Me and my family were looking for somewhere to go and have our Sunday lunch a couple of weeks ago, after we rejected all the local pubs my dad suddenly remembered the Blue Bell Cider House. Him and my mum used to drink there years ago but stopped going when it went rough, but now it's been done out and they do a carvery on a Sunday.

It's in Earlswood, an area of Solihull that has fishing lakes and loads of country walks to enjoy. The car park isn't massive and is a bit messy so you might have to drive round it a couple of times before you find a space, this isn't helped by the fact that this is a bit of a bikers pub and half of the car park is usually taken up with Harleys and other big motorbikes.

We didn't stay long, just enough to have our dinner and a couple of drinks after. The atmosphere is good, it's a mix of families and bikers (haha!) so it can get a bit loud but there's no problem and the guy we were talking to at the next table said that since the owners kicked all the trouble makers out there's never any problems.

The meal was proper nice, I love any carvery but this one was wicked because it tasted like proper home cooked food. You can't help yourself like you can in other carveries but the staff ask you what you want and how much of each thing so you're not missing out.

When we went there was 4 meats but that changes by the week depending on what they can get hold of. I was a bit disappointed that there was no turkey but apparently the Blue Bell is one of those places where your best not to expect certain things because the menu changes so regular. This week there was beef, pork, gammon and lamb.

All the meat was cooked good and so were the vegetables. I was starving by the time we got there so crammed my plate full, I only had beef because I'm not mad keen on pork and am a bit funny when it comes to lamb too. I had to stop the chef putting beef on my plate because as soon as he realised I was only having one meat he tried to pile it up as high as my head! lol

It's no good giving you a list of vegetables available because it changes every week apparently. It was all cooked wicked though and there was a choice of at least 5 different vegetables as well as roast potatoes, cheesy mash, roast parsnips, little sausages, stuffing and yorkshire puds. If you go then do try the cheesy mash because it's the best mash I've EVER tasted! Yummy! The stuffing is mega sloppy and a bit of a disappointment, it reminded me of the stuffing you have on pork and stuffing baps from the butchers and that's great then but it's toooooooo thin for on a dinner.

There are loads of sauces to pick from after you've put all your food out and you help yourself to them. If you're not feeling that hungry you can have a carvery baguette, it's not a lot cheaper but saves a lot of waste if you can't manage a full dinner that day.

A carvery is about £6.00 and that's quite good value I think, it loses value because you can't go back up for extra vegetables like you can in a lot of places but that's ok as long as you remember to get enough on your plate the first time.