There are many great examples of domes in the world – the dome on top of St Pauls Cathedral, the Superdome in Louisiana and perhaps greatest of them all, the dome in a garden in West Bromwich where I ate my lunch today.
It was great, but we walked into a buzzing full restaurant of people eating their Sunday lunches, only to be led outside past the bathrooms and into a little garden containing 3 domed greenhouses. It was a surprise, but super cool. The dome was built from hexagonal glass panels and inside was a single table with 8 chairs and a heater. It was also hi-tech, we had a button which was to be used to call the waitress and a Bluetooth speaker, which provided the dulcet tones of Wham to accompany our meal. Sir Christopher Wren himself could not have imagined a finer place to eat an Italian.
If I’m honest, these domes were probably more intended for summer events. It was a rainy day but it had stopped raining by the time we got ther, although I would have been interested to have the experience of eating outside during a rainstorm. The other minor issue was the low winter sun meant it was a little hard to see at times. Fortunately it was England so that problem didn’t last for long.
We were there to celebrate the birthday of Mrs Rad’s mom, so they had booked this special outside pod as a surprise. The food was super nice. There was a normal Italian menu, so pizzas and pastas, but also a set menu of traditional Sunday lunch. I assume that was to cater for the stubborn English crowd, unless Yorkshire puddings are also a Tuscan delicacy.
I had pasta – because when in Rome, and in a dome, you should do as the romans do. It was pretty filling, even more so ones I had the chocolate brownie we had for pudding. I was quite taken by the predicament of the servers bringing us all this food. They came out of the restaurant elegantly, holding high the beautifully presented food, and then placed it on a table outside the Dome. They then had to unzip the dome in order to squeeze in a pass out the plates, then shut the zip as quickly as possible, giving the whole thing more of a camping in a tent aesthetic.
I love these eccentric suprises, and I really enjoyed this meal. It is definitely in the top 3 domes I have eaten in.