Mother's Day - Fully booked? What other options?

Update 2026, May. You can still dine at Gilbert's Restaurant in Grimsdyke Hotel in Old Redding, and Sea Pebbles for fish and chips in Hatch End, and Café Rouge restaurants in London.  Mr Alfredo Fellini's latest restaurant is Midori. For nostalgic reasons, I leave this old post with writeups of the long gone and lamented for their decor as well as wonderful food m Hawtrey's restaurant at the Barn Hotel in Ruislip and Osteria Modigliani in Pinner..

Problem
I did a bit of ringing around for somebody who wanted to invite his mother for mother's day lunch in London, England.

I found
Grimsdyke Hotel
Tel
£39 per person lunch fully booked. They are also doing tea and dinner.

The Barn Hotel, Hawtrey's restaurant, mother day lunch at £38.95 per person. Full booked.
Tel: 01895 636057.

As they say of vineyards, the time to plant is twenty years ago. The time to book mother's day lunch is not the night before. It's getting like the Edinburgh Festival. You have to book for the following year.

My other favourites:
HATCH END, PINNER & BUSHEY HEATH
Pinner

Osteria Modigliani

New On The Block
Porta Grande, Italian cuisine (took over from Fellini)
www.portagrande.co.uk
 tel:0208 428 4359.
The Steak Restaurant, 316 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, HA5 4HR, tel 0208 421 2878.

Old On The Block
Black Pepper, 461 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End HA5 4JA.
http://www.blackpepperrestaurant.co.uk/index.php?page=home
'At the heart of Hatch End', says their website, neatly alliterative. I've had great meals here many times, over the years.

Sea Pebbles, 352 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, Pinner HA5 4HR. tel 0208 428 0203.
seapebbles.co.uk
Chips is what they are famous for. (For Americans, British chips are like French fries but more potato. Not potato crisps.)
Sea Pebbles has another branch at 114-116 High Road, Bushey Heath WD23 1GE but I think the Hatch End branch is bigger and better atmosphere and great murals.
They ran an ad in Optima saying @5% off food NOT drinks, last Monday of the month. Next ones would be March 26th, and April 23rd, which is St George's Day, England's national day and Shakespeare's birthday, but Sea Pebbles ad said their last day of the month offer includes bank holidays.

Café Rouge, Pinner

With two family birthdays in the month of March I get to see vouchers for Prosecco which last up to 6 weeks from the birthday, which is great, as it's hard for us to get all the family in one country at one time.
www.caferouge.com
French style chain with 120 restaurants across the UK, in London at Pinner, Ruislip and many more. Large venues so you have a higher chance of getting a table. The Ruislip branch has a parking area behind the restaurant.
Huge menu. Everybody is bound to see something they like.

If you can't get into an upmarket, gourmet restaurant, you could opt for a cheap meal out try a pub or a carvery. However, be prepared for a race track of children.

People may complain that you should treat mother well every day of the year, or for a meal out every Sunday, but the commercialisation of Mother's Day seems to be a great success for restaurants.

If all else fails, treat mother on Monday or Tuesday or next week. But those who are at work, and have the funds to take mother out for a meal would prefer a Sunday, so maybe next year.

Useful Websites
UK wide : www.caferouge.com

http://www.blackpepperrestaurant.co.uk/index.php?page=home
www.caferouge.com

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g7380842-d1415050-Reviews-Friends_Restaurant-Pinner_Greater_London_England.html
www.portagrande.co.uk
seapebbles.co.uk
thesteakrestaurant.com
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g1869831-d2358851-Reviews-Water_s_Edge_Stonehouse_Pizza_Carvery-Ruislip_Greater_London_England.html
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/marvellous-meal-at-osteria-modigliani.html

REGIONAL
Worth a trip:
http://www.theharrowatlittlebedwyn.com
High price high quality Michelin restaurant. Get on their mailing list for reduced price meals and special offers for your special occasions.

Stay overnight with a meal:
http://www.huntsbridge.com/index.php?pageid=13
Grimsdyke Hotel
The Barn Hotel

Author
Angela Lansbury

Ruby's Restaurant, Bushey Heath, Xmas Dinner Party or New Year lunch

The Place

The Decor

The Food
I chose pate.

I chose turkey. The sea bass was also good.

I chose Xmas pudding, but the bread and butter pudding was even better.

Toilets are ground floor and the Ladies is nicely decorated.

Ruby's Restaurant

Bushey Heath

Sea Pebbles Opened in Bushey Heath

If you know Sea Pebbles in Hatch End you will be interested in the new Sea Pebbles branch which opened in Bushey Heath last month (November 2014). Their website is most interesting. It shows three restaurants, Sea Pebbles in Hatch End, Sea Pebbles in Bushey Heath and Hatch End's Orama.

Sea Pebbles fish and chips take away, and sea food restaurant, nattily and punningly subtitled 'the plaice to eat', serves fish of all kinds, grilled, in batter, or in matzo meal.

Orama is Greek style food with frequent entertainment evenings, Elvis acts, musical songs, tributes, suitable for hen and stag nights, birthdays and anniversaries, singing, dancing. Greek pastries - yummy. Orama, as in panorama, means view.

Mosfilo, Greek, more serious Greek food. Pictures of the Mosfilo area of Greece on the wall - which is where the family comes from.

What is the common denominator? Owner Savvas Andreou (can't spell it - think Andrew). I looked up the name Savvas. Savva or Saba or Savvas is Greek, Hebrew or Russian, meaning old man.

You can see Savvas on the website with famous stars who have been photographed with him at Sea Pebbles, comic writer and performer, Barry Cryer.

The website shows the new decor in Orama, the restaurant empty and full, and the menus for the restaurants including prices, wines and desserts.

Here's Savvas in Hatch End wearing his Sea Pebbles tee-shirt with the fish logo.

Sea Pebbles

352 Uxbridge Road, Hatch End, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 4HR

tel:020 8428 0203

Sea Pebbles

114-116 High Road

Bushey Heath

Watford

Hertfordshire

WD23 1GE

http://www.seapebbles.co.uk/history_bushey.html

Sea Pebbles Secret Behind the Smile

Sea Pebbles - see the fish motif with the name Sea Pebbles above it on the t-shirt? Yes, this is the man you've seen for years at Sea Pebbles fish and chip restaurant and take-away in Hatch End. The reason why he's smiling is because he has a new restaurant opening within the next month, fortnight hopefully, in Bushey Heath. It's where the Catch restaurant was, just near the car park. As soon as the builders have got it all ship-shape, so to speak. It will be open. If you are driving through the area, keep your eyes open for the new restaurant. He's promised to email me when it opens. I gave him my card. I hope he remembers. I want to see it and sample the fish and chips.