Grants of Castlegate

1 Reviews on “Grants of Castlegate”

• Nick Hall

  Grants Restaurant Review. I arrived at Grants as part of a party of 22 people who were all there to celebrate an 18th Birthday. We were warmly welcomed into the restaurant which wasnt huge but had a nice cosy feeling to it. The waitresses took our drinks orders and made us comfortable in the small lounge/bar area.Due to the large number of guests, the chef at Grants kindly asked us to pre-order our meal, which we were more than happy to do. I selected a prawn & avocado salad to start, followed by duck in a plum sauce and then sticky toffee pudding.My Prawn salad looked delicious when it was presented to me. Too my surprise, along with the prawns and sliced avocado, there was also some salmon! Although the salmon was tinned, it gave a nice depth of flavour to the sweet and succulent prawns. The fish and avocado worked beautifully together, offering a mix of flavours and textures. Many of the guests chose a starter of black pudding and haggis croquettes which looked fantastic. It was well presented and tasted delicious.For the main course I selected duck with a plum sauce the duck was delicious and was perfectly seasoned. The only issue I had was it the duck was ever so slightly over cooked for my liking, but I looked past this because it tasted fantastic! The sauce which accompanied the duck was exquisite, it had fruity, sweet and savoury notes and was the perfect accompaniment to the duck. Alongside the duck was sauted potatoes which were great, cooked perfectly and well flavoured. As well as this, there was also carrots served with fennel seeds now, im not a huge lover of aniseed but I enjoyed the delicate fennel flavour with well cooked carrots. Finaly, they served roasted beetroot which was cooked in a mix of cumin, honey and red wine. The mix of strong flavours coating the beetroot proved to be too much and overpowered the soft and delicate flavour of the beetroot. It didnt work with the duck either and wasnt particularly pleasant.Other guests had seas bass for their main the fish was cooked perfectly, falling away from the fork and melting in your mouth. The other option was pork with risotto the pork looked dry but was actually succulent and well flavoured. The risotto was also cooked perfectly, well seasoned and creamy.For dessert, I had the ever popular Cumbrian favourite, sticky toffee pudding. Us Cambrians have come to expect great things from sticky toffee puddings and this one certainly met those expectations! The deep, sweet, sticky flavours were superb and were nicely rounded off with vanilla ice cream. The tried and tested flavour combination, as ever, worked extremely well. My only qualm was there wasnt enough of it! Other guests had Eton mess although well presented in a tall glass, the dessert seemed to be made up of fruit and cream, lacking the most important ingredient meringue! Per person, the bill came out at around 25 (three course meal including wine). I thought this was well priced although it would be fair to say the portions are slightly too small for what you pay. Nevertheless, my experience at Grants was superb! The lovely, attentive staff made us feel extremely welcome and the food was excellent. I will certainly be going back!

  December 10, 2013, 10:58 am

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