12:25pm Thursday 22nd July 2010
By Steven Thompson
SOMETIMES, you just have to say, ‘Sod the bank balance, sod the waistline, let’s go out for tea!’ This was one such Monday.
The Chetham Arms might be a walkers’ pub by day, but inside, it houses a very smart, recently refurbished restaurant.
It is in a nice location too, in the picture postcard village of Chapeltown, a cstone’s throw from Turton Tower and not much further from Entwistle.
Fair to say it isn’t packed out early on in the week, but this changes at the weekend.
There’s a cute little bar as well, with a decent range of real ales and a reasonably-priced wine list.
So, in we went, ordered a round of drinks, sat down in the restaurant and pre-emptively loosened our belts.
It seems to be the trend at the moment to have at least one black pudding option on the menu, usually as a starter.
And, sure enough, there it was — Bury black pudding potato cake, topped with a poached egg, on a bed of wilted spinach with a creamy wholegrain mustard sauce (£5). Sounds pretentious — tasted flipping great.
The potato cake was thick, crispy, moist and meaty, the egg, perfectly poached, the sauce, subtle, and the spinach made sure the dish wasn’t too rich.
It was huge too, in fact, a little too big. You could happily share this. I didn’t, obviously.
The parents did, however, split the chicken liver parfait with onion marmalade and toasted brioche (£5). It is essentially posh pate with a posh dip on posh toast, but it didn’t disappoint. The marmalade was tangy, the brioche, soft and sweet, the pate, silky smooth.
Me and the old man both plumped for the 10oz Rib Eye, medium rare, with a red wine and shallot sauce (£15) for our main.
The steak was tender and cooked to order, the posh gravy was v tasty and the chips were bob on. It was all washed down with a generous glass of pretty affable Merlot (£3.90).
The only woman in my life chose the roasted breast of Goosnargh chicken with a tomato and black olive sauce and new potatoes (£10). There was nothing wrong with the dish — it was well delivered — but it was all just a little bit plain Jane. The word unexciting was mentioned more than once.
Desserts were good. Mr and Mrs T shared the Bakewell tart with vanilla ice cream (£4.50). It was decent enough without setting the world alight.
I had sticky toffee pudding (£4.50) which, again, came in a mansize portion. It is not a particularly summery dish — it tasted of bonfire night and parkin — but it was excellent, nevertheless.
I bravely polished it off, sat back, groaned and loosened my belt again. The diet starts tomorrow.
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