I was visiting Blackburn from across the pond on business and decided to try a good British steak…read more When scrolling through the local offerings, I noted that the Hudson Smokehouse offered a stone cooked steak. Since I had never had one prepared that way, I thought I'd give it a try. I enjoyed the experience. The perfect size rib eye steak was brought out with beautiful grill marks, sizzling on a hot stone for me to finish the cooking to my preferred state of doneness (medium rare of course). I sprinkle on a little salt & pepper, flipped it over twice until it had a nice sear & was ready to go. The flavor of the meat was great, it was a perfect medium rare. The experience was worth it. If I had a choice though, I'd have preferred an option for a side other than 'chips' - mashed or baked would have been preferred. I give the Hudson Smokehouse a hearty thumbs up.

First visit to the Hudson smokehouse last night, this place is huge!…read more Brilliant if there is a group of you wanting an affordable meaty feast! I absolutely love the decor in this place it's very rustic. They have live music every Saturday night, there service was excellent all staff are extremely friendly and helpful - thank-you to the lady who looked after us last night, unfortunately I do not know your name. I had the "bourbon" burger last night and my partner had the "Bull & boar" we halved them so we could try both....both really nice (coleslaw and chunky chips delish too) they have a decent choice on the menu from chicken, pulled pork, burgers, ribs, and steaks, it's defiantly a mans meaty American style dream. Its a perfect place if you just fancy a lunch/tea with your family or friends that's not pricey and a drink or two after with some live music, without dressing up "to the nines" the cocktails sounded really nice but we didn't have any as we were driving, a sparkling water was as exciting as it got ha! And the milkshakes looked ace but the portions of our main were so generous we couldn't stomach anything else.

Is this... wrong? Or is it tongue-in-cheek? Ah, of course, it's very tongue-in-cheek. Le Frog…read morefocuses on British food and gives it a French twist. First of all, the place is decorated spiffingly. Literally. Spiffingly. It's astonishingly gorgeous, just my kind of quirky decor - a ceiling plastered in newspaper, lovely quaint wooden features, neutral and pastel colours... the whole thing looks like it could have come out of a Hans Christian Anderson story. There are plenty of French favourites on offer like starters of a twice baked cheese soufflé, French onion soup gratin, tartlet with spring vegetables like asparagus, mushrooms and spinach, and more unusual options such as black pudding with chicken roulade, Thai fishcakes, potted shrimp with warm brown toast and hot smoked salmon or tempura veg. I'd call it a more Modern European affair to be honest with its additional pastas and risottos (the spaghetti with salmon and lobster is just heavenly indulgence) and you can have these in small or large portions. The sharing platters are excellent value and mains like lamb shank, duck breast, baked chicken, pork trio, a filo parcel of sun-blushed tomato, goat's cheese and spinach, all of which occupy the fusion cuisine spectrum Le Frog seems to operate within. Oh and there's steaks for the super carnivorous. The side orders aren't just supporting actors here, they're stars. Veg are cooked perfectly al dente, the broccoli hollandaise is delicious, I'd highly recommend the breads with dips and you can get potatoes in many forms - French fries, Cajun fries, garlic and chive mash and even the garlic bread comes in three varieties. All of these are stonkingly good value at under £3 each! Sorry about the dreadful pun, but I'm hopping crazy for Le Frog. See if you agree.

I hate frogs, but I like this place. Never really been a fan of French cuisine, more weird than…read morewonderful I'm afraid. However I was told the menu also carries a Mediterranean twist which worked in its favour!! I was unable to find my peace with the decor of the place, yes the decor is quirky but is it cool?? I wasn't so sure.....you'll have to decide yourself. The food, well again I must say if I'm honest I have had better. It lacked substance I thought. Perhaps the French have over the years had so much red wine with their food that their taste buds have been filed down. My marinated breast of chicken lacked a bit of umph!! The lemon, thymed and garlic chicken was served on roast vegetable cous cous with chive creme fraiche. I'm not sorry at all that my taste buds are absolute whores!!!!! Yes they are , they have been around the block and indulged in every fit cuisine around and had their way ever which way. This meal didn't quite do it for me. Having said that I did only try one of the mains and I'd like to try some of the other ones. Perhaps an update is needed. I'm sorry froggy it takes more than a decent decor to impress me son!!! We'll meet again and we 'll see if seconds are any better!!

