Tag Archives: Falkirk

Canada Wood Kitchen and Bar

29th June 2015 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

This place seems to have appeared out of thin air in an area south of Falkirk which was once well and truly off the beaten track. Now, however it appears that every one is beating a track to the Canada Wood Kitchen and Bar. No wonder, it’s great! Falkirk really has to be congratulated on creating imaginative and mega visitor attractions, The Wheel, The Kelpies, The Helix. There is also a fantastic network of cycle and walking paths that crisscross the whole area and which this place is designed to fully exploit.

The building is impressive both inside and out and great to see it being well used. Walkers, cyclists as well as people coming by car just to enjoy the surroundings and the food. We had just been out for breakfast but could not resist going in just to see what it was like. Given our already fully sated state it was only one cherry scone between the two of us, but what a scone it was … giiiinormous. One half the size would still have been too much. Nevertheless I managed to get through my half but Pat was defeated by hers .. smaller scones would be much better. Coffee was fine and the whole place had a good, if slightly chaotic vibe. Given time we are sure it will all settle down and become one of our regular haunts.

When I was a lad Canada Wood was where we did forestry work or beating up for the pheasant shoots on Callendar Estate. It was definitely not frequented by coffee house aficionados. Wonderful to see such entrepreneurship so we really wish this place all the luck in the world. The website is still under construction but you can catch it on FaceBook.

FK1 3AZ tel: 01324 610026 Canada Wood

Ordinary, Scones

Baristas Coffee House

22nd June 2015 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

I think at one time this place used to be the RB Buffet, then the Drookit Duck, then the Edge public houses. That was before being transformed into Baristas Coffee House in Falkirk. Like so many coffee houses it faces stiff competition from the plethora of other such places that seem to spring up suddenly .. and disappear just as suddenly. The multinationals have deep pockets and they have the art of baristaing (is that a word) down to a fine art. Independents like this have to be good to survive.

This place is certainly trying hard, a big airy space to the front and another large area to the rear. They can certainly accommodate a fair bit of business if they need to. Nice friendly service and easy WiFi access, so plenty to like. We were just after coffee and a scone and were slightly taken aback when confronted with one of the biggest scones we have seen in a long while. It was quite something to behold and, with its dusting of sugar, held out a lots of promise. Sadly it did not live up to expectations. It was pretty solid and seemed to be lacking in taste … disappointing. Pat did not get through much before deciding to leave the rest. Pity really because Barista generally gets good reviews on TripAdvisor and we would have liked to have done the same. So bigger is not always better!

Is bigger better?

Surprisingly, to us at least, the American Presidential election has always, without exception, been won by the party with the biggest electoral budget. Maybe in the US bigger is better, however, just look where it gets them. Here it seems to be more complex. Party spending on the GE in Scotland has just been revealed and shows that in spite of spending twice as much in almost every seat, Labour still got thumped. Except in the one seat they managed to hold onto where they spent three times more than their nearest rival. In Edinburgh SW the Conservatives spent the most of any party and still managed to come third. Make of it what you will but sometimes quality matters more than size. That applies to scones … and everything else.

FK1 1HS tel: 01324 671222 Baristas FB

Ordinary

The Orchard Bistro

16th June 2015 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Today, the Secretary of State has ‘misstated his awareness of the truth’. He has refused the further powers previously promised to Scotland by Gordon Brown in the Vow. Today, Parliament voted against making the Holyrood Parliament ‘permanent’ because apparently it is a gift from Westminster that can be withdrawn at any time. Today, given that all of this is flagrantly against the will of the Scottish people you could be forgiven for feeling the need for a scone .. or two. Hopefully to reintroduce some sense of reality.

Big and airy

Hence we find ourselves in the Orchard Hotel/Bar/Bistro, an old and well respected Falkirk establishment. When I first moved to Falkirk from Glen Isla at 9 years of age this is where me and my family spent the first three weeks in the big city! It has changed a lot over the years. Such is its recent success it has now spread round the corner with a new Bistro facility. Big and airy the bistro has a good vibe though when we were there it was quiet. More than could be said for the music which was a wee bit on the loud side.
The bar also has an alfresco seating area which is great when the weather permits.

The scones arrived with plenty of butter and jam and accompanied by some excellent Kimbo coffee. Scones were light and tasted exactly like homebaked scones should. Service was efficient and friendly. Well done Orchard Hotel. Your management seems to be very forward thinking. May you continue to go from strength to strength.

