On a recent birthday I decided to go my local Smith and Western Restaurant in Boxhill.

Now, for anyone who hasn't been to this particular restaurant in this location, this place is in the middle of nowhere! To get to it you need to go down one of these country roads with a few houses on either side till you get there. Once you get there however, you wont be able to miss it. However, be warned that if you are going to go there on a busy night like Friday or Saturday then parking is a nightmare so its best to aim to arrive a good 10 - 15 minutes early. Because of its location there are no side roads either so you may often get there and find a small queue of people waiting to park.

Once you get parked and finally enter the restaurant you are presented with a plethora of wild west themed goodies. Firstly there is the décor, its all very cowboy with cowboy hats hung up everywhere and barrels with peanuts in that are for you to put your drink on. All the staff are appropriately dressed as well which adds to the theme. There is also country music playing in the background which is a nice touch.

When you get sat down at a table (there are some normal tables, booths and a few tables which are in a jail area) the waiter brings you over some tortilla chips to munch on. These are obviously free and while not the most tasty thing in the world, they are very eatable! The menu which they give you is in the shape of some saloon doors which open outwards. Again, a nice touch.

There is a good amount of food on the menu, of course with a name like Smith and Western don't expect pizza or lasagne because its all heavily meat based; steak, burger, etc. We decided to get some nacho's to share for starters. We were advised by the waiter that it might be best to get the 'baby nachos' which were just a smaller amount. When the food arrived after only about 10 minutes we realised why he recommended the baby nachos. Even these were pretty massive and we struggled to get through them so the thought of the full size nacho platter seemed crazy to us but if there are at least 4 of you then I'd say to go for it. The nacho's came with olives, peppers, salsa, chilli con carne, sour cream, guacamole and melted cheese. As you can imagine these all added to this being one massive starter and almost enough to stop you needing a main.

Despite the size of the nacho's we decided to power onto the main. I went for the ranch steak which is described as

"10 Ounce Strip Sirlion topped with caramelised onions & mushrooms finished with melted Monteray Jack cheese, served with baked potato or fries and your choice of dressings"

This alone was enough to make my mouth water. I also asked for it rare and it was cooked to perfection; just the right shade of pink for my liking. It was nice and tender and had a delicious taste to it. The steak was massive. It took up half the plate and was a mountain for me. There were also plenty of chips and some salad that came with it but all I could manage was the steak and left most of the chips and salad. My girlfriend decided to have the Special Chicken Melt. This was a chicken breast chargrilled with crispy bacon and pineapple. Now I'm not a fan of chicken breast so I wont comment but my girlfriend said it was delightful. Again, she barely managed to eat all of hers.

Needless to say that after we finished our mains we were more than stuffed but after about a 10 minute break we decided to have a look at the pudding menu. This was when my girlfriend spotted the Belly Buster:

"Chocolate Brownie, topped with lashings of Ice Cream, Whipped Cream, Marshmallows,M&M's and smothered with Hot Fudge Sauce and Finished with real chocolate"

Sounds lovely we thought. Lets give it a go. Little did we know about the sheer size of it! The bowl it was in was huge and after we got about half way through it then we gave up. It was however, very nice. The top layer is whipped cream with chocolate sauce on it and a cherry in the middle. On either side of the plate are wafers as well as a flake in the middle and a cherry on top. Once you eventually manage to get past this layer (we had to bypass a lot of it) you can really dig deep and get to the chocolate brownie which has M&M's and marshmallows mixed in. The great thing about this pudding is that its not too rich and wont be a chocolate overload. It will just be too much to eat, especially after a massive meal.

Once we decided to give up on the pudding we got the bill and decided to make a move. The bill was bought over and we were given a couple of lollipops as well. Needless to say that after all the sugar we had just consumed, lollipops were not the most attractive thing but they were a nice touch.

Throughout the whole visit the one thing that stood out to us was how much fun that place was (even for adults) and how friendly the staff were. They always had a smile on their face and did their best to help.

Its also worth mentioning that for an extra £2 on the pudding, you can make it a birthday surprise which means that you still get the same mountain of pudding, but you also get some fireworks in it and the staff will sing happy birthday to you while hitting a cow bell. Its all good fun, especially for the kids.

The only bad thing that might put people off is the price. The whole meal cost about £50 for the two of us (we only had soft drinks) which is probably a bit too much for a normal meal out but for a special occasion I would definitely recommend it.

For more information the website is;

http://www.smith-western.co.uk/

Its not the worlds best website but tells you all you need to know.