Restaurant-Guide.com
hand picked restaurants

The family-run Curzon Hotel can be found just a stone's throw from Chester, and situated in an attractive Victorian town house that was built as a gentleman's residence around the year 1867. Owner Yvonne Mitchell ensures guests are provided with personalised service, a restful stay, and good food and drink.

Sixteen bedrooms are all individually decorated and equipped with modern facilities. 

When it comes to the modern European food, consider starting your meal with an exotic fruit cocktail or smoked duck breast salad. A good matching dish could be the escalope of grilled salmon filled with prawn puree on a watercress cream, or the slow roasted lamb shoulder.

The coupe banana chocolate mint and caramel might seem a touch rich for some, in which case the fresh vanilla bavarois could present an alternative. A well-travelled wine complements the menu in style.

With a culinary tradition going back centuries, Persian cuisine is replete with exotic dishes that combine artful ways of cooking with delicate flavours. It commonly uses saffron, spices, herbs, pistachios and yoghurt. Rayhoon in St. Petersgate in bustling Stockport offers a range of dishes fairly representative of the cuisine. It takes its name from the traditional Persian term for basil.

Comfortable interiors and friendly service make their mark at Rayhoon. Get started without much ado with falafel, fried patties made from chickpeas and fava beans, or koko sabzi, a fresh herbs omelette, and move on to kebabs, lamb, chicken or salmon. For the main course enjoy zereksh polo, basmati rice with chicken, saffron, barberries and pistachios, or baghali polo, basmati rice with lamb, dill and broad beans. A range of stews also can be savoured with rice or naan bread. For dessert, there's baklava, zolbia balmie, made with yoghurt, flour, saffron and rose water, or Persian ice cream.

Reach out for an African experience right here in the waterfront of the Manchester Ship Canal, all this beneath zebra striped ceilings, rustic animal light fittings and African music.

The menu is a melange of African comfort food embracing bobotie, South African casserole with yellow rice and raisins, Durban curry and potjie. Frikkadel, meatballs in tortilla flower, crocodile bites and chicken and bacon Bombay on salad with chilli feature among starters, whilst main courses embrace roast kudu stuffed with boerewors sausage, ostrich and springbok. Different renditions of poultry take up a fair share of menu space with duck in a sweet honey and orange cointreau sauce, Portuguese chicken and stuffed chicken breast.

Jabula Restaurant also serves South African wines, beers and soft drinks not usually available elsewhere.

For some time I made the mistake of thinking that no group of restaurants in the region of 200 locations could hope to maintain the quality for which I was looking.

Then one day I decided to put my prejudices to the test, walked into Oxford Ask! and discovered that I could not have been more mistaken. Their claim to serve freshly prepared quality food in stylish and comfortable surroundings with friendly and efficient service proved to be absolutely spot on.

Since then I have also discovered that a degree of consistency seems to operate throughout their restaurants, and that certainly does take some achieving, implying a degree of management that is enviable. They are perfect places for an impromptu snack, a bit of culinary grazing, or the full works, and families are catered for particularly well.

Their trendy décor usually comprises tiled floors and black furniture with well set tables that sparkle with glass, silver and spotless linen. Ten starters include crostini and bruschetta, followed by a range of salads, pasta and al forno, oven baked pasta, some with chicken.

The pizzas are stone baked in the oven, creating a crisp, authentic and delicious flavour, and they all come topped with mozzarella and tomato. Calzone introduce a touch of opulence with a folded pizza baked in the oven and topped with garlic butter and melted grana padano, whilst inside expect to find chicken or a vegetarian mix.

Amongst the specials may I warmly, in every sense, recommend the polpette al forno, a popular Milanese dish of beef meatballs sautéed in garlic with fire roasted peppers, caramelised onions, chilli and pomodoro sauce, with penne pasta, topped with cheese and oven baked.

An enticing selection of desserts list banoffee pie and tiramisu amongst them, and the coffee tastes like coffee, which may sound banal, but I guess you know what I mean.

Thanks to a well selected wine list speculative drinking can offer handsome dividends, even with prices rarely crossing the £20 barrier.