Dinner At Vesuvius

Vesuvius is my favourite Italian restaurant in Maidstone, no matter what you order, it is delicious.

Sean and I went with our friends who are vegan and non of us had any problems finding something to eat on the menu as they cater for everyone, including gluten-free.
Starter - Bianchetti Fritti - Deep-fried whitebait fish in breadcrumbs; served with tartare mayo, garnish and a lemon wedge.

I don't normally go for whitebait but I wanted to try something different and I am so glad I did as these were amazing! They were so full of flavour and tasty, especially with the tartare mayo which tasted homemade.

Mains - Spaghetti Ai Frutti Di Mare - Spaghetti cooked with tomato sauce with mixed seafood (clams, mussels, prawns and calamari) with white wine, chilli, oil, garlic and parsley. I went with the gluten free option.

This was one of the mains where you could have a gluten-free option, which is the main reason I picked it, I sometimes have a bad reaction to gluten so getting this super yummy sounding dish and then finding out it was gluten-free was fantastic.

I absolutly loved this dish, I wasn't sure about clams as I couldn't remember ever trying them but believe me, everything on the plate was eaten and thoroughly enjoyed.

I took all the mussels out the shells before I started eating so I could dig in and not worry about chewing on a bit of shell, which I have done before lol. It was all cooked perfectly and it was very filling. I must admit, I wasn't expecting the king prawn on top to still have it's shell, I can't peel them to save my life so Sean had to sort that out for me.

The dishes may not have been huge but they were packed with so much goodness that I had to turn down having a dessert.

It is a family run business and they know what they are doing. They look after you from the second you walk through the door, until you leave. Nothing is too much for them and if you have any questions, they will gladly go through them with you.

If you are looking to have dinner here, make sure you booked, especially at weekends because it was packed the whole time we were there and we were there from 7pm to 11pm on a Saturday night.

I would highly recommend this restaurant for anyone looking to eat out in Maidstone and fancy some amazing Italian food.

You Need To Try Pollitos

There are quite a few places in Maidstone that do chicken wings but none are as good as Pollitos.

I’m really picky when it comes to chicken wings, I don’t like them deep fried, I like them to just be chicken wings with sauce on them, none of that thick coating from whatever they were dipped in first. I’m also picky about peri peri sauce as it has to be really hot but not so not that I can’t taste anything. I like really spicy food so the hot hot peri peri sauce in Pollito’s is perfect. It makes my lips tingle and it is the right level of hot where you can still taste it.

The staff are all lovely in there and if you are looking at the menu but have no idea what you want to order, ask the staff what they recommend. I've been through most of the menu now thanks to the staffs recommendations. Mohan always suggests the smashed burgers as they are his favourite.

The shop is only a 2 minute walk from where I work so I have made Friday’s, Pollitos Fridays!

I would highly recommend the peri peri chicken loaded fries, lots of sauce, lots of fries and nice chunks of chicken. It is my favourite thing to have for my lunch at work but when I am taking the food home for dinner, I go for the chicken wings in the hot hot sauce.

When ordering, don’t just say hot sauce, they have different levels of hot sauce so be more specific. they know I love my hot sauce so they know when I order I want the hot hot hot sauce lol.

The smashed burgers are amazing, they are so jam packed that I can’t always pick them up, I have to cut them in half to be able to pick them up and eat them.

If you want chicken with something simple, they also do rice pots where they put chicken wings or chunks of chicken on top. That's what I have when I am trying to have a lighter lunch because I still get my spicy chicken wings but don't have chips.

Time To Talk Day 2025

Today is a special day, it is Time To Talk Day which is run but the awesome charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness. They are trying to get people to talk to each other about mental health.

So let's all try to have a chat with someone today, it doesn't just have to be about mental health if you aren't sure how to talk about, it can just be about something that has happened recently, something that has been on your mind, or you can be the listener and help someone feel better by talking. Anything to get the conversation started.

Talking helps someone to feel seen and special because for a few minutes, they have another person's full attention and could feel a real connection with them. Maybe even feel confident enough to talk about something that they haven't talked to anyone about before.

Bluewater Winterland Review

I wanted to take my niece (5) and nephew (8) to "Winterland" as I think they are too small to take them up to Winter Wonderland in London at the moment. I have been up there before and seen people with babies and kids that are smaller but it's super crowded and I'm just not comfortable going up with them just yet.

Winterland didn't really have the same feel as Winter Wonderland, it's loads smaller for starters and it was more of a fun fair with a slight Christmas theme. The only faults I could find with it was that some of the plastic statues that were dotted around were broken but left out on display, the toilets were port-a-loos that smelled foul and it was £3.50 for a can of soft drink. 

The ticket price was great, £24 for a family (2 adults and 2 kids) and a ride on the observation wheel, then it was £20 to get 25 ride tokens. I wish I had known how many tokens it was for each of the rides as I would have pre-ordered a lot more tokens, but this was my own fault for not looking at the website properly because it was all on there. 

With the 2 kids, 25 tokens didn’t last long, especially when the rides that they really wanted to go on were 3 or 4 tokens each. Some of them, my niece was too small and my nephew wasn’t big enough to take her so I had to go on with her. Those rides were 3 or 4 tokens each person so we soon ran out and I needed to buy more. You can buy more tokens from the machine or the booth but it is £10 for 10 or £20 for 20, making the £20 for 25 really worth it but you have to book those at least a day in advance. The lesson here is to pre-book lots of tokens!

There was plenty of rides that were 2 tokens each, they were the rides for little kids like me niece so those weren’t too bad and it didn’t mean that she missed out on loads of rides. They didn't like all the rides they went on but to be fair, when does a kid like every ride at the fair? The ones they did like made it all worth it seeing their happy faces and hearing them laughing.

The observation wheel was really good, we went round 3 times and because we got there when it opened and there was hardly anyone else there, we were the only ones on the wheel. It went round 3 times non-stop, which my niece wasn't happy about, I don't think she has been up that high before. I felt very secure in the pod and although it looks really tall, it’s not that bad once you get to the top.

The food stalls looked ok but they were a bit on the pricy side. So when the kids got hungry, we were lucky that it was the same time that the tokens ran out so that we could go into Bluewater to get something to eat.

I must say though, all the staff were brilliant. They were super friendly and helpful with the kids. When I didn’t go on the ride with the kids, the staff were great at helping them into their seats and showing me they were strapped in safely.

We were walking back to the car at about 4pm and the line was about 50 people long with more adding to it, when we arrived at 12pm when it opened, there was only about 20 of us. More people did arrive but it wasn't packed.

I don't know if I will take the kids again next year, I might take them to the one in London so they can experience a proper Winter Wonderland.