Chester’s Restaurant
102 Church Street, Market Deeping, Peterborough PE6 8AL Tel: 01778 344719
Chester’s Restaurant is run by a husband and wife team. It is a tearoom by day and a restaurant on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings from 7.00pm. During the summer they hold Tapas nights on Thursdays.
My husband and I went for our wedding anniversary, which happens to be the same date as my husband’s birthday. That way he shouldn’t forget!
On arrival we sat on comfy sofas in what would be the tearoom during the day. We were offered olives to have with our drinks whilst we perused the menu, after the wife had explained all the dishes to us. It is a set menu at £26.50 for three courses, or so you think! There are 5 or 6 choices for each course, including a vegetarian option.
We duly chose from the menu and after only a short wait were shown to our table. A jug of water was already on the table, without having to ask for it. We were the only diners, but it is a small dining room and doesn’t matter at all that we are alone. It would seat approx 16 diners when full. We chose a bottle of New Zealand Marlborough sauvignon blanc which was £18, to have with our meal.
We sat down in the tastefully decorated/furnished dining room, which was obviously someone’s front room at one time and were brought an amuse-bouche. A puff pastry tart with beetroot and a tasty jus – a very nice surprise (and free, of course). Our starters followed – I chose lamb’s liver, caramelised onion & smoked bacon gratin in a brandy sauce – which was delicious. My husband chose slow-roasted pork belly with wholegrain mustard mash & bramley apple gravy. It was quite large, the crackling was really light and crisp and the just melted in the mouth. We also had 4 rolls on the table, 2 of which were stilton and walnut and 2 were cheddar and pepper, home-made of course. We were asked if we wanted more butter as we still had some bread on the table, but had eaten all the butter, another nice touch.
Before our main course arrived we were brought a home-made grapefruit and orange sorbet – WOW, what a gorgeous refreshing taste. It certainly cleansed the palate nicely.
When our main courses were brought to us, we were told by the wife/waitress that she’d be back in a minute to check that both our meats were cooked to our liking. Again, a really nice touch.
For my main course I chose barbary duck breast with confit of leg stuffing and a mushroom & Madeira sauce. The duck was really nicely cooked and interesting with the leg meat stuffed into the breast. My husband chose the sirloin steak with a brandy, cream and peppercorn sauce. He asked for it medium and it came just as he likes it. The vegetables served with these were new potatoes, baby sweetcorn, mange tout and green beans.
For dessert we both chose the Bailey’s Torte which was a frozen Bailey’s mousse on a biscuit base. Just right and not at all heavy, as we were getting quite full by now. Our desserts were brought to the table by the husband/chef. It was nice to meet the man who’d cooked us such a delicious meal.
As it was a special occasion we thought we’d share a glass of Elysium Black Muscat, dessert wine, which they offered to split between two glasses for us. However, when the glasses arrived, I’m sure there was more than one measure – yet another nice touch. We followed this with coffee.
All in all an excellent meal with very attentive staff, a couple of surprises (amuse-bouche and sorbet – not on the menu) and several nice touches. At £87 for everything, good value for money for the quality of food served. If we were asked to give marks out of 10 – it would have to be 9.5.
DD
March 2011
The Bill
Set Menu - 3 courses * 2 £53.00
Coffee * 2 £4.00
Drinks (Alcohol) * 2 £7.00
Wine (Bottle) £18.00
Dessert Wine (Glass) * 2 £5.00
Total £87.00