A late Sunday lunch in Chester brings back memories for Emma Johnson

FEW things can send me on a trip down memory lane like food. The smell of spare ribs boiling and I am there in the kitchen of my grandma’s house, a mouthful of banana cake and I can see my mum with her mixing bowl perfecting one of hers.

It even goes beyond the food. There are certain restaurants that are bursting with happy memories that come flooding back every time I set foot inside.

High up among those establishments is the Blackhouse Grill, in Chester.

Way back when the venue was an Est Est Est, it was one of the first restaurants my now husband ever took me to and I have always loved the place.

Happily, some 16 years on and, despite its change from an Italian restaurant to a grill, my love of the place (and my husband!) endures.

So, when we decided to scoot into Chester for a late lunch following a spot of shopping at Cheshire Oaks, The Blackhouse Grill was the obvious destination.

One of the things I like most about the Grill is the variety of dishes on offer.

The menu is split into starters and nibbles, salads, specialities and seafood – with no less than 10 fish dishes including lobster (which you can see swimming around in a tank near the open kitchen).

Then, of course, there is the grill.

Rump, sirloin, rib-eye – all the cuts are here including the elite Japanese Wagyu kobe fillet.

It will set you back £55 but, reared on a beer diet and massaged from birth, is claimed to be the most tender, succulent and tastiest meat in the world.

I have yet to try it, so I can’t verify that claim, although my husband has sampled the ostrich fillet on a previous visit to the Blackhouse Grill – for the record, it tastes like a very lean beef and is slightly tougher.

You are spoilt for choices with the starters. Seafood fans are well catered for, with rock oysters from the Sound of Cumbrae, on the west coast of Scotland, and mussels mariniere on offer as well as garlic prawns.

I generally lean towards the pan-Asian dishes at the Grill and had been contemplating the duck spring rolls, but in the end surprised myself and went for the oven-baked camembert with toasted croûte and cranberry salsa (£7).

My husband stuck with a perennial favourite, Thai fish cakes with sweet chilli sauce (£7).

Anticipating there not to be enough “croute” with my camembert, we also ordered warm baked loaf with balsamic and olive oil (£3).

To drink, my husband ordered a Tiger beer (£3.75) while I, impressed to see it sold by the glass, treated myself to a glass of Tarquino Malbec (£7.75 for 250ml).

Around us, many diners were enjoying the sharing roasts for two.

The grill offers three – roasted loin of pork (£32), roasted whole chicken (£29) and roasted sirloin of beef (£34).

They come with full trimmings and looking around there is clearly more than enough for two.

Our starters arrived shortly after my yummy Malbec, and the camembert was a joy.

It was hot and gooey and messy, and just tangy enough with a hint of salt and garlic. It was so good that I even found myself tucking into the rind, which I never do.

I had been wise to order the bread though and wasted no time dipping it in once my croute and cranberry had been dispatched.

The fish cakes were a similar success. They were packed with meaty fish and the sweet chilli sauce had just enough kick to balance out the strong Thai herbs.

I am not a huge eater of steak and we rarely have red meat at home, but this particular afternoon the caveman in me was making himself heard and, after much deliberation of the cuts, for my main course I ordered the 225g rib-eye (£14.25). The Grill also offers a 310g rib-eye at £19, but I was confident the smaller cut would be plenty.

Pushing to the back of my mind how many calories I had already wolfed down with the camembert, I ordered a bearnaise sauce (£2) to go with it.

My husband meanwhile had the taste for a burger. The Grill menu features three: 100% premium beef, chargrilled chicken breast (both £10) and a 100% Kobe burger (£18.25) if you are feeling extravagant.

He went for the traditional beef loading it with smoked bacon and mature cheddar (£1.50).

When the main courses arrived, it quickly became clear I should have ordered a side of veg to go with mine as the waitress suggested. But you live and learn.

All the steaks come with home-cut chips, jacket or champ potatoes. I went for the chips and am glad I did because they were fantastic.

It’s a cliché, but they really did taste like the ones my mum used to make when we were little (see what I mean about food and memories?).

The steak was great, too.

While fillet may be the most tender cut of beef, you can’t beat a rib-eye for taste and this was bursting with flavours and grilled perfectly to my medium rare specification.

In fact, so tasty was it I could have foregone the bearnaise sauce, although I am glad I didn’t as it tasted as wonderful as it did sinful.

My husband’s burger looked great. It was piled high with filling and the patty was huge and juicy.

At this point, we should have stopped eating.

I knew I couldn’t manage a whole dessert but had a hankering for something sweet.

The answer, we decided, was to share a pudding.

Again, we were spoiled for choice with some very interesting desserts on offer from the traditional – chocolate and raspberry torte and banoffi mess, to the more unusual – affogato, an Italian coffee and liqueur-based ice cream sundae. In the end, we went very traditional with sticky toffee pudding £5.75.

We also ordered a cappuccino and a latte (£2.25 each) to round things off.

The pudding arrived swiftly and was eaten even more quickly.

It was as well I only really wanted a taste of something sweet as my husband monstered through the dish but I ate enough to report it was delicious, moist and packed with toffee flavour, although perhaps it could have done with a little more ice cream.

Nevertheless, it was a great end to a great day.

Another delicious addition to the food memory bank.