Colonel Saab With Mrs Doubtfire Collaboration!

Ok, I’m going to level with you, I LOVE the west end, but boy do I find getting affordable tickets hard work. I want to take the girls to Frozen before it closes, but, knowing it’s not just the theatre I’d have to pay for, there’s travel and food on top, it kind of makes it unobtainable unless I get a deal and believe me, getting into those ticket ballots is not for the faint hearted. I’m week 3 of trying every Monday, wish me luck!

What you really need is the guarantee of a really great pre-theatre supper with tickets to a show, so that you can be easy breezy in your seat purchases knowing that the food isn’t going to tip you over the edge. I love to choose “dinner and a show” as date night but honestly, these days it’s the dinner, OR the show on most occasions, especially in central London. However, Mrs Doubtfire at The Shaftesbury have come up with a tremendous deal which absolutely doesn’t involve getting your elbows out in queues (be they real or on-line) if you don’t want them to. Book your seats for the show with a table for lunch (£35) or dinner (£60) knowing that you’re also going to be gifted affordable fine dining in the heart of the city, a stone’s throw from the theatre!

Colonel Saab‘s Holborn restaurant is a few minute’s walk from the current home of Mrs Doubtfire and boy, oh boy is this an opportunity to try their incredible food at a preferential rate. I LOVE eating at CS, they’re so family friendly in the day time welcoming in my children whenever we’ve been, and trust me when I say the whole experience is something to behold… A feast for all the senses, Colonel Saab is family run, beautiful and the menu is Indian food served in a way I’ve never experienced anywhere else. I LOVE visiting this restaurant. My whole family do, and for date night, to get a 5 course meal, WITH a super special cocktail for £60, it’s a pretty big deal!

Begin with that special gin based cocktail which, like the character Daniel/Mrs Doubtfire, changes from blue to pink and is dramatically placed on a light at the table making it shine, and tickle the taste buds with a cumin muffin amuse-bouche and the Colonel Saab signature poppadoms!

For your starter there’s ample choice and what really surprised me was how ample the dishes are. Often a “set menu” commands a fraction of the regular portion size but not on this one it doesn’t. We chose the baby potatoes and chicken tikka and were not disappointed in the slightest. Hard to choose a favourite between the two so my top tip would be to go with someone you know well so that you can share!

We devoured the starters and swiftly moved onto the main course reminding ourselves to slow down. We’d booked a table for 5.15 with the show beginning at 7.30 so we had oodles of time to take it easy. hard, however, when the food is so good you just can’t stop eating! Main courses and we went for the butter chicken and prawn, which both came with a bowl of rice! YUM!

A palate cleanser of cheese ice cream became the fourth course which I really quite liked but I have to admit it wasn’t for Jonny. I guess we can’t like everything and he’d have preferred a sorbet while I thought it was quite different and definitely got me ready for my sweet treat at the end of the meal which is a berry cheesecake and all kind of sumptuous deliciousness!

All of this food and the main dish hasn’t even been served yet for we rolled out of Colonel Saab to take the thankfully very short stroll to the theatre and enjoy Mrs Doubtfire for the first time. I hope it’s not the last though as now I have yet another theatre offering added to the list of things I want to take the children to!

The show is true to the original story with some modern updates and wowsers does it work as a musical. HOW?! I mean, who knows the cleverness of the show’s creators but they’ve managed it. And actor Gabriel Vick makes his role of Daniel/Mrs Doubtfire both his own, and absolutely true to the character we all know and love from the film. Hard to imagine anyone playing this character as well as Robin Williams and yet here we are, he’s crazy good. The whole cast is, the ensemble blew me away in fact and I laughed and cried in equal measure flipping from one to the other. As I wiped away a tear at the end, I wasn’t the only one. This is an incredibly moving show and is as poignant as it is fun!

What a meal, what a show, what a deal! A theatre night out in London is always going to involve spending money, but it’s about making it stretch and spending it on the things which will bring the joy and make you glad that you did. As far as I’m concerned there’s absolutely everything to love about “dinner and a show” when it’s this good!

Collaboration.