Welcome To Sausageville

As the first round of Restaurant Week 2014 dawned, it was clear that this year brought plenty of choices of where to spend your hard-earned cash. Having spent most of my mine in LA however, this meant I had to be extra scrupulous and choose wisely (damn it).

Although there are plenty of 'established' restaurants we'd like to try, the girls and I agreed that we wanted to try somewhere new, help boost a new, local business y'know, so it was decided that we would try wonderfully-named Sausage Emporium.

How better to banish those January blues than with your best friends, a bottle of wine and a plate of sausage and mash?

Despite it's simple sausage-only concept, I was pleased to see that the menu is so much more than 'sausage and mash'. With starters such as pulled pork with avocado and lime salsa, twice baked cheese souffle and oxtail wraps, there was plenty to keep us interested.

My pulled pork starter was more than generous in size and I thought the chipotle chilli ketchup on the side added some extra zing. Having helped myself to a bit of everyone else's starter too, I can confirm the twice baked cheese souffle was a light and fluffy cheesy delight, as was the 'gamey' tasting oxtail wrap.

Let there be wine!

The Sausage Emporium lives under Arch 6 of Westgate Road just a short walk from Central Station, so it's super easy to get to. The decor inside was cool and casual - we felt like we were sitting in a trendy tube station where we were sitting which was fun. The restaurant has two floors, an open kitchen and cosy booths downstairs, while upstairs houses a kitsch-inspired collection of mismatched, multi-coloured tables and chairs.

Happily, even the most discerning sausage-lover had plenty to choose from for their mains. We all tried to order something different: the sizzling thai sausage stuffed with lime, coriander and coconut, a traditional pork in cider sausage with creamy mash option and a veggie sausage of beetroot, lentil and mushroom served with crushed garlic new potatoes, spring onion and cabbage.

Ashamedly I didn't take any photos of our mains because I was completely distracted by this little cutie...

Hannah is the restaurant's five year old mascot and she just wanders round looking adorable while you eat, occasionally popping back downstairs to her basket to snooze. Naturally I was in love. 

Our main meals were really good, the sausages were fat and juicy, the mash creamy and delicious. My only niggle was the gravy. Although served in a cute little teapot topped with a crochet tea cosy, I would have liked it to have been thicker and meatier. 

If you're unfamiliar with the Restaurant Week rules then basically you can choose from two courses for £10, or three for £15. The better critics among us (ahem, Michelle and I) were the only ones who went for three courses, everyone else was too full to manage more. I was really looking forward to a decadent chocolate melt in the middle souffle, but sadly the other diners had beaten me to it, so I opted for the palate-cleansing lemon posset instead, while Michelle ordered a gargantuan slice of blueberry cheesecake.

It was half 10 by the time we said goodbye to Hannah the sausage dog, drained the last of our wine and headed out into the blustery January wind. We thoroughly enjoyed our night of sausage innuendos, good food and lots of laughs - thank you Sausage Emporium for your lovely food, laidback atmosphere and for letting me befriend your little dog. We'll be back!

**In case you didn't know, Restaurant Week has been extended for another week! So get yourselves down to the Sausage Emporium and tell me what you think at @chloeditorial