An Evening at Allium by Mark Ellis #Review
Gaile Wundke
25th May 2017
Mark Ellis began his career whilst still at school, washing pots and making sandwiches in a local restaurant in his home town of Parkgate. Since then he has worked with and trained with some of the biggest names in the industry, notably the man he calls his mentor, Simon Radley, of the eponymously named Michelin starred restaurant, where Mark spent five years, eventually becoming Sous Chef. After a culinary tour of the UK, Mark spent time as Head Chef at Rowton Hall Hotel, followed by a period of freelance work which afforded him the opportunity to run a variety of kitchens, often catering for politicians and celebrities. For the past 9 years Mark has worked at Peckforton Castle where he earned an impressive 3 AA Rosettes and enjoyed two appearances on BBC’s Great British Menu. In February this year, he finally opened the doors of his own restaurant, Allium by Mark Ellis which is achieving 5 star reviews on its Facebook page!
With such a pedigree and being located in the pretty village of Tattenhall, we didn’t have to think too hard about our answer when we were invited to review The Allium, in fact we were absolutely delighted to accept!
The Allium is located within a beautifully restored 19th century, Grade 1 listed building, that was actually once the village shop! The main dining area is located within the newer part of the building and has been decorated in calming shades of purple and green which compliment each other beautifully and the room benefits from large bay windows, allowing the light to flood in.
We were seated next to one of the lovely windows which overlooked the pretty garden at the front of the building. We were given our menus where diners have the option to choose individually priced dishes or alternatively Mark’s ‘Experience’ tasting menu (£50), which can be complimented with wine pairings for each course (£35) and must be ordered by the whole table. We were then presented with an amuse bouche of aerated tomato and basil, a little bowl of the most intensely flavoured, but light ‘soup’ which really tantalised our taste buds!
Although very tempted by the ‘Experience’ menu we decided to choose from the main menu. As many of the Allium family are layered, so is the layout of the menu which beings with ‘While You Wait’, offering a selection of breads with whipped butter (£3), Snacks of crackers, skins and puffs with saffron aioli (£3) or Olives, marinated green and black with chilli (£3). While You Wait is followed by ‘Beginnings’ and we chose Mac and Cheese (£7) – 30 month aged Parmigiana macaroni, cauliflower, scorched egg, BBQ (£9) – Sticky chicken wings, crunchy skin, Scottish scallop, burnt apple and finally Duck (£9) – Cherry wood smoked breast tartare, compressed water melon, purslane, duck yolk jam. We also chose a bottle of very reasonably priced Sauvignon Blanc (£18). The Mac and Cheese was the star of the starters, rich, cheesy macaroni, topped with a scorched sticky yolk and wafer thin, slightly charred cauliflower, simple but extremely delicious. The duck dish was light and fresh and vibrant in appearance and the slightly unusual combination of sticky chicken, crisp skin, soft rich scallop and crisp fresh apple was surprisingly good!
The next layer on the menu was ‘Middle’ and from this we chose TFC – Tattenhall Fried Chicken (£16) butter milk fried leg and poached breast, charred sweetcorn, chicken gravy, with a side order of Twice Cooked Chips (£3), South Coast Plaice (£17) – Wye Valley asparagus backed in chive bread, capers, Allium mayo, with a side order of Crispy Onion Rings (£3) and from the Lava Stone Grill – Marbuy Pork Ribeye (£16) served traditionally with mushroom, fat chips, land cress and Allium mayonnaise. The Lava Stone Grill has a choice of three meats and they arrive blue and carved, accompanied by flavoured butter and salt, ready for the diner to finish cooking at the table on a hot lava stone. It certainly added a bit of theatre to the meal and was clearly a popular choice with other diners as at least three other tables chose from the Lava Stone Grill while we were there! The South Coast Plaice was served on the bone, not often seen in restaurants, but certainly got my approval and the perfectly cooked asparagus. salty capers and rich mayonnaise complimented it beautifully. I’m not sure crispy onion rings would be everyone’s choice to accompany a delicate fish like plaice but I had seen some going to another table and they looked too delicious to resist, I’m glad I didn’t as they were really good! Finally the TFC, what’s not to like about crisp fried chicken, smoky sweetcorn and rich chicken gravy?! It certainly didn’t disappoint and I noticed that the plate was cleared rather quickly!
Just as we were about to choose our dessert we were presented with a pre-dessert, a cup of ‘deconstructed’ cheesecake, lightly whipped to almost a foam and topped with a biscuit crumb, an unexpected extra that just added to the experience.
The final layer on the menu is quite simply entitled ‘End’ and as only two of us had room left for dessert, we decided to share and chose Tropical (£7.50) – Coconut parfait, spiced rum, iced cardamom and kaffir lime. The flavours and textures were light and delicate, but the stand out element was definitely the cardamom ‘ice cream’ which was sublime.
Diners without a sweet tooth can choose from ‘Cheese and Condiments’ (£12) a choice of 5 cheeses – soft, blue or hard, served with grapes, quince jelly and biscuits and to finish the evening, ‘Coffee’ (£6) served with a box of hand made chocolates.
Allium has only been open a few months and is already attracting a lot of attention and diners from far and wide. Mark’s imaginative, delicious and modern food is a welcome change to the many and ever increasing High Street chains and I really hope that he continues to deliver and reaps the rewards of providing customers with excellent well cooked food and great service. If he does, then Allium will be around for a very long time!