1539 – A Two for One Racing Certainty #Blog

Stephen Wundke
19th March 2020

Its fairly well known that former Lord Mayor of Chester, Henry Gee was instrumental in horse racing taking place on the Roodee and its also pretty well known that the sport we know as Horse Racing is often referred to as “The Gee Gees” because of his name and that all of this nonsense dates back to 1539. What may have escaped your attention is that the Guinness Book of Records actually recognises Chester as the oldest operating Racecourse in the World. No small boast.

Less well known is that Chester Racecourse operates a Restaurant simply called 1539, that overlooks the course, is open to the public on non-race days and that has been winning dining awards for their food since they opened over 10 years ago now.

I recently needed to go out to lunch with a colleague and we chose 1539 – not necessarily because its very good but on this occasion mostly because they have what appeared to be a fabulous offer on at the moment. Its £19.50 for two courses and if two of you dine you only pay for one. Now that sounds like a cracking deal, so we thought we would investigate because if it’s just leftovers from last night’s service then maybe it’s not that great – we would see.

The one thing you are always struck by when you dine at 1539 is the view. It is, of course, a beautifully appointed restaurant but the view of the racecourse always has that sense of occasion and a feeling of excitement. We took our seats and told Andre (he may be one of Chester’s longest serving Maitre de’s and definitely nicest) that we wanted the two for one menu, which he duly delivered. He informed us that it’s a daily menu, prepared by their talented head Chef, Dan Speak and dissimilar to most table d’hote menus this one had a great deal of choice – there were 7 different starters including Vegetarian options and the Main Course selections numbered 6. It was more generous than I expected.

My colleague, George, chose the Confit chicken terrine with tarragon emulsion and rosemary focaccia. His fear was that tarragon can be very over-powering. He needn’t have worried, it was sensibly seasoned on the lighter side allowing him to add in some salt and pepper as he saw fit. It looked great and tasted just as good, he said. My starter was the Chef’s Black pudding with a soft poached egg and hollandaise sauce. I was really pleased to have this because I was on stage with Dan when he made this dish at the Food Festival, so it was no surprise to me this was a hit. Great black pudding, which he makes on  site, perfect runny egg and a lovely touch on the liquid gold, that is Hollandaise. This is a great start to any meal. I was very happy.

For my Main I ordered the Pan Fried Sea Bass, with bacon lentils, kale and a white wine cream sauce. Suffice to say the sauce was very tasty and the veg still al-dente. I like lentils and these were soft but the star of the dish was, as it should be, the sea bass. You see its not that tricky to get a crispy skin and still have flaky, melting fish, it just takes some care but most find it near on impossible. Not here, this was perfect and I really loved the dish. My partner, George, ordered the Sirloin Steak which he said was cooked exactly as he ordered it, was a nice piece of meat and he was delighted that he was able to swap from the chunky chips to the thinner fries without extra cost.

Meal completed with what George described as “very good coffee”, always a bonus and the bill arrived. True to their word it really was just £19.50 for the two of us to dine. Less than a tenner a person in todays world for quality two course meal, now that’s a very good deal but only if it’s good food and it is.

This deal used to just be at lunch but now you can have it during the week and at certain times on Saturday’s in the day. Take a look at the T’s&C’c on the offer by clicking the link below. We think this is a great offer and one you need to know about.