A posh fry-up and a wine list to die for

Mar 21 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

Ben Schofield ventures ‘off the beaten track’ to sample a new style in dining

LIVERPOOL’S Malmaison hotel is billing itself as a destination – not only for overnight guests, but for the eaters too.

There’s a marketing line somewhere about eating in being the new eating out.

Well, I wanted to eat out – did this mean I should stay at home, go elsewhere, or journey to the Mal’s imposing grey waterfront edifice?

And because the “destination” – down at Princes Dock – feels far off the beaten city centre track, the food is going to have to be special to entice customers down.

There may be smashing views of the Liver Building and Mersey from the 15th floor, but passing restaurant trade there ain’t.

Such were my thoughts as the taxi pulled away leaving us in the Saturday night drizzle.

When booking the table I was somewhat disappointed to hear the Sample Homegrown and Local Menu was off-limits.

A glance at the Ormskirk mushrooms, Goosnargh chicken and Port of Lancaster smoked haddock pie on offer suggests a mid-week visit may be in order.

At a £15.50 for three courses, it can boast good value too.

After taking our seats in the, well, black dining room, we were handed the one-page a la carte menu.

The maitre d’ then allowed the tome-like wine list to thump with all its leather-bound pomp on to the huge shiny table between us.

At 200-plus bins, it was extensive and clearly intended to be a jewel in the crown.

I’d read that not only had Malmaison Liverpool been nominated in the Best Hotel category of the Northern Hospitality awards, but its brasserie was also up for Best Wine Offering.

As head sommelier, Pavlos Shakas, poured our French Merlot-Grenache (£18.50 and one of few “entry-level” bottles price-wise) I asked him what the nomination meant. He told me they were trying to create a “wine experience” but, he added quickly, “it’s not about what a journalist has to say”.

Well, whod’a thunk it.

That aside, what disturbed and amused me more was that Mr Shakas insisted on directing the majority of his comments towards my (female) companion.

But there was something of a recovery when he invited us both to the wine club he puts on for clients keen to hone their noses.

With all the wine chat, it was 45 minutes between our arrival and the appearance of the starters.

I went for the pig trotters and fried quails eggs (£6.95), while my companion had the beetroot and potato gallette (£4.95).

It was only after pushing the moist and wonderfully fatty coins of pig around the plate that I realised the dish, which comes topped with bitter leaves and winter truffle, was an eccentric, miniature English fry-up.

The deep-fried beetroot and potato discs circled a cheesy cauliflower polonaise.

It looked pretty, but I was disappointed the beetroot didn’t have either more bite or more crisp.

Before the plates had time to be cleared away our friend, Mr Shakas, was back, this time bearing gifts.

He danced round our table and placed a large empty glass in the centre, into which he poured a mysterious Bordeaux.

He opined about terrior and cool nights/hot days. I nodded approvingly and sipped and sniffed.

And oh the wine.

Mr Shakas had every reason to be proud of it, superb as it was. And I thank him for his generosity.

But we only had an inch of it to get through before we had to revert to the cheap stuff we’d plumped for, the delicate nodes of which, I might add, had been obliterated by its gilt-edged cousin.

Speaking of generosity, it is only now, in the cold light of Daily Post HQ that I notice our red wine never appeared on the bill. Thanks once again.

But our now free plonk would have to suffice and man-up against the duck confit (£13.95) and blade of beef (£14.50).

The duck came out perfectly cooked with all the taste of the fat but none of it in sight and hunkering beneath brown paper bag crispy skin.

Sitting atop red cabbage and next to a spiced comice pear, the dish was just too sweet for my palate.

Had I sneezed on my beef I fear it may have fallen apart, such was its delicacy. The flesh encased a glob of fat that clung to my gums, only to be peeled off by the horseradish in one of three dumplings that completed the dish. A marvel.

The desserts – white chocolate cappuccino with vanilla and cinnamon doughnuts and lemon and lime meringue (both £5.95) – were similarly spectacular, though one hid a nasty surprise.

Oftentimes when you order a “cappuccino” of such-and-such you get either an espresso cup begrudgingly filled with some kind of mousse or the dish itself comes out wearing a camp beret of foamed milk.

So when a soup-bowel-sized mug was placed in front of my companion with more than a top hat full of mousse and a doughnut lurking silently alongside like the fat kid in the playground, there was relief and joy.

It was fun and tasty, while maintaining the essential class of the place.

My pie was no less of a spectacle: scorched fairy castle peaks of meringue reaching out of a two-inch fortress of pastry.

The pastry, curd and meringue made a delightful trio, but the harmony was shortlived after I found chocolate around the base of the pie.

Now this wasn’t in the same league as finding hairs/flies/toenails in your soup, but it was as unwelcome.

If it wasn’t done for the purposes of flavour – and it shouldn’t have been done for that – then it was either structural or to make sure the pie doesn’t leave the plate during serving or while eating.

But chocolate? You might as well have stuck it down with Araldite.

It was a rare sour note in an otherwise special and highly-considered meal.

Malmaison may be just out of the way for city centre dwellers, but hey, why not get a room.

benshcofield

Malmaison, William Jessop Way, Princes Dock, Liverpool

Tel: 0151 229 5000

Service: Punctilious, excellent

Value for money: More special occasion than weekly haunt, but good value for fine dining

Menu: Fine range of modern European

Disabled access: Full

Décor: Stylised and very black

Parking: None at the hotel, Pay&Display nearby

The bill: £63.97, not including the wine