Hartford Hall: The Real Deal #Blog
Briony Wilson
17th June 2021
Have you ever had the words taken right out of your mouth?
I had this very experience today when I began writing this blog. I initially began to tell you about our trip this week to the reopening celebration of Hartford Hall, on school lane in Hartford.
I started to tell you about the pub and hotel, when they were built and about their fresh produce, their locally sourced food and incredible service.
Then I opened their website to check a detail or two and discovered that how I described them was exactly how they described themselves.
Why am I telling you this? Well, firstly, I do not want to be accused of plagiarism, but secondly to highlight something I have found to be rare. The description online and the reality in person, match up.
Not something you see every day (sadly).
Our founder Stephen Wundke has a pet peeve, he hates when food is not served as described on the menu. If it says there is a herb crumb, there should be a herb crumb, if it says it comes with ice cream, it should come with ice cream and so on.
While I share his passion for this, my version of this is online descriptions.
Hartford Hall, who we visited this past Wednesday, not only turned out to be exactly what they said online…it turned out better.
Let me tell you more about it.
Firstly, I must admit I was ashamed to say I have not visited Hartford before, but now I will certainly be returning – for such a small place I was surprised by the number of quality eateries. Much to the irritation of Tori, my dining companion, I hate to be late, and I do admit on this occasion I jumped from adding contingency time to just completely misjudging the distance and location (it is much closer to Chester than I originally thought).
However, the upside of this was we got to do a little driving tour around the area to check out the scene, we concluded – from what we had already seen on the website and our invitation for the evening Hartford Hall, would be the perfect addition to the area.
I am a sucker for presentation and love a freshly painted building, despite its traditional appearance they have incorporated a brilliant contemporary style, which really makes you want to stop by as you drive past and if that does not, then the large beer garden will.
As we arrived, we were greeted by the lovely ladies who had invited us and the manager Mathew, who offered us a glass of fizz and showed us through the restaurant to our table. We quickly pointed out there must already be someone seated on this table as we could see bags… oh, how we were wrong, we had our very own goody bag, a delightful extra touch for the opening guests. We are happy to report we were not the only guests to make this mistake, the three tables near us did the same thing.
Once seated, we were brought menus by our fabulous server Chris and given a few moments to look over the options a take a few photos before the restaurant got busier. As we returned to the table, I could hear Chris informing the table next to us about the Non-alcoholic cocktails, as the driver I had accepted that my drink was not going to be an inspired choice. I was wrong. The drinks service in my opinion is just as important as the food, so we like to get the feel of a place by its spirits or cocktails and the wine list. With this in mind, Tori tried the Tom Collins – a really refreshing classic drink made and presented well. Whereas I went for the Elderflower Virgin Mojito a combination of some of my favourite things anyway- the presentation was great matched only by the taste, well balanced and I must admit I didn’t feel like I was missing out.
We sipped our cocktails and enjoyed perusing the menu, as always, I had already checked this out in advance – don’t judge, we all have our hobbies. But I changed my mind completely on second look. I went for the Spiced Roast Duck Breast, which was served on pickled watermelon, cucumber, and ginger salad. A great light refreshing starter with incredible flavour and well described, I believe it was one of the most popular dishes of the night, seeing how many came past our table. Tori went for the Poached Asparagus and heritage potato salad, served with a soft-boiled egg, brown butter hollandaise and parsley. You would struggle to find a more in season dish currently, and the sauce gave me food envy form across the table. The freshness of the produce was evident, and the use of violet potato gave a lovely pop of colour to the plate against the bright yolk and green asparagus.
On to the mains, now this menu is extensive, and I think you would struggle not to please everyone in your party with something, from traditional pub classics, to pasta’s, stone baked pizzas to chargrilled steaks. Whilst we didn’t opt for it, a friend of ours on another table went for the 16oz Chateaubriand and we felt it needed a special mention, not only did the meat look perfectly cooked it was a perfect opportunity to try the fabulous sides, like the Chorizo mac and cheese with sourdough crust. Yum!
Anyway, back to our table, Tori on this occasion went for the Roast Rump of Lamb served with crushed niçoise potatoes, sauteed green beans and red wine gravy. This dish was perfectly cooked lamb slightly pink (how it should be), the green beans were fresh and vivid in colour and the sauce once again brought everything together, this was a different standard than you would find at your usual pub and great value also. I on the other hand, opted for the Roast Cod loin, served with spicy chorizo, King prawns, pardon peppers and a saffron aioli. I love all elements to have their own flavours and then come together well, this dish certainly managed that. The cod had crispy skin and was clearly fresh, the prawn plump and juicy and the chorizo had just the right kick. Rather than a sauce, the chorizo juices almost basted the fish which really carried flavour and the saffron aioli was the perfect addition to balance the dish. Part of the reason I picked this dish was despite the richness, it didn’t contain a heavy carb so at the end of the dish I didn’t feel uncomfortably full.
Given that we were already quite full we asked if we could take a little pause and it was suggested we could get a sneak peak of the rooms. Hartford Hall has 20 beautiful rooms some which are still receiving the last finishing touches. Luckily, the Chester suite was all finished and we got to visit. We both decided we wanted to move in, the rooms are brilliant value and huge, not to mention the high-level finish and extra details they have thought of. The suite is a large master bedroom with connecting bathroom, which has a large walk-in shower and roll top stand alone bath. The communal area then has a large tv, sofa which doubles as a sofa bed coffee machine. It also leads on to your own outdoor area with a table for 6. This is the perfect staycation resort.
On return to our table, we took the scenic route enjoying some of the other areas of the pub, including the sun room, bar and fireplace. As soon as we arrived so did our desserts.
Typically, I’m not a desserts girl and given our relative fullness, we heavily debated the options, considered the cheese board, but Chris our wonderful server, had his own ideas and suggestions. These were spot on. Hartford Hall offers a sharer dessert which includes 3 of the 5 dessert options, and we were kindly allowed to customise this. After a little debate, we opted for the Banana Sticky Toffee Pudding, chocolate brownie and the white chocolate dome. Expecting a sample of each dessert. What we actually got were three full size dessert plus ice cream. And when I say this is great value I mean it, you would be happy sharing this between 4. The portion sizes on the desserts are incredible so I recommend saving room.
The banana sticky toffee pudding was moist and sweet and paired beautifully with the ice cream. The White Chocolate dome was filled with peanut butter parfait, chocolate ganache and hazelnut praline. This was very sweet, but very satisfying when you get to do the spoon smash. Finally, the brownie stole the show, it possibly the gooiest brownie I have ever eaten, so chocolatey and indulgent. We didn’t quite finish the sharer, but we gave it a good go. We were also pleasantly surprised to hear from the 2 lovely ladies next to us who were enjoying the gluten free menu, that this was one of the best GF menus they have seen with so much variety and differing only slightly from the main menu which rarely occurs.
All in all, we had a fabulous night and must thank our server Chris, Manager Matthew, and the whole team for a wonderful experience, this is one to add to the must return list.
As I mentioned, I believe that online description should match the real-life experience and so I invite you compare my own online descriptions to Hartford Hall. This excellent venue is now open for general public bookings, and while we were kindly gifted this food experience, we stand by all our comments. Don’t believe us? We encourage you to try for yourself.