We had a meal out at the Westerton Arms in Bridge of Allan near Stirling a couple of nights ago. It was Gordon’s 23rd birthday, how time flies.

The meal was really lovely, the only thing that was a bit disappointing was the size of the pasta dish which Duncan ordered. He has the biggest appetite but his mushroom ravioli was about half the size of all the other main courses. So if you are really hungry, don’t go for the pasta.

My husband took the photograph and I was sitting too far back!
The birthday boy is on the right with his lovely ‘bidey in’ Laura opposite him. I’m the nearly invisible red head in the middle, I’m only 5’3 but Laura is tiny and I always feel like a cart-horse beside her. Duncan, our eldest is on my right. A jolly good night was had by all.

I haven’t had a look at the on-line reviews but I’ve been told that one of them complains that the Westerton Arms is pretentious, but it certainly is not, the person who wrote that review must have been used to greasy spoon cafes.

As you can see, we all had puddings and Laura and I chose the hot Black Forest pudding with white chocolate sauce and ice-cream which was a lovely variation of that 1970s-80s staple of Black Forest gateau. But all of the desserts were lovely, for once. Sometimes they look so much better than they taste which leaves you cursing when you realise it must have been about a thousand calories. Not that I’ve ever counted a calorie in my life, I just walk the excess off.