Mazzo Italian Restaurant

This newly opened restaurant in Royton is a great place for a mid week treat. Well lit, clean sharp lines and well placed mirrors give it a spacious feeling even though it's a relatively small venue. It makes it not too big so it feels empty with a few in but big enough to cope with large groups or a busy weekend. We went on a Thursday and it was pretty busy so glad we booked. They did accept walk in diners while we were there but I would definitely suggest booking in advance. It's a new venue and already seems to be a hit so don't leave it to chance. The owner was there to greet us and all the staff were friendly and attentive without being intrusive.

There were five of us that had dinner so we ordered a garlic bread to share which was half tomato and half cheese (both were really nice). It was a kind of thin pizza type and came out really quick almost as soon as we had ordered.  We had a bottle of very nice Pino Grigo and various beers and coders. Then for starters we had muscles in white wine sauce, prawns and avocado, Carpaccio, ribs and tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad. Drinks were kept on top of so we were never left with empty glasses.

For main courses we had 3 lots of prawn & tomato linguini (I will find out the full description and update) one pasta Salmone and one Carbonara. The food was piping hot and the pasta perfectly aldente. Portion size was just right and left just enough room for two of us to share a couple of desserts ;-)

We shared the Limonchello cheesecake and the chocolate fudge pudding with vanilla ice cream, both were gorgeous.  To finish off we got a couple of liquors, limonchello and frangelico. My favourite was the Frangelico which was a hazelnut liquor that just tasted like Nutella. It wasn't creamy looking like baileys, it was more of a clear liquid and tasted amazing. It's the first time I've had that but I will definitely be trying that again.

If you are looking for somewhere new to try in Royton this place is a must. Very reasonably priced and not pretentious or stuffy. Felt really at home and all the diners seemed to be enjoying their experience and food.

Will add more pics next time I go but for now these are the ones of the starters we had.

Hair of the Dog - Dog Groomer

I have a 3 year old toy cockerpoo who I have been home grooming for about 6 months as she is not very good at being groomed in a shop etc.  She had a couple of bad experiences and I think it put her off and she also associates the groomers table with the vets as its a similar environment.

I saw Hair of the Dog on facebook and saw that the lady (Lorraine) was in the Oldham area so quite local. After reading some of the comments on her page, everybody seemed to speak very highly of her so I decided to make an appointment. The beauty of this dog groomer is that she comes to your home so already the dog is a lot more relaxed as its in their comfort zone etc.

I booked the appointment for 5pm on a Thursday as it needed to be after I finished work. Lorraine arrived promptly set up her table and equipment in the kitchen, where the floor can be swept so thought this would be easier.  She immediately started to let Bonnie (my dog) get to know her and picked her up at the earliest opportunity.  My dog is very soft when she thinks something bad is going to happened and immediately started to yelp even though I could clearly see she wasn't being hurt or anything. This didn't phase Lorraine she simply held her quietly for a while until she was used to her and then put her on the grooming table.

She has a table with a metal arm thing that comes over the top of the dog with a couple of loops that she can hook straps into.  A loop was placed under her rear end to keep her upright and hooked in place and another loosely around her neck to try and keep her from moving about too much or falling off the table.

As this was her first time I stayed with Bonnie and held her head so she could see me the whole time and I could talk to her to keep her calm. I was expecting Bonnie to be really agitated and maybe try and bight Lorraine, as my mum had told me she had been really aggressive at the last dog groomers.  I don't know whether is was a combination of being at home with me and that Lorraine was realty good with her but she didn't make half the fuss I thought she would.  Obviously she didn't particularly want to be there but she put up with it either way.

After Lorraine had trimmed her down quite short (which she needed as she had become very knotted and matted in places) she then took her upstairs and bathed her. Bonnie was kept in place with a leash around her neck that had a rubber cup sucker thing that stuck to the bath. She was also able to tidy bits up while she was in the bath and less likely to wriggle about. The shampoo was a lovely banana scent which smelt lovely and clean.  I also noticed Lorraine had put the solution into a squeezy washing up liquid type bottle so it was easier to apply to the relevant areas instead of trying to tip up a bottle of shampoo whilst holding the dog in place (a Tip I will be adopting for bath times :-) ).

Once towelled dry she was back on the table and blown dry which she doesn't mind so much. When she was dry Lorraine then tidied up her face and paws as best she could. But this time Bonnie was pretty restless as in all it had taken 3 hours.

Bonnie is also really paw shy and constantly pulls away but Lorraine even managed to get them done, including her pads AND clip her nails which I thought would be impossible. She also has problems with her ears which I explained to Lorraine so she showed me how to clean them really easily with ear cleaning solution on cotton wool balls. I am going to carry on doing this regularly now as Bonnie didn't seem to mind this so much once the ball was in her ear.

I was really pleased with the outcome even though Lorraine was critical of her own work and said she would of liked to get her neatened up more. I think for her first big trim Bonnie had been patient enough so I was happy for her to leave her as she was.

I was expecting to pay around £30 as I think Pets at home charge £28 and especially since Lorraine had to come to me I thought it would of been more. But the whole thing cost £18 so I gave her £25 as I thought it had been well worth it. She even finished her off with some spray that left her smelling like Baby Powder which was lovely.

I intend to make another appointment sooner than needed so that Bonnies gets used to having it done and there won't be as muany knots etc this time so it will be a smoother process for both :-)

Thanks Lorraine for a great job. Sadly I couldn't take any pics during the process as I needed to keep Bonnie calm, but next time I get her done I will take come and insert at the relevant parts of the blog.

I did get a couple of before and after pic though:-

The Hair of the dog facebook page is below:-

https://www.facebook.com/hairofthedog