There's a part of me (the selfish, gluttonous part) that doesn't want to share just how fantastic this diner is, because some nights the queues are bad enough as it is, but fairness compels me to tell you that if you want great food with first class service at a bargain price, AJs ticks every box and then some.
The menu has something for absolutely everyone, from the delicious homemade soup served with the best wheaten bread you'll ever taste (or an optional ginormous sandwich - try the granary bread!) to plump and juicy steaks served with all the fabulously generous trimmings, or gorgeous scampi cooked to perfection, or one of their piping hot and beautifully prepared classic roasts from the specials blackboard... you really will find it hard to choose. To make matters more difficult, you see plate after plate leaving the kitchen, each piled high and each looking mouthwatering and you kick yourself that you didn't order this, that or the other. Personally I vow to try something new every time I go in, but then I sit down and on a cold night the chicken, ham and stuffing roast dinner served with roasties, gorgeous mixed vegetables, gravy, cranberry sauce and your choice of main potato, always calls to me. It's a real old-fashioned rib-sticking plate of goodness. For your choice of potato you can have champ (my personal fave - creamy and gorgeous) ordinary mash, garlic wedges (also gorgeous), baked spud, roasties, chips (never less than crispy, golden and hot) or several others that my senile brain has forgotten. There's usually 3 or 4 roasts available as daily specials - chicken/ham/stuffing, roast beef, stuffed pork, and sometimes roast lamb or pork chops. And all for around 7 quid! You just won't find better value, higher quality food anywhere.
AJs also has a great breakfast menu served until midday I believe, but there's the all day fry which is spectacular and served whenever you want it.
I must mention the sweets menu. The number of times I've lovingly studied it, even when my gut's been fit to bursting after soup and the roast, I could probably recite it from memory! I always find room for a pudding here. There's no nouvelle cuisine nonsense where you get a little bit of pud drizzled in a tiny bit of custard at AJs - no, sir, your pud is served in a proper big bowl with enough custard to float a cruise liner in, and your choice of fresh cream or a scoop of ice cream with the hot puds. Personally, my heart belongs to hot puddings and you're spoiled for choice at AJs. Hot chocolate fudge cake, rhubarb crumble, deep filled apple pie, rice pudding, jam sponge, sticky toffee pudding... I'm probably forgetting one here, but I must personally recommend the sticky toffee. I'd been caught in a rhubarb crumble rut (and it's lovely too!) and decided to branch out on my last visit, and the lovely waitress recommended the toffee, and, my friends I must reveal that it is -godly-. Steaming hot, lovingly drenched in hot toffee sauce, dark and cindery toffee-ish with a rich caramel flavour and you can have it served with whatever you like. Because I'm a total pig I went for the custard and ice cream and it was bloody beautiful.
Other sweet options include - profiteroles, ice cream sundaes, pavlova, knickerbocker glory, strawberry romanoff, lemon meringue, banoffee trifle, strawberry cheesecake and a load more, including a selection of traybakes. Heaven for the sweet-toothed!
For my money, AJs is simply the best restaurant in the district for quality, service and value. I've never had a bad meal here and the staff are uniformly pleasant, obliging and incredibly efficient. Nothing's too much trouble and they all work really hard to make the place what it is. If you're in the area (hell, even if you have to make a trip!) then you really do owe it to yourself and your belly to call into AJs and enjoy a proper meal. read more