It is OBVIOUS and common knowledge to anybody that's grown up near downtown St.Helen's that the…read moreBEST pork pie comes from this place. Absolute perfection!!

I and my girlfriend had to firstly find our own seats as there was no service about. As we sat down…read morethe were people stood.... Yes stood right next to our table socialising and talking loudly. As this was going on there kids were climbing in the seats behind us and running about...this was about 8pm by the way so you would expect children to be elsewhere by then. We then proceeded to sit there for about 20 minutes while nobody served us. Eventually somebody came over and decided to serve the table next to us first??? She then walked off without acknowledging us one but. We then got her attention and she disappeared again for another 10 minutes. She then came back without drink and old u that food would be about 1 hour!!! 1 hour...1 hour there were about 4 people eating in total and most people on were all in the pub area. That was it for us and we left after this. The place probably does do really nice food but my advice would be to avoid going on a Friday or Saturday night and maybe just go there for lunch.

It's been a long time since I was in this pub. It was called the George and Dragon back then. The…read morename was changed to the Pavilian after that tragic murder. It's all modern now with flat screen TV's on the walls and an Italian restaurant on the side. It was very busy when we went in 6.10pm on Saturday. Once you have your first drink and sit down around a table or in one of the comfortable sofas you will be able to order more drinks when the staff come to take the empty glasses way. Saves you going back to the bar. Not sure what you could call expensive but I bottle of Bulmers cider was £3.50. All in all it was a nice place to visit.

The market is full of all different stalls which include stalls such as shoes,baby…read moreclothes,underwear,bags,make up sweets stalls.There is a nice cafe right in the centre of the market,there is also a small butchers that provide meats such as bacon ribs,beef,chicken,pork. The prices are all very reasonable in all of the stalls. The staff are all very friendly and helpful.

fantastic new stall has now opened in st marys market,for all your dance needs unit 26 facing…read morecafe,(,BLU PRINT DESIGN DANCEWEAR ) dance sneakers,dance pants,leotards,ballet shoes,tapshoes, dance bags, costumebags, hoodie,s etc ,the can also print your name on your dancewear or your dance school logo onto your dancewear for you ,they also cater for morriss dancers ,cheer leaders, just been and bought some pom poms and cheerleader socks from there, can,t believe how reasonable their prices are, i usually have to travel all the way into liverpool to get such things, saved my self a small fortune in train fare or bus fare , hope everyone in the area supports them .

Really nicely presented food which tasted amazing. The…read morestaff go above and beyond to meet your needs. The place is quite expensive for what you get but I would recommend this lovely Italian to anyone. When inside you feel like you are in a courtyard and gives you a really good feeling like your in Italy. I will be going back soon.

Here for a birthday meal and it's a good local restaurant to fit the bill. The food was all…read moreexcellent. I had calamari fritte to start followed by fillet steak. Amazing seafood and meat. The sides are a little meagre in portions, I had to ask for more potatoes. The only real negative is the service which is very slow, but it was a Saturday night. I'm sure I'll be back here again when next back home.

If you want to buy good quality organic meat direct from the farmer, look no further! The family…read morebehind this place actually run two farms -- one near Haigh Hall in Wigan, and this place just off the East Lancs road (the A580) in St Helens. The quality of the meat they provide cannot be understated -- it's fantastic. And as I say, you can cut out the middle-man and buy directly from them -- simply check out the website, ring the farmer, and arrange to pick up what you need whenever is mutually convenient. At a time when many of us are becoming increasingly concerned about food miles and the provenance of what we eat, I cannot recommend these good people heartily enough.