Magna Carta

That’s more than can be said for our UK government which seems hell bent on treating democracy with utter contempt and ending the Union it purports to support. All whilst celebrating Magna Carta at the same time. Give us strength!

FK1 1RF tel: 01324 624567 Orchard Hotel

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

Blossom’s Bistro

21st April 2015 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Blossom’s is situated within the ever popular Torwood Garden Centre at Larbert between Falkirk and Stirling. Like the Centre itself the bistro is big, over 200 seats. Now you would not normally go to a garden centre specifically for a scone but at this time of year garden centres are going to be hard to avoid. You may as well try a scone at the same time. I have to say that Blossoms tries really hard and for the most part succeeds. There is a wide range of food on offer.

They even do an afternoon tea with generous helpings of sandwiches, cakes, scones, tea or coffee for £15 … for two people! Don’t think you can do much better than that! No surprise then that it’s a busy place, We suspect that many folk just come to the Bistro without going out to the plant area. They also support Central Arts. An organisation of local artists, displaying and selling their artworks to benefit various charities. Highly commendable!

A Parliament of scones

It’s a beautiful warm day but I gather that some folks are getting a bit overheated regarding the upcoming election. Let’s look at it sensibly! Lets imagine Parliament being made up of scones. There would be about 650 plain ones, some of them pretty half baked. There would be another 900 or so fruit ones in ‘the other place’. All of them are half baked and we don’t really need them at all. At this point in time, before the election, all 650 of the plain scones have been discarded … binned. We only have the 900 fruit ones. Now much as I like a fruit scone many of these are well past their sell-by but there is no way of getting rid of them. Even the pigeons won’t take them.

No worries though, on May 7th, a new batch of plain scones will appear from all over the UK and normality should then be restored. However, the problem this time around seems to be with the Scottish scones. Seen by some, to be of inferior quality, hard to digest and best ignored if possible. Of course this in turn would be tricky for Scottish people to digest because they will have gone to a lot of trouble to make them and they know their scones are as good as any.

There are scones and scones

The democratic process that produced all these scones used to see them all as equal but maybe not anymore. Us sconeys have known for a long time that scones are not all equal, far from it. The scones we had in Blossom’s Bistro were better than expected but maybe tasted a little bit floury and slightly more cakeish than we would have liked. Nevertheless we enjoyed them, the coffee was also good, the service was very helpful and friendly. All in all, very good value for money. More than can be said for those in Parliament.

FK5 4EG tel: 01324 557710 Blossoms Garden Centre

Ordinary, Scones, self-service

The Milk Barn

1st April 2015 billpaterson1@me.com 1 Comment

Well here we are at The Milk Barn on the south side of Falkirk on a dull chilly day. The upcoming General Election has well and truly kicked off with all parties promising more scones tomorrow. Main issues seem to be: 1. should banker type folk get more cream on their jammy scones 2. should ordinary folk (i.e. not bankers), get any jam 3. is the EU meddling with our scones 4. should folks north of the border be allowed to call their scones Scottish instead of British.

Appealing MPs

Being Scottish the last one is of particular interest because once again the main unionist parties are demonstrating their complete lack of comprehension of what Scotland and its scones are about and in so doing seem to risk the Union itself. From a sconologist point of view, the unionist parties should really be promoting United Bakeries, who make brilliant scones. Unfortunately they are in Norway .. which isn’t even in the EU. So maybe not. Interesting though that all MPs are effectively sacked and then have to win back their jobs by appealing to us folk. Not only with scones, but probably with jam and cream as well. It will be an interesting few weeks.

The Milk Barn is a great bit of diversification by the Reid family who run Glen Farm. It’s probably not the sort of place to go if you don’t have children. The noise levels can be pretty high. On the other hand if you do have children it is a must do destination. There’s a great play area inside for smaller kids. An adventure playground outside for the bigger ones. A large grassed area for playing football. A fab ice cream parlour where you can watch it actually being made.

Fibreglass cows

You can even milk Glenda the life-size fibreglass cow! So great fun if you are looking for the kids to be entertained while you try and sneak in a quiet cup of tea and, of course, a scone.
The scones are home baked and although mine was an odd shape it tasted fine and butter and jam were provided free. Oh, and fab strawberry tarts

The place is busy most of the time. However, although the staff were run of their feet they still managed to be smiley and friendly .. well done.

FK1 3AA tel: 01324 630703 Milk Barn

Scones, history and a dollop of politics