Retreat

Retreat has two restaurants, Retreat Bolton and Retreat Adlington. At this point I'd been to neither, but decided to try Adlington for my partner's birthday, as it's nearer me and the newer of the two. It's in a former church, which is quite striking from the outside, but when you walk in, it really has that wow factor! It doesn't feel like a church at all, and has the feeling of some of the modern and stylish restaurants in Manchester City Centre, decorated with simple classic modern furniture, and light fixtures that both illuminate and decorate, forming decoration themselves. The venue is split onto two levels, the ground floor and a mezzanine, with an open centre, forming a minstrel's gallery.

As we entered we stood at the podium for a bit as the manager was on the phone presumably taking more bookings. I can't say I'm surprised either, the queues were there all evening with people eager to get in and dine! He was friendly and prompt though, and took us up the central staircase to the upper area, which was great for people watching!

Interestingly, it seems the kitchen is on the ground floor, but instead of installing a dumb waiter to such a small mezzanine area, there are two hidden staircases at the back of the area, allowing staff to covertly come and go to the kitchen without having to use the big central staircase. Nicely done.

When seated and given the menus, we had a browse, but were immediately grabbed by the Sunday Roast offer, which was three courses for £16... how can you turn that down?!

We ordered a couple of drinks, and for starters we chose a garlic bread, creamy garlic mushrooms, and tempura black pudding. Interestingly a chrome bucket-shaped frame was placed on our table. We later found this was to place the garlic bread on, so that it was elevated, and wouldn't take up as much table space when the plates were brought out. Very clever!

The garlic bread was subtly flavoured but good, with a grainy crunch, presumably from semolina, but it worked well. The black pudding was very good, and came with a very tasty cider and apple buttersauce, which really worked well with the black pudding. The creamy garlic mushrooms came on grilled ciabatta with pesto, and was too very tasty.

For our mains, as we'd both chosen the sunday dinner, we chose lamb and pork respectively.

My only criticisms with the dinners were that they presentation was a bit lacking, perhaps due to the size and shape of the plate, so everything looked a little lost and the gravy had slid around a bit, but that certainly was no deal breaker, as the food itself was very good. The vegetables in particular were perfectly cooked.

At this point we realised that we hadn't been introduced to our waiter, and this seems to be as the waiting duties are a group effort, with different waiters bringing dishes out or taking orders as and when needed, from a rather young staff. Some people might have a problem with this style of serving, but it worked well, and clearly works well for Retreat.

For dessert we chose what was simply listed as apple tart, and what was only listed as "shortbread and ice cream", which gives a rather bleak mental image. That's a criticism I would mention actually, the food quality and offerings are great, but the menu itself is ugly. It uses some very ugly fonts which you'd more commonly see in a pub or on a cafe menu, and I don't feel it suits the style of the place, especially as they use this font on their main logo. A little modernising and updating and their menu would be befitting of what they offer.

The desserts turned out to be really good! Why undersell these? I didn't have "shortbread and ice cream", (which gives the mental image of a shortbread finger stuck in an ice cream cone), I received thin shortbread discs with strawberry ice cream and fresh strawberry layers, and a scoop of nice quality vanilla ice cream. This was lovely, but sadly the menu didn't reflect this! The apple tart was also delicious and full of flavour.

The meal was a pleasant visit for a special occasion. The food and drinks were good, the service was friendly, food came out in good time, and the value was excellent. We'll definitely be back! Well done, Retreat!

Retreat Adlington
19 Church Street
Adlington
PR7 4EX
(01257) 481894
http://www.retreatrestaurants.co.uk/