The Grove Review

April 6, 2015 by Rich - Foodie Reviewer

The Grove Review

I don’t consider myself too demanding, a restaurant can serve mediocre food, providing the service meets expectations. I mean, its not rocket science is it? Service is king in my view. I had been looking forward to a well deserved Saturday lunch with Louisa. After all, the week had been the usual ‘work, sleep, repeat’. So a little down time for us both, to relax and reflect on the whirlwind week just past was well in order. Little did I know what awaited us. Lunch was a rather disappointing affair to say the least. I was more impressed with the sour dough crust pizza tasters on offer outside ASK Italian earlier that day; no honestly, the meat feast was superb, gotta get myself in there soon I reckon. Back to lunch, the service left a great deal to be desired. Oh hang on, I am not talking about the Grove, no no, that was Sunday, but I needed to share this with you, it just makes me feel better! A problem shared and all that. But hey, lets not dwell on this.

By the way, as I am writing this I have been channel flicking on the TV and found a re-run of ‘Michel Roux’s Service’. A great series, which concentrates on the art of superb service in a restaurant rather than the food. In the process, Michel trains a number of kids, from less affluent backgrounds, to become world-class waiters and waitresses worthy of any Michelin starred establishment. Well worth a watch, and this just encapsulates my whole point! Service, service, service!!

Well back to Saturday, our somewhat un-inspiring lunch experience had left us both deflated and feeling we had wasted a meal, now you don’t get much more of a worse feeling than that, do you? The experience had driven us both to drink. Any one who knows us will agree, totally out of character! I normally only have a small sherry at Christmas, just to be socialable! We ended up drowning our foodie sorrows in the Pipe of Port, with a cheeky glass of champers, and sampling their new homemade bar snacks, and very nice they are too. But we all know how wonderful the Pipe is, after all I did review them a couple of weeks ago.

So back to the matter in hand, the Grove. Sunday was soon upon us. The weather was awful to say the least. But it takes more than a little rain to keep me at home. So we donned the Barbour’s, had a swift, pre lunch half in the newly refurbished Peter Boat. It looks pretty good in there, I must try the food at some point, cockle chowder, need I say more! We left the Peter Boat, and wandered up to the Grove, well I say wander, it’s more of a hike, up a rather precarious footpath, but well worth it.

The impeccable service at this restaurant is apparent the moment you walk through the door. A very warm welcome from not only the waiting staff but also the owners, even the busy chefs in the kitchen acknowledge your presence with a smile. We were rushed to our table, offered the menus and a drink. We were also offered a little snack to enjoy whilst perusing the menu, nice touch! Olives? Spiced mixed nuts? Or, chorizo in red wine with roasted red peppers and rustic bread…..sold! The drinks and chorizo arrived, I honestly wouldn’t be lying if I said this was probably some of the best chorizo I had eaten in a long time, and I have eaten a lot of it! Chorizo never fails to make me happy! Together with the rustic bread it was wonderful.

So the rest of the menu. There is a great selection off both the main menu and the specials board. We chose a sharing starter; a meze platter for two. For mains, Louisa decided on the fishcakes from the specials board. Just to mention, there is a roast on every Sunday. Today was roast beef, and I did see this coming out to other tables, it looked very tempting, but I went for the Grove burger. You can opt for either beef or lamb, but I was just after a classic beef burger. Oops, I nearly forgot, wine! (How could I nearly forget that one!) The list at the Grove is compact and concise which I liked. We decided on a bottle of Argentinian Malbec, which I thought would be perfect with my burger.

The starter arrived, which looked fantastic and generous. The dish comprised of Mediterranean prawns with saffron aioli. These where lovely, and the aioli was creamy and packed full of garlic (as an aioli should be) perfect with the prawns. There was also cured meats (including more chorizo…oh glorious chorizo!) Sweet potato falafel, these where great, superb flavour with a hint of spice, freshburst tomatoes which are, I guess, a home dried tomato, these were a surprising treat! Finally, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, to dunk more of that perfectly crusty rustic bread. This all went down well, and to be honest, this coupled with our pre-starter would have been a meal in itself, but come on Richard, get a grip, more delights await. So I pushed on. The empty starter plates where taken away, I loosened my belt and anticipated our main courses.

The mains where soon to arrive, and blimey, these did not disappoint either. Louisa’s fishcakes where wonderfully golden and looked great. The burger was huge! They had not skimped on either dish at all. Both Louisa and I don’t like to miss out, so after a little negotiating I agreed to trade half of my burger, for a fishcake, kinda’ surf and turf really! I’m glad I did. The fishcake was crispy on the outside, light, herby and packed with wonderful fish on the inside. The saffron aioli was a perfect accompaniment. Now time to get stuck in to the burger, wow! Cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and their homemade burger sauce all together in the brioche bun with the succulent juicy burger! I could have eaten the whole burger, not just the half shared with Lou, and even all the fishcakes, they were that good! But that would have been pure gluttony!

Now I don’t like to be too critical, however, one thing did bug me, just a pet hate of mine really; Sachets of sauce! I am sure restaurants have their reasons for this, I guess it keeps costs down? But I just find them fiddly. I like sauce, and I find myself spending valuable time extracting a meagre amount of sauce from a tiny sachet; time wasted when I could be tucking in to the wonderful food! Why not just give us a bottle of ketchup? Come to think of it, I have a great idea, there is a gap in the market for a large sachet, containing a real serving of sauce, what do ya reckon? But hey, that’s it, my only issue, everything else was great, so please don’t let a little sachet put you off!

As you would expect after all those starters and the glorious mains we were full, very full. But I felt we needed to try a pudding as they sounded great. I am also conscious I haven’t had a pudding with any of my previous restaurant reviews! With great sounding dishes such as classic tarte tatin and lemon posset to name just a couple we needed to get involved. We chose to share the warm chocolate brownie, come on, how irresistible does that sound! We also chose a couple of glasses of desert wine to accompany this course. I do like it when restaurants offer desert wines, as this can often be overlooked. Anyway, the brownie arrived. Man alive! This was wonderfully gooey, sweet and chocolaty. Served with ice cream, we should have ordered one each (or even two!). We both demolished this lone brownie in seconds, and battled over the last crumbs on the plate.

After all that, I was fit to burst! We finished our glasses of pudding wine and asked for the bill. This arrived, and £80 for 4 courses, beer and wine was reasonable. Remember, we went the whole hog which may have been a little excessive for lunch, but come on, it was Sunday, so why not, and this had set me up perfectly for the rest of the afternoon vegging out at home with the papers

The Grove have a different evening menu and if my lunch was anything to go by, I need to give this a go. They also host special themed evenings throughout the coming months, such as Tapas and Mexican street food, these sound great, I must get booked up for one, or a few of these.

As I said at the beginning of this review, a restaurant can serve mediocre food providing the service meets expectations. Well, The Grove score on both counts. The food and service exceeded expectations, the staff couldn’t have done more for us, even the chefs said goodbye as we left. I really think the Grove have got it spot on in this little corner of Leigh. So go on, give em a go, and see for yourself!