Arkle Bar and Lounge, The

Louise (14 August 2007)

Excellence in opulent surroundings! My husband and I dined at the Arkle to celebrate our wedding anniversary, as this restaurant was an expensive treat. The Chester Grosvenor Hotel where the restaurant is located is a beautiful five star establishment.

On arriving at the restaurant the attentive staff were on hand to offer advice on the menu and suitable wines to complement your choices. We were invited to take a seat and enjoy an aperitif, while perusing the menu - I opted for the expensive option of a Kir Royal at £13.50 a glass! Canapés arrived in the form of home made bread sticks with two dips; sundried tomato and pesto.

So we made our choices and were then shown to our table. As expected in a top quality Michelin star restaurant, the staff were extremely polite and professional and we had three members of staff waiting on us throughout the evening. Ok enough waffle, on to the main info - the quality of the meal! The wine list was expensive with around 600 bins! We opted for a more reasonably priced Merlot at £45, but the most expensive I could find was £1,400 - a bit out of our league. Before the starters arrived we were given a selection of bread to choose from - there must have been about fifteen different ones including spinach and bacon; walnut and raisin, sun dried tomato and many more.

Starters: I had the sea bass which was extremely moist yet had the sought after crispy skin. It was delicious. My husband chose the aptly names 'Pond Life' which included snails, frogs legs and crayfish tails - he had thoroughly enjoyed that (each to their own!). Following this we were given, complements of the chef, a small serving of sweet corn broth - which was packed full of flavour. Next came the main course: I had the saddle of roe deer served with apply and turnip choucroute. This was served medium rare and so very tender. Only two small pieces of venison but I was already stuffed after the bread and starters so I was quite pleased not to be given a large serving. Hubby had 24-hr mutton which he enjoyed so much I didn't get chance to try any.

Before the desserts were served, we were presented with a tiered lime jelly/mouse. It was again full of flavour and a great palate cleanser. For dessert I had chosen, by recommendation of our waiter, the pear tartin - yum is all I can say about this. My husband had cheese and what an array of them was present - he enjoys strong cheeses and the waitress was able to recommend some suitably stinky varieties that he had really enjoyed. We were both very full and tired and so did not bother with coffee afterwards, but my husband did have a couple of brandies to finish off a fine evening. Total cost for the meal was a whopping £225! As I had said, it was an expensive treat! There was a discretionary service charge of 12% added to the bill, but the staff were so fantastic I felt this was well deserved.