Restaurant Simon Radley – The Star Shines Brightly #Review
Stephen Wundke
12th June 2018
Over the years the Arkle, as was and latterly Restaurant Simon Radley at the Grosvenor Hotel in Chester, has been one of Gaile and my favourites. Not inexpensive, so it has always been a treat night out, but a Wedding Anniversary is definitely the occasion and when it falls on a Tuesday and the offer is the 8 course banquet for just £69 a person (not that I am tight), the decision was a simple one.
We sat in the library for a pre-dinner drink and were served the most wonderful canapes of avocado and lobster tails, followed by the most amazing mushroom and beef broth. We accompanied this with a bottle of Clare Valley Riesling which was simply scrumptious and worked beautifully with the flavours on show. To say our taste buds had been awakened was an understatement.
We moved through to the art deco styled, and if possible in that style, understated restaurant, where the crispness of the table linen and the gleam of both glasses and cutlery makes you immediately feel special. Some call this service fussy, others pretentious and they are all wrong, we think it is respectful and in keeping with honouring the flavours of the food and the work that goes in to creating these special dishes.
The first culinary thrill is the bread trolley. Nine different breads all freshly cut in front of you, baked of course in house and no restriction on how many flavours you might want to try. The problem is you know if you eat too much then there won’t be room later, oh the quandary’s! We then awaited our first course which duly arrived and don’t underestimate how important the pacing of a meal is. Everything came after a suitable interval, that being when you had digested and appreciated the flavours you had tasted and before you were wondering where the next course was. No simple skill and so often overlooked by others. Our first starter was a smoked cod’s roe with potted shrimp at the base of an egg in a nest of deep fried pastry. Soft, smooth and subtle with no one flavour dominating, a difficult achievement when combining poultry and fish and the presentation was beautifully delicate.
Our next course was simply magic, seared Yellowfin tuna tail with sticky rice and coconut miso. It was perfection, again the balance of sharp with sweet, making the tuna the star, as it should be and creating an umami that made it difficult to leave anything on the plate. The meal was building like a very good play as we learned more and more about the shape of the feast and got involved in the plot
Course three was an homage to spring time in Britain, English asparagus with green garlic and green almond. The cooking elements were perfect but if I was being fussy, and at this level I’m allowed to, I thought it needed a little sharpness to really bring out the flavours. It was a bit two dimensional, where everything else was most certainly three.
Seasonality is everything for Simon and again he highlighted the speciality with course five, that being Jersey Royal with veal sweetbread, fondant artichokes and morel mushroom. Sensational bitter artichokes with perfect soft sweetbreads and rich deep mushrooms. Faultless.
By this stage I had moved to a lovely Chilean Pinot Noir and Gaile was drinking a deep, oaky, Margaret River Chardonnay. Our Sommelier also had us tasting some of his new favourites and loved showing off his latest offerings. We were of course most appreciative of his input! He loves his work and it showed.
If there was a main course then what followed next was it – the wonderful Iberico cuts of Spanish pork, chorizo, allioli and peppers. Probably the best pork I have tasted. The loin soft and succulent and a piece of belly pork with the thinnest, crispest skin that I have ever eaten. This was perfection on a plate.
We were moving out of savoury and heading towards sweet and Simon did this superbly with our next course which was a cheese journey of soft baked beetroot and smooth goats curd served on pumpernickel. It just worked and finished off the previous crescendo of flavours, bringing us down gently and preparing us for our deserts.
Our pre-dessert didn’t disappoint with apricots and Prosecco, a tangy but delicious sorbet served with fresh apricot. A perfect palate cleanser with a definite wow factor!
Our final offering crowned a magnificent evening, Muscovado cake, chocolate, rum and finger limes. A small snifter of our Sommelier’s recently acquired Rum was sensational and completed what had been a simply spectacular service. We were replete and very, very happy.
Yet again Simon Radley had delivered. I don’t pretend that everyone can justify spending good money on food, but I ask you to think about this. The average spend on food in a Restaurant is about £29 these days and more often than not we leave disappointed, wishing we hadn’t handed over any of our money. So, that is £29 per head wasted, do the same thing twice in a month and instead, you could have really excellent food courtesy of Simon Radley and an experience that will stay with you for years. This was without doubt the best £69ph I have spent this year. The service was superb, friendly and in no way stuffy, as people like to generalise. These are real people putting on great theatre and recognising that this is someone’s special occasion and they make it so. The food never, ever, fails to deliver and the whole experience explains why it has held a Michelin star since 1990 together with 4 AA Rosettes in what is Cheshire’s number one restaurant. This is the pinnacle of taste in Cheshire and we are proud to be able to have this restaurant in our county.