Wreckfish
When I moved to Chester, I chose where to live based on being close to the Sticky Walnut. This gem was opened by Gary Usher a few years back and has been a north west gourmet fixture ever since. The bank didn't believe in him as much as his clientele so Gary took the crowd-funding approach to expansion, with impressive results. Last year he went for the UK record for crowd funding a new restaurant to open Wreckfish in a hip part of Liverpool city centre. I couldn't chip in fast enough! Needless to say, the campaign was successful and Wreckfish opened to great reviews. But here's mine anyway...
We started with two of the most exquisite cocktails I have ever tried. The 'Don't Look Daiq in Anger' was a perfectly balanced daiquiri featuring tonka bean infused Campari while the 'Peppered Pink Lady' was a divine mix of pepper infused gin, Cointreau and pomegranate.
Starters were the fattest spears of Yorkshire asparagus, butter sweated to perfection, served with ricotta, duck egg and cured egg yolk.
The other starter - pork belly - was meaty and crisp and drizzled in a mix of punchy apple puree (that was like mainlining apples) and pickled apple, topped with a puffy pork scratching.
All of Gary's restaurants follow a simple formula - high quality bistro style food, a signature starter, a signature bread made fresh each day and every menu to feature a braise.
It was the latter I was drawn to: the feather-blade of beef. This glossy, tender mass of meat was surely made in the Large Hadron Collider by accelerating bone marrow gravy at a fine cut of tender cow such that it collapses into a dense but soft pile of purest beefiness. This a concentrated form of what you wish every roast dinner would taste of. Served with their legendary Parmesan chips which are habit forming.
Our other main was a flaky fillet of cod served on a pool of butter beans done with a confit of garlic and lemon. A delicious and hearty mix that disappeared fast.
Pudding was a rich mix of toasted porter ice cream with baked treacle, caramel, peanuts and Armagnac prunes that will live long in the memory.
The other was a lemon tart that melted in the mouth. I'm still not sure how this was achieved but think the trick is make a divinely wobbly tart, and finish by flaming sugar on top which warms it through to mouth temperature.
The staff were as brilliant as at any of Gary's restaurants, and I recommend you follow him on social media if you enjoy him taking down pompous or nasty customers. I can't understand such people - we had a perfect night and they only charged us for the delicious bottle of Chianti we had. The rest they said was covered by the crowd-funding voucher. Keep an eye out for the next one!
