Goodwins Bar and Kitchen, Chorley.

Goodwins Bar and Kitchen is part of the Greene King Group, the Chorley venue is currently one of only 4 in the country with this branding, the idea is to be provide a different offering than the other Greene King brands, Gloriously simple food with a more intimate feel and with more focus on the overall eating experience. We recently popped along for lunch at the newly open Chorley venue.

Martin the manager and the team gave us a friendly welcome on a busy  Saturday lunchtime, the venue was proving popular with family parties. Due to its location on a busy set of road abouts near a junction to the motorway, the location should also prove popular with business travellers and general passing trade. Service was very good and the food came out promptly, so no problems there.

We choose from the main menu despite it being lunchtime, the website can be found here

So for our starters. Mr LF chose the Homemade Cumberland scotch egg with dressed watercress and brown sauce. The dish  overall was tasty not standout but as described,it needed the brown sauce to accompany the sausage meat and egg combination.

I chose the Scallops on crushed peas,  a nicely presented dish, but too much pea and mint puree in my opinion, the scallops were well cooked but lacked flavour, the bacon was fine and helped to lift the dish. A little disappointing as I love a good scallop.

On to our Mains, Mr LF always goes for the pie, in this case the Goodwins steak and ale pie, British beef in Ruddles ale, normally with mash but swapped for chips on request and seasonal vegetables an a cute jug of tasty gravy.This was a tasty pie with flaky tender pastry, plenty of gravy and filling in the pie, the chips were crispy and fluffy and the perfect choice to soak up all that lovely gravy. Vegetables were fine a good selection of peas, endamame beans, sugar snap peas and chunky carrots.

I ordered the Hunters chicken with bbq sauce, streaky bacon, mature cheddar cheese and triple cooked chips. Served with onion loaf, thyme grilled tomato and dressed watercress.The dish was good, a nicely cooked tender juicy chicken breast, topped with a dark smoky bbq sauce, bacon and tangy cheese, tasty chips and the unusual onion loaf,  this was very savoury and a little different. The dressed watercress nicely irony and a good contrast to the sweeter flavours in play from the onion loaf and the bbq sauce. My only gripe on this dish was the grilled tomato, nice touch using the thyme but if you are grilling a tomato make sure its a thing of melting beauty and not one that's barely cooked.

On to desserts Mr LF ordered Basked Alaska - berries topped with cookie dough cheese cake, treacle toffee ice cream and toasted meringue. Served in a dinky pot, the dish was sweet and decadent, Mr LF  particularly enjoyed the treacle toffee ice cream part, but not sure it was toasted meringue on top, looked and tasted more like toasted marshmallow fluff. It disappeared all the same however.

My menu choice was the Elderflower posset - with summer berries and shortbread. My dessert choice was disappointing as the portion was way too large for such a rich dish, I also couldn't taste the elderflower either, the berries on the top helped but were more of a compote than berries, I would have also have liked to have seen the shortbread be larger pieces. I chatted this through with Martin and they are looking to adjust this dish in the future.

Martin the manager explained to us that their drinks menu is aimed at being more gender neutral, so no craft beers on draft here ( only Peroni or Prahva both lager style), everything else comes in a bottle, beer and cider wise. Lancashire Food doesn't have a problem with this per say but would have liked to have seen some beers and ciders that where more locally produced. Plenty of choice if wine or a cocktail is your thing, they even make lemonade and iced tea on the premises and their Gin menu has quite a few choices too.

Nice touch is that when they serve you your drinks this is accompanied with a small dish of salted popcorn.

Menu prices represent reasonable value and they have a special price lunch offer too. Sunday lunch is sure to be popular too.

You can find Goodwins Bar and Kitchen, Chorley

Preston Road
Chorley,
Lancashire,
PR6 7AX

It's next door to the Hartwood Hall Hotel, which has also recently been refurbished

We dined on a complementary basis after being invited to give a review, all thoughts, views, opinions are our own. We were not expected to give a positive review.

Turtle Bay , Blackburn. Rum, Reggae and Jerk !

Last week, we paid a lunchtime visit to the recently opened Turtle Bay in the Cathedral Quarter in Blackburn to find out all about the hot new venue in town.

First a confession, both myself and Mr LF are pretty much Caribbean food virgins, so we were excited in anticipation of experiencing some new flavour sensations.

Turtle Bay is a growing chain of Caribbean social eating and drinking venues, in Lancashire you can find them in Preston, two in Manchester and two in Liverpool as well as the latest one in Blackburn.

Informal in style with a emphasis on relaxed social eating and drinking, the decor is definitely in a Jamaican Caribbean style. Plenty of reused materials and stripped back styling. The staff in Blackburn were great, friendly, welcoming and eager to please.

