The Grill on Newgate Street – Taste Cheshire Review #Blog

Gaile Wundke
19th November 2015

The Grill On Newgate Street has been a permanent fixture in Newgate Street since 2008 and prides itself on being just what it says on the tin, a Grill Restaurant.  We arrived for our 6.45 booking and were shown through to our ‘booth’ table at the far end of the building, allowing us to see the entire restaurant, which as someone who likes to people watch, was perfect!  Being so early, there were only a handful of others dining, however this quickly changed as a steady stream of customers arrived creating a busy and upbeat atmosphere. This is the norm at what is one of Chester’s busiest restaurant.

Our waiter brought our menus and knowledgeably told us about the specials, then drew our attention to their Best of British menu which featured Redman Limousin steaks and for those with a really huge appetite, their Big Boy steaks, Ribeye on the bone and Porterhouse, priced at £75.00 is huge, you really need to be hungry!  We decided to choose off the main menu which offered an excellent choice from Starters to Seafood, Salad to Steaks, Burgers to The Grill’s Favourites and if that wasn’t enough, you could have your choice of raw or cooked Rock Oysters!  To accompany meals there was also a reasonably priced selection of vegetables.

To start we chose the smoked haddock fishcake and the Blackhouse Sharing Plate, which consisted of Honey Glazed Chicken Skewers, Salt & Pepper Calamari, BBQ ribs and Baked Sweet Potato Wedges.  The fishcake was deep fried and topped with tartare sauce and our son thought it was very tasty.  The ribs on the sharing plate were delicious, cooked to perfection and the BBQ sauce had just the right amount of tang to offset the richness of the rib meat.  The chicken was moist, and this was accompanied by calamari and sweet potato wedges.

When the mains arrived we were all pleasantly surprised, my dish of Emperor Prawns looked better than expected, three huge prawns, grilled to pink perfection with accompanying side dishes of Home Cut Chips and a Mixed Herb and Leaf Salad, the other two mains, Ribeye Steak and a classic Beef Burger topped with bacon and cheese, looked equally good.  The burger got a big thumbs up, cooked so it was still slightly pink in the middle resulting in a juicy and delicious burger without a hint of the dryness that you so often find. Possibly the best we have had on our travels through Cheshire. The steak was perfectly cooked, rare as requested and came with chips and a side order of mixed herb and leaf salad.  All three mains were, on the whole, cooked and presented well although the chips were a little disappointing being that they were quite bitty.

By now we were all quite full, but decided to share a dessert and chose the warm chocolate fudge cake with vanilla ice cream – this was definitely a winner it took no time at all to clear the plate and was the perfect conclusion to the meal!

The Grill on Newgate Street has lasted in Chester for so long because it is good. To have so many people dining on a drizzly November night shows that they are doing a lot of things right, regularly.  We were a little early to be able to enjoy the live pianist which adds to the upbeat atmosphere but that is a great touch to the evening and the service cannot be faulted, better than some of the more ‘highbrow’ restaurants!  This was a very good experience.

Would we go to The Grill on Newgate Street again, definitely yes, you know what you’re getting and in the main what you get is very good.  There is a lot of  new competition in the large restaurant area in Chester now and The Grill on Newgate Street is still the one they all have to beat.