The Gallery Restaurant at the Sefton Hotel
Harris Promenade, Douglas, Isle of Man
The Gallery is the Sefton Hotel's signature restaurant. It has the most formal feel to it of any of the Island's places to eat, and the fellow diners reflect this being generally older (and better dressed!) than elsewhere. I think it adds to the atmosphere of a relatively expensive place if people have made an effort to dress up, or is that too stuffy? Anyway, we always used to go to Ciapellis when it was in Admiralty House for an upmarket night out, and although the food was outstanding, the ambience was very ordinary, service often poor, and prices unrealistic. Since the Gallery opened that has been our destination of choice. The food in the past has been very good, sometimes excellent, and the service and setting and more modest prices have always made for a very enjoyable dining experience.
Anyway, four of us sat down for dinner, and were presented with an amuse bouche on a spoon. Tasty, and always nice to get something free and amusing, even if it is only a little fish ball. The menus came, and whilst the a la carte looked very good, with lots of hard decisions to be made, the set menu at £30 for 3 courses was rather lacklustre. Two of us opted for the 20 oz Chateaubriand, mainly because it sounds luxurious, being the choice cut of the fillet, and we'd never tried it before. It did look the part, appearing on a wooden platter and carved into 6 thick slices at the table. The platter was soon covered in juice, sorry, jus, and there are times when you wish you weren't so dressed up and stuffy so you could ask for a crust to mop it up.
We'd requested medium rare, the 2 inside slices were perfectly that, though one of the outer slices hadn't a hint of pink and the others were distinctly medium. It came with Bearnaise sauce on the side, OK, but a choice cut of meat doesn't really need a sauce. It also had little pans of roasted tomatoes, delicious mushrooms, and a fairly ordinary dish of veg and potato dauphinoise slivers. The dish should have included some frites as standard, and my late order of chips was rushed to the table, but ended up a little too underdone. I wish restaurants would present an inclusive, well balanced plate, instead of expecting you to guess what sort and size of accompaniments you might get and ask you to supplement these in advance from a side order menu.
At the other end of the table they went for smoked haddock risotto starters. Nice and moist, but perhaps just a little ordinary compared with the delicious risotto topped with red mullet which used to be on the menu. Mains were duck, tender and generous, and fillets of dorada with crab claws and shrimp sauce, reportedly very, very tasty. We only managed one dessert between us, as portions had been large, and the one serving of crepes suzettes were nicely done, and enough for two of us. Coffees brought the bill to £114, plus another £32 for drinks. The service from a variety of waiters was invariably efficient and attentive, and overall it was good value for a smart restaurant, and could have been pushed up to the top class with just a little more attention to some of the dishes.
Epicurus
September 2010
The Bill
Table D'Hote £30.00
Chateaubriand £49.00
Haddock Risotto £8.75
Duck £19.50
Vegetables £3.00
Wine - bottle £16.95
Wine - glass £5.25
Coffee * 2 £4.50
Speciality coffee £4.75
Soft drink £1.35
Beer £3.60
Total - £146.65