The extensive menu features a wide range of food (more of that in a minute) and drink including regional (as in Caribbean) specialities such as Ting, a very nice Guinness West Indies Porter, which Mr LF particularly enjoyed. They also have a good range of cocktails which often are 2 4 1 but I was driving today so couldn't comment but have many friends who have enjoyed a glass or two. I find Blackburn town centre roads and parking confusing enough when sober so I would probably be still navigating the one way system if I had partaken.

I have a very nice and refreshing Limeade which I understand they make on the premises.

Any way on to the food, as I have already said having never sampled this style of food as we perused the menu with our drinks we were assisted in our choices by a really helpful waitress, so we plumped for the Beach food platter to start, so we could try a few specialities all in one go.

 The sharing platter featured, traditional Jerk chicken wings, Stuffed Pepper roti, Sweetcorn fritters and Garlic and herb flatbreads, all served on a board drizzled with chilli sauce and strewed with rocket. The jerk wings were moist juicy and really tasty with a generous jerk spice hit. Pepper roti was served Trinidadian style with cheese, sliced carrots, potatoes and onions and sweet hot peppery sauce, tasty little triangles, a little like a cheesy tortilla. I had been recommended by a friend to order the sweetcorn fritters, which in her words were legendary and I can say I enjoyed them , little bundles of sweetcorn (obviously), spring onion, coriander and some Scotch bonnet chilli deep fried in balls. The garlic and herb flatbread was served as rolls which also included a sticky chilli sauce. Mr LF's favourite from the platter was the Jerk chicken wings and mine the sweetcorn fritters. 

For our mains I plumped for the Goat burger from the Jerk Pit part of the menu, a tasty goat and lamb burger, seasoned with Jerk spices, served on a sweet brioche style bun, with sweet onion chutney, green seasoning (a little like a pesto sauce), on the side sweet potato fries, slaw and a sweet plantain dumpling. I really enjoyed the goat burger plenty of goat flavour not too spicy and moist and juicy, the green seasoning was also interesting, a little like a pesto meets sofrito, meets salsa. I have since googled it and it contains onions, garlic, green herbs and then what ever else you like from chillies, more herbs or sweet peppers and is widely used in Trinidadian cooking.

Mr LF's choice was the One pot slow cooked Goat curry, served with the traditional accompaniments of rice 'n peas and Caribbean dumplings. The goat was tender and moist, the curry rich, sweet potatoes  soft and plenty of ginger and citrus notes along with hot scotch bonnet chilli, the sweet onion chutney provided a nice flavour contrast. Rice n peas for those not in the know is actually rice and normally kidney beans, not peas but none the less a tasty accompaniment to the curry. Caribbean dumplings are a little like unsweet doughnuts, served in fingers. Mr B managed to almost finish the dish, but he did say he was a little spicy towards the end for him.

For gluten free eater, I did notice that many of the One pot dishes are GF if you have the rice 'n peas and skip the roti and dumpling options.

Forgive me but a glorious close up of the Goat Curry one pot

After all that spicy food it only seemed right that we had a little sweetness, so both ordered a pudding. Mine was the Gluten free chocolate brownie with vanilla ice cream, very nice too moist and very chocolaty, especially as I had two good sized pieces served with creamy ice cream.

Mr LF's choice was a Rum and Raisin pudding, soaked in dark rum with brown sugar, cinnamon raisins, this decadent pudding comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Nicely rum flavoured and a good end to our meal. 

Turtle Bay can be found at 3 Cathedral Square, Cathedral Quarter , Blackburn, its under the Premier Inn Hotel.

I would advise booking particularly at weekends as it was very busy when we visited. The soundtrack is what you expect of a restaurant who strapline is Rum, Reggae, Jerk, not an issue to us but might be for some people.

The prices are pretty reasonable and service was very good, everything was clean, the food fresh, hot and came out at a good pace.

Here are some more shots of the laid back interior.

One Love............

We dined on a complementary basis after being invited to give a review, all thoughts, views, opinions are our own. We were not expected to give a positive review.

                                                           

The French at the Midland by Simon Rogan

As a little pre birthday treat a few weeks ago I decided to book a table for lunch at The French by Simon Rogan the Midland Hotel in Manchester. We haven't experienced Simon's food before but given the number of great reviews from my fellow bloggers I thought it was about time we ventured to the big city to give this venue a try, I must admit I was somewhat nervous of what the experience would be like and would it live up to the expectations built in my mind.

