Our Chef raves about “The Chefs Table” #Review

Gaile Wundke
8th July 2016

Getting a table at ‘The Chef’s Table’ is no easy task and anyone wishing to dine on a Friday or Saturday night needs to book several weeks in advance, such is this little restaurant’s popularity!  Fortunately for us, we were able to secure a booking on a Wednesday night, although when the reservation was made two weeks previously, there were only early tables available so we opted for 6.45pm.

When we arrived, the restaurant was already busy and by 7.00pm it was full, an achievement which very few places in Chester can boast, without the attraction of a special offer.  The Chef’s Table needs neither gimmicks nor offers as the food and service is so good, people just keep coming again and again.

So, onto the food we go.  The menu offered a selection of three appetisers, Crackling with caramelised apple sauce, Fried Norfolk quail’s legs with hot sauce and Freshly baked bread with oil and vinegar.  All three sounded very tempting, but fortunately when we placed our orders for starters and mains, our waitress advised that the inclusion of an appetiser, would quite simply be too much food – and she was right!  There were five starters and five mains to choose from and sides of triple cooked chips and summer vegetables.  Everything is freshly cooked to order in the open kitchen, which fills the room with amazing aromas and enables diners to see their meals being prepared.

For starters we chose Pigeon – Wirral shot wood pigeon, Cheshire smoked bacon, black pudding, fresh Summer truffle, dandelion & burdock, garlic scapes, goat’s cheese, spiced walnut, baby turnip and black garlic and secondly, Frog’s Legs – fried frog’s legs, crayfish, pickled myoga, sea urchin roe, mango, yuzu, curry emulsion, samphire and pineberries.  As you can see, the dishes are dominated by fresh and unusual local produce to provide customers with the best seasonal dining experience possible.  Both our dishes certainly lived up to this promise with flavour combinations that neither of us had previously experienced and the range of ingredients in each dish meant that every mouthful was a taste sensation!

Having had such amazing starters, we were enthusiastically anticipating our mains, we had chosen Pork – 15 preparations of pork, ‘ear to rear’ and its diet: corn, pearly barley and apple and Galloway Beef – Heswall raised Galloway beef fillet, cep, pink peppercorn sauce, roast bone marrow, girolles, smoked potato, parsley, radish and sour cream.  We also couldn’t resist a side order of triple cooked chips!

Whilst we waited our waitress brought a card to the table headed ‘Pig Anatomy’.  It was an illustration of a pig surrounded by notes of all the components of the dish and I couldn’t write this review fairly without listing all the items, just to give you an idea of how brilliant the chefs are!  There was a faggot made with cheek, shoulder and liver, crispy ears, Lardo (cured back fat), crackling, roast tenderloin, Iberico ham, baby back ribs, blood for the black pudding, breaded ham hock, smoked bacon and roast pork belly, an absolute piggy feast!

The description of the pork sounded fantastic, but the dish itself was outstanding and I was able to taste every single element individually and all were perfectly cooked.  The beef dish was once again, exceptional, the fillet was generously portioned and wonderfully pink, the roast bone marrow, soft and delicious and the rich sauce glossy and flavoursome.  The smoked potato was presented in a separate pot and as the lid was removed, a puff of smoke emerged to reveal pillow soft mash.  There was barely room for the triple cooked chips, but the few that we managed to eat were scrumptious.  We were both very glad that we had heeded our waitress’s earlier advice as two courses and an appetiser, would probably have been a step too far!

The Chef’s Table deserves every accolade and award that it’s achieved, the staff are polite, friendly and efficient, the restaurant is honest and unpretentious but what it does better than anyone else, and the reason that you can’t get a table on a Saturday night without advance booking, is that the Chef’s in this restaurant can really cook and cook consistently good, extremely well executed food.  We weren’t able to fault a single thing and in all the time we have been reviewing restaurants and I have been writing reviews that is most definitely a first.

Well done to every single person involved in The Chef’s Table, you are quite simply brilliant and may your success continue for a very long time.