Days out diary - child friendly and family activities

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Note: This restaurant has now closed down

Smoking Gun in Coundon - closed down

Please see comments below

"The Smokin' Gun", is a new restaurant in Coundon, Coventry. It opened about a month ago (during April 2006), as part of a Cinema, tanning salon, tea rooms and restaurant development in the Bingo hall building. This is owned by Rialto Leisure Ltd, and is on Moseley Avenue in the Coundon area of Coventry. The restaurant is themed as a Wild West restaurant.

We visited the restaurant for a birthday celebration and we went with our baby daughter and 3 other children. The restaurant is completely non-smoking which was a bonus to start with, although with the future UK smoking ban, if it had allowed smoking it would only have been for a year anyway. The restaurant had at least one high chair, and two booster seats (although both these were in use), fortunately apart from our baby the other children were at least just big enough to eat at the table. There is a disabled toilet, we did not need baby changing facilities so didn't check whether they were available, I suspect there is probably a unit in the disabled toilet.

We were provided with hot bread first. We did not order a starter, but instead went straight for the main course. Children's meals were £5.00 each, and the adult meals were about £8 for a burger, up to about £14 for a mixed grill, with steak prices somewhere between the two. Instead of ordering your potatoes and vegetables, a selection was placed in the middle of the table, including new potatoes, fries and mixed vegetables, which were refilled on request. The initial supply of veg etc. was not very big considering the number of people on the table, but after we requested more they brought larger portions the second time (if they had brought the larger portions the first time we probably wouldn't have had to request more). The food was very nice and there were no complaints about the quality, or quantity.

Desserts were available at £2.50 each (unfortunately children still had to be pay the same price, as they would also have had adults portions). When ordering desserts you were given a plate and then allowed to select one item from the self service dessert selection. The desserts were a selection of gateaus, apple pie, or fruit salad, but no cheesecake. Fresh cream was also available for the desserts.

We were also given some small bowls of vanilla ice cream for the younger children, which we were not charged for (although there was no mention of this on the menu, so I'm not sure if it is an official option).

There was a wine list available, and bottled beers etc. There do not have draught beers or lager.

The whole restaurant is wild west themed, from the naming of the food: "Billy the Kid Burger", to the small selection of arcade machines (wild west shoot-up game, crane and bandits), to the cowboy / indian statues, totem pole and cowboy on a horse, and even the cowboy / cowgirl signs on the toilets. The only thing that was missing was that the staff had casual clothing, but not quite cowboy uniforms (I think maybe that's a good thing). The atmosphere was very casual, and we took the children around looking at the various statues and the small section with the arcade machines.

The one problem I did have was finding their phone number. Rather than having a line dedicated to the restaurant there is a shared line used by the cinema, beauty salon and the cinema. So they are listed under Rialto rather than Smoking Gun. Apparently they should be in Yellow Pages (not sure if they were in time for the current version), and 118 247, but the yell online directory did not list them.

The phone number is: 024 76591623

The Smokin' Gun restaurant is on Moseley Avenune in Coundon, a few minutes drive from Coventry City Centre.

If coming from Coventry Ring Road, take the 7th exit from the ring road (signed Coundon and Birmingham), and go into the right hand lane which takes you right, in front of the Aston Court Hotel. Follow the road round, over the level crossing, and then turn right at the cross roads traffic light.

If coming down the Holyhead Road (A4114) from the A45 / Birmingham direction turn left at the Holyhead pub / Morissons cross road, and it's on your left after the next cross-roads with traffic lights.

There are some parking spaces on the road immediately outside the restaurant, or parking is available in the nearby crescent or other roads around the area. There is also a Lloyds bank and cash machine nearby.