Leisurely Leicester at Meridian Leisure Park

We had an absolutely un-refusable invitation to a very special blogger night out on Monday to sample all the best that Leicester’s Meridian Leisure Park has to offer. Located just outside the city centre, near Braunstone, Meridian is somewhere we have visited before as it’s pretty much the only place you can go bowling in the local area. However, The Boy and I have never really made an evening of it, so it was lovely to get the opportunity to try so many places out at once.

Sombreros were donned and the night was off in fine style!

It was a true gaggle of gorgeous girlies (with occasional partner or mum for good measure) that gathered at Chiquito for a welcome cocktail or mocktail. The cocktail menu is huge, there is certainly something to suit all palattes. The Boy opted for the Tiramisu Martini, which I have to say I was deeply jealous of because it was creamy with a gorgeous coffee hit. I think I might be getting more and more addicted to coffee cocktails the older I get.

The beautiful Lois models my cocktail much better than I ever could

I had a Frozen Lemon Meringue, a special of the house, which was sort of like a thick-slushy-pudding-drink. It really did have that combination of lemon meringue flavours so I was really impressed with it, the mix of citrus sharp and creamy sweet was just right.

Time waits for no man and soon we were off, taking our rumbling tummies off for our starter. Meridian has a load of restaurants to choose from – you can find a full list on their website and special offers are on there too. We were whisked off to Nandos, somewhere I must confess I have not visited for years and years!

Once seated, we were invited to help ourselves to bottomless soft drinks – full fat coke all the way with plenty of ice for The Boy and I. Then a delicious selection of starters was brought out for our delectation. Typically, my favourite was the hummus – it’s one of those foods that I simply couldn’t live without. The accompanying peri peri drizzle was described perfectly by Cool As Leicester as ‘liquid chorizo’. I can’t beat that.

However, I did really enjoy the chicken wings as well – it was a bit of a roulette as to how spicy they were, but I managed to pick one that wasn’t too hot for me and I liked the sweet peri peri kick. We also enjoyed garlic bread, which I will confess I also dipped in the hummus, as well as salsa and pitta.

As if that wasn’t enough, it was off to Pizza Hut for our mains. Everyone was eager to tuck in to the salad bar which was well stocked with fresh ingredients as well as all of the dressings, toppings, accessories and adornments you can possibly imagine. On top of that a veritable banquet of pizzas were brought out for us to taste.

We really got the opportunity to try their full range. Stuffed crust, plain crust, cheesy bite crust. Deep pan, thin crust and everything in between. There was your simple margarita, BBQ pulled pork, meaty feast, vegetarian feast and more. I think we had the chance to try every pizza topping known to man…

Of course, now it was time for us to work off some of this excess and see what options Meridian offered for us to play. We went over to Hollywood Bowl to get our Big Lebowski on. I do enjoy a game of bowling, although I do suck at it. This estimation of my abilities was proven correct once again as I came in dead last on our game, beaten comprehensively by The Boy, Sugar Darling? and her guest. But beaten even more comprehensively by Carpe Diem Emmie, who is of course always the first to seize the day at any event.

“A strike? On my first go? Don’t mind if I do!”

After all of that excitement, it was time to settle in for a movie at Vue to finish off the evening and what could be more appropriate when in the company of such glamorous folk than Absolutely Fabulous? I shan’t put any spoilers in for those of you that haven’t seen it, but if you are a fan of the Ab Fab of old, then you will totally enjoy it, sweetie darling. All we were missing was the bottle of Bolly. And a straw.

Looking forward to Ab Fab!

So, we had a really fun evening with fantastic company at the Meridian Leisure Park. The Boy and I are really grateful for the invitation and the opportunity to sample so many things in one evening, what a whirlwind of fun! The only critique I could offer up is that I could not see any cycle parking at the centre, which would be really helpful for us and all of my other city centre cycling buddies! But what a lot of things they have on offer in such a small area!