilst my husband went the whole hog with a starter, main and dessert.

As is usual, the husband chose the seafood starter but thought it quite unremarkable. For mains he had duck breast which he ate in record time. I chose the Pork Belly Bites in a soy and ginger glaze, Fish Goujons with Tartare sauce and Halloumi and Chorizo Fries.

The Pork Belly Bites were delicious, chewy and had a lovely flavour. The fries were just the right amount of squeaky and spicy. I love a bit of squeaky Halloumi. The fish was nice but the batter was tasteless and too thick. The tartare sauce was also horrible. The dogs knocked me and I dropped the first pot and had to get the lovely waitress to replace it. I shouldn’t have bothered! The Hellman’s sachets are better.

Anyway, after all that we still went for dessert. I chose the sticky toffee pudding and he chose a brownie. This was the best part of my meal. Check out that massive slab of cake…….

It was saucy and sticky and beautiful. All it needed to make it perfect was an enormous jug of custard. I adore custard, it makes me sad that a lot of places don’t offer it anymore. I should have asked but I didn’t. My loss!

Anyway, Parkgate is a lovely place for a walk and an ice cream, and even a pint. Also it turns out, for sticky toffee pudding. If I went again to this restaurant I’d probably stay safe and order a burger or some scampi. And leave the dogs at home so I could sit in the nice bit 😋