The French is a beautiful restaurant which has existed in the Midland Hotel since 1903, earlier this year Simon Rogan took over the reins and sensitively brought the French up to date, with a stunning tastefully refurbished decor and an equally stunning dining menu, city centre Manchester finally has a restaurant which might just possibly become a michelin star holder . The restaurant  has been so successful that a second more informal international restaurant will be opening across the hotel reception in a couple of weeks time.

                                           

Firstly an apology as you not getting any food piccies as I just wanted to be a diner not a blogger for this lunch and enjoy the whole taste experience. The decor is a gentle muted style with more than nod to the beauty of nature, I especially like the carpeting that looked that planks of wood and the globe chandeliers are amazing ,something you can just gaze at for hours. But we are here for the food not the decor.

We were welcomed by the friendly and attentive staff, which immediately put us at our ease as we were talked through the three set menu's we could choose from. As this was lunch we plumped for the three courses, to open with were served an appetiser of crispy kale with english truffle and chives, this light as a feather taste sensation was amazing, a beautiful truffly mouthful, you tasted every flavour. This small dish already started to show me why Simon Rogan has two michelin stars to his name, magical....

Next to arrive where two amazing bread trays, one each both containing a dinky french baguette, a manchester ale roll, dark and intriguing and a hunk of some amazing looking chestnut bread, all served with whipped butter sprinkled with sea salt. We both love real bread, appreciating that bread making is an artisan craft, we were very impressed, the bread was all delicious and still a little warm from the oven. The crunchy dinky french bread was well flavoured and with a crunchy crust, the ale bread earthly dark and malty (a little reminiscent of More Artisan's Treacle bread but without the sweetness) and the deliciously chewy nutty chestnut bread. Having the butter whipped lightened the overall impact on the bread and the touch of crunchy sea salt was great. Both touches allowed the bread to sing.

First course - Grilled radish, scallops, bronze fennel, smoked roe, now I am not a real fan of radish but whatever the kitchen at the French did to these radish turned this into something amazing, the vegetables and herbs becoming the star of the show, the scallops were perfectly cooked, just simply a stunning dish. Mr LF would have licked the plate if I would have let him.

Second Course - Reg's chicken with blewits, beans and mugwort, this dish had both chicken thigh and breast in it, both melt in your mouth tender, with crispy skin, earthy mossy mushrooms, crunchy yet tender green and golden french beans, char grilled spring onions ( I never knew a spring onion could taste so good) and a delicious gravy / sauce with just a hint of mugwort to make it intensively savoury. 

Dessert - Cherries, sweet cheese, hazelnut, sorrel - flavourful soaked sliced fresh cherries with a sweet creamy soft goats cheese frozen parfait, served with a crunchy hazlenutty granola and a few leaves of wood sorrel, drizzled with a sweet sticky sauce. So simple, so fresh but a taste sensation.

A surprise course appeared, a  treat of  Sasparilla drink, sasparilla meringue, sasparilla parfait and sasaprilla gel, wonderfully aromatic, this rounded off the meal perfectly.

Overall we were blown away by the flavours, textures and the amazing combinations of essentially simple fresh ingredients but cooked perfectly and combined with precision, all we can say is the man is a genius. 

                                            

Deli-Licious, Cannon St, Preston

Just a quick post on a little cafe we discovered whilst in town visiting yesterday's Lancashire Market, and the Harris Flights, wanting a light lunch we decided to give this dinky little venue a try and we weren't disappointed, now were not talking high end here, its a cafe but its a great stop for very good value freshly prepared food with the added bonus of a number of Polish specialties being included on the menu.

The staff were really friendly and welcoming (apparently a husband and wife team of Chef Tomasz and Laura front of house), I ordered one of the house specials of a hot roast beef roll with onion gravy and Mr LF ordered a "Zapiekanka" or mushrooms and cheese on a toasted baguette  I was very tempted by the Pierogi and Polish specialty soups but as its still August and fairly warm, I think I'll save those until a cold rainy day. Deli-Licious was also serving on the day we visited, Torunska a smoked polish sausage with homemade coleslaw and cucumber dip which tempted me too !

Both dishes were generous and very filling, my roll came with skinny fries and the gravy was awesome, rich in onions and definitely homemade, the Zapiekanka was pronounced delicious and was served with a lovely fresh seasonal salad. Drinks are also very reasonably priced, we have tea and a hot chocolate (in August ! I know !) and our bill was just over £13 all in, an absolute bargain.

Sorry no piccies of the food as we were very hungry and the food disappeared quickly, so much so that we didn't need to eat for the rest of the day.

The cafe is easy to find, just off Fishergate on Cannon St in Preston City centre. I would arrive early as I am sure it gets packed, it was pretty full when we visited, they do however do take out too and apparently their cooked breakfast is awesome as well.