Pesto, Appley Bridge - a review

Last weekend we popped over to the cute Lancashire village of Appley Bridge to visit Pesto at the Dicconson Arms, a beautiful marriage of pub meets Italian food and not just any Italian food, piattini no less. Situated just off the M6 junction 27 as you head towards Parbold, its really easy to find.

The decor is classic country house with contemporary Italian touches, I particular liked the chunky Mediterranean pottery and flashes of lime green and orange in the decor. The facilities were lovely. very clean and nicely furnished too.

The staff were warm and friendly and on arrival we were shown to a delightful window side table, furnished with the chunky pottery as previously mentioned. We ordered drinks as we perused the extensive menu, which caters for all. Even though it was fairly early into the lunch service we were soon joined by plenty of other diners.

The ambiance in the restaurant was good, the tables were decadently spaced and unlike a lot of other contemporary styled venues, it wasn't echo prone.                                          

Piatinni for those not in the know is the Italian version of tapas, i.e small plates, well for me that's almost food heaven. Italian food but with the ability to taste anything and everything, so we did just that selecting from across the wide and varied menu. Here's our selection

Bruschetta al salmone affumicato - just enough for two, crunchy bread topped with smooth cream cheese and moist flavourful smoked salmon.

Olive miste - mixed olives, tasty and more than adequate, but not the best olives I have every eaten.

Selezione di pane Italiano - bread basket of various breads, including sun dried tomato, ciabiatta. On the menu this is supposed come with oil and vinegar, ours didn't arrive, minor point and frankly we didn't notice until comparing the menu and what we had ordered for this post. Sure if we had mentioned it would have arrived pronto.

Insalata Toscana -  one of the stand out dishes, mixed salad with beans, avocado, tuna and red onion. Perfectly seasoned and with a delicious dressing, just enough to enhance and not drown the salad.

 Calamari fritti - a personal favourite, lightly battered squid rings with a punchy dip

Gamberoni all’ aglio e peperoncino - tasty king prawns with hints of garlic and chilli

Polpette di manzo - Spicy meatballs, served with a tasty tomato sauce, enough spicing to keep them interesting yet not blow your head off.

Pizzetta rustica - Cute little baby pizza, topped with goats cheese and rocket. Very tasty, just wished we had ordered two. Nice crust on the pizza

Fettuccine alla carbonara - an Italian classic, pancetta was crispy and the sauce silky, pasta al dente. Very nice would order again.

Arancini - classic milanese risotto (saffron) balls in a crispy crumb, stuffed with melted mozarella. I was recommended by a friend who eats regularly at the Trafford Centre Pesto, they were nice but thought they lacked a dip or sauce to eat them with.

Followed by desserts to share

Affogato - two balls of ice cream, we chose chocolate and vanilla, topped with a hot shot of espresso, delicious and very refreshing,  I love affogato and the combination of coffee with chocolate was sublime.

Tiramisu - served in a cute little pot, we were warned the portion were small, but we didn't think they were at all, just the perfect size. Lovely light sponge, creamy filling and more coffee flavour.

We really enjoyed our lunch and were impressed with the standard of food , we noted that they have an offer of 3 piatinni dishes for £8.95 or £10.95 at certain times and days, which looks to be good value for money. Pesto is a small and growing chain so check out if there is one near you.

Interestingly enough one of the waitresses mentioned that most men don't get the concept of piatinni , Mr LF had no such trouble !

The staff had no idea that we were undertaking a review until it came to settle the bill, so we received exactly the same service standards as anyone else visiting. We were mightly impressed by Pesto, the venue and concept is unique in the area and we are already planning our next visit.

                                                         

Our lunch was provided free of charge for review purposes, all views and opinions are our own.

Foxholes at Runshaw College

Our local college has a training restaurant which I first visited probably about 10 years ago. A repeat visit was in order so many months ago I booked a place on one of their themed evenings where the students plan an evening of food and entertainment normally to raise money for charity. The training restaurant has is open a couple of days a week for lunch and dinner, so you have to book well ahead as the food is very inexpensive for the standard.


So "Flavours of Eastern Europe" was our theme, intrigued we arrived to a complimentary welcome cocktail (choice of alcoholic / non alcoholic), the building is a fairly utilitarian but the students have made an effort to make it more welcoming and attractive. We waited to be seated in a busy lounge area, after a pretty short wait we were seated and asked to choose from the menu , which had 3 starters , 3 mains and 3 desserts all with a suitably eastern european theme. The table was attractively decorated with fresh flowers and themed napkins and a nice touch was a bottle of tap water, we also had some lovely fresh bread delivered.


Our starters arrived after a pretty short wait to be delivered by a pretty nervous young waitress, I had chosen  roll mops of pickled herring which was served with brown bread and butter and cucumber. This arrived attractively presented on a white  platter each curl of herring sat on a flower of cucumber, the herring was stuffed with sweet spicy onions, delicious and healthy too. Mr B had the borsch, fairly chunky in texture, well flavoured and served with a dollop of sour cream on top.


On to the mains, we had both chosen the goulash, this arrived served in a dinky little saucepan with rice and rosti , we also had a dish of wonderful steamed cabbage and grilled to tomatoes to accompany. The food was tasty and well flavoured, the odd piece of beef could have been a little more tender but all in all pretty good.


On to the desserts, I had chosen Polish Honey cake , which was a moist little tower of cake topped with a cream swirl and accompanied with a fruit jelly terrine and a vanilla sauce. Mr B's dessert was a coffee mousse topped with a crisp caramel swirl, the mousse was worthy of a fine dining restaurant.


Once we had finished our meal, we were delivered 3 samples of eastern european beers to match against one of three descriptions, we got all ours correct after some deliberation and won a bottle of one of the beers.


We had a delightful evening and look forward to returning in the future. Apologies for no photos had camera problems.