W
L
THE FOREST SIDE
by Carl Housbey
Long term readers of Wirral Life magazine will be thinking that
The Forest Side sounds familiar, that is because I reviewed it back in
September 2017. I had planned to do an update a couple of months ago
but found out that the Head Chef was leaving, so I needed to wait until a
new Chef was appointed. I am very pleased to tell you that the new Chef
is none other than Paul Leonard who was previously at The Devonshire
Arms in Bolton Abbey, and before that he was at Isle of Eriska.
I have eaten Paul’s dishes many times before, so I knew that me and Mrs
GG could expect another great dinner, which is why we decided to book
ourselves into one of the very comfortable and luxurious rooms for an
overnight stay. That way we could indulge ourselves in all of the finest
hospitality that The Forest Side has to offer without having to worry
about getting home afterwards.
We started in the lounge drinking a glass of chilled Champagne whilst
studying the menu, and as this was a Saturday night, we had a choice
of The Lal ‘Un which is six courses, or The Grand ‘Un which is nine
courses. No prizes for guessing which one we chose this is the Gastro
Grazer article after all, so obviously we went for The Grand ‘Un with
matched wines.
The meal began with a number of small snacks accompanied by a G&T
in the form of a sugar snap pea infusion with Fever-Tree Mediterranean
tonic, and a selection of freshly baked breads with home made butter,
all of which were delicious. Then Paul knocked our socks off with our
first course of cured halibut with radish and a dill broth, the level curing
was perfect and had just about turned the firm flesh opaque which
meant that none of the fresh clean flavour of the halibut had been lost.
The impeccable cooking continued course after delicious course, as
evidenced by the fat juicy langoustine tails with tissue thin Cumbrian
ham and a white onion reduction that I could have eaten over and
over again. Paul and his team showcased the very best of each of the
wonderful ingredients available by skilfully combining them together
to form amazing dishes, just look at the photo of the red deer tartare
54 wirrallife.com
and imagine how good it tasted with the creamy slightly salty Exmoor
caviar and rich confit egg yolk.
If you are a fan of fish then you would certainly have loved the turbot
which had been quickly pan fried before being served with a rich cockle
emulsion, my mouth is watering again just thinking about it. The firm
meaty texture of the turbot also led us very nicely into our main course
of Cumbrian duck breast that was simply served with some air dried
duck ham and hen of the woods mushrooms, the depth of flavour in this
dish was amazing and the dry aging of the duck makes a big difference.
We are now heading into the dessert section of the meal, the first of
which was a butternut squash tart in a pastry case so thin that you
could see through it, this was topped with a quenelle of brown butter
ice cream giving it that slightly sweet slightly salty flavour that so many
people enjoy. I am going to switch into full on food reviewer mode for
a second and tell you that the flavour combinations in this dish remind
me of the cep tart that Claude Bosi used to make at Hibiscus – if you
don’t know what I’m on about just use Google it, suffice to say he has
two Michelin Stars.
I am rapidly running out of space, so I will have to skip the description
of our penultimate dessert of pear, buttermilk, and sorrel so that I can
devote a few more lines to the magnificent finale of chocolate topped
with sea buckthorn and crème fraiche, the tangy slightly acidic nature
of both helping to ensure that the richness of the chocolate was perfectly
balanced and didn’t become cloying.
To sum up, we had a fantastic meal and attentive friendly service
throughout the evening, which just leaves me to say that if you have
been to The Forest Side previously then it is high time that you went
back there, and if you haven’t then what are you waiting for, click on
www.theforestside.com or give the team a call on 015394 35250 straight
away to get yourself a reservation, you will be glad you did.
To see what else I get up to, why not follow me on Twitter @carlhousbey