W
L
THE MARRAM GRASS
by Carl Housbey
Whilst this magazine’s editorial team were partying the night away at
the recent Wirral Life Awards evening, I was busy slaving over a hot
keyboard to bring you my latest article. Well that’s not quite true, I
was actually in Anglesey enjoying lots of excellent food together with
outstanding hospitality from Ellis Barrie and team at his restaurant
The Marram Grass.
I know from the number of messages I receive that many of our readers
have already visited this restaurant and each of them have been pretty
much unanimous in their praise for the high standards of cooking and
the friendly service. The judges on BBC TV Great British Menu series
13 were just as impressed as they voted his fish course through to the
final banquet to represent the North West.
Ellis was born and raised in Liverpool which is where he obviously
developed his mischievous sense of humour and genuinely warm
personality that we are famous for in this part of the world. He
previously worked at Panoramic 34 before his dad purchased a touring
caravan site in the picturesque village of Newborough and it was then
that he and his brother Liam dropped everything to help run the place.
Liverpool’s loss is definitely North Wales gain as Ellis has put the area
firmly on everyone’s culinary map by using his dishes to showcase the
very best produce available from Anglesey and the surrounding area, he
even has his own pigs happily foraging away in the field opposite, which
he then uses in all of his pork based dishes and I can tell you they taste
absolutely delicious.
The restaurant opens for lunch and dinner on Thursday to Sunday and
offers a variety of menu choices to suit all tastes and budgets. I wanted
to get the full-on experience so chose the 8 course “Cegin” which is a
surprise taster menu, so I will not go into too much detail about each
dish as I want it a little bit of that mystery to remain for your visit.
However, you can see by the photos opposite that one of the dishes
consisted of fresh oysters from Menai which had received the Ellis twist
by the addition of curry, lime pickle and toasted rice.
52 wirrallife.com
You won’t be too surprised when I tell you that several of the dishes
contain influences from his hugely successful GBM appearance,
especially the amazing mackerel tartare which scored four 10’s from
the judges. There is also a version of his Wyau Ynys Mon which on the
show consisted of Anglesey poached egg, cheese and leek Welsh cake,
potato and leek ragout, smoked potato mousse, potato tuile, cheddar
and charcoal shard, with watercress and white truffle, this time it is
slightly simplified but just as delicious and I could have eaten at least
half a dozen of them for breakfast the following day.
The aforementioned melt in the mouth tender free-range pork was
used throughout the meal in many different guises including a large
slice of “Sausage Roll” which was the polar opposite of anything you
could get in the well known high street chain beginning with G. This
one was packed with flavour, contained many different textures and
highlighted Ellis’s philosophy of sustainability by using every single
part of an animal that had lived a happy life only a few metres away
from the kitchen.
The whole meal was superb with every course just as good as the next
one, the wines to accompany each dish, four of which were from Wales,
worked extremely well, in particular the white sparkling Pefriog Brut
from the nearby Conwy valley that we drank with the oysters at the
start of the evening.
If you haven’t yet been you are missing out on a real treat so book a
table straight away by clicking on www.themarramgrass.com or calling
01248 440 077.
The new rooms may even be ready by the time you read this article so
be sure to ask, and in the meantime keep your eye open for news about
their new restaurant “Lerpwl” which will be opening in the Albert
Dock, Liverpool in early 2020.
To see what else I get up to, why not follow me on Twitter @carlhousbey