Baltic Cellar

I remember passing Baltic Cellar in Manchester City Centre a few years ago, and thinking how it looked like the sort of place I'd really like to give a try, as I enjoy European food, but when I eventually came to look into it and visit, I found it had closed. Booooo!

But when I was recently passing through The Vaults area of Bolton Market Place, I saw a sign saying that Baltic Cellar was opening there soon... right near home! Fantastic! So I finally got to visit.

Baltic Cellar is a grill restaurant which specialises in Polish, Russian, and Baltic foods. which means hearty meaty foods usually, and speciality drinks. As you walk in, you see that the décor is modern with abundant wood cladding and warm tones, but with nods in theming to traditional elements with taxidermy, pine cone decorations, and traditional art. Music is background and unintrusive, which coupled with the dim lighting and wooden tones makes the space feel cosy and relaxed. We're greeted and seated promptly.

The menu is full of delicious options in starters, mains, and a grill section, as well as a gluten free section and childrens section. There's also an extensive drinks menu. For our starter we choose to try 'The Tower' which is fried Lithuanian brown bread with cheese and garlic, and  Zhulian, which is a fried mushroom casserole with chicken, onion, double cream, and baked cheese.

Whilst waiting for our food we looked in the drinks menu and saw some great non-alcoholic options (as we don't drink), and it was nice to see that the cuisine type even extended to soft drinks, allowing us to order some drinks we'd never tried before. We ordered Tarhun, which is described as a green lemonade, and Kvas, which is listed as a malt drink.

We didn't know much about these drinks so looked them up whilst waiting for our starters. It turns out "green lemonade" is an underestimation for how green this drink was! It turns out its made with flavours of tarragon and woodruff, and is wonderfully refreshing and tasty. I was really impressed. Kvas it turns out is made with fermented sourdough bread, which we found surprising. The taste is truly unique, starting with a similar flavour to something like Dandelion and Burdock or Root Beer, and ending up with a flavour similar to having eaten a Cadbury Roses coffee centred chocolate. Both were really tasty, and we'd order again them again next time for certain.

The starters arrived. The Tower living up to its name of a Jenga tower of delicious crunchy batons of brown bread, with melted cheese dribbled over the top. It was very good, and very moreish. It worked really well with the cheese, but I bet would work equally well with some dips or liquid cheese. The Zhulian was delicious and creamy, and full of flavour. It came with a slice of bread, but would benefit from a few more, but it turns out the Tower's bread batons work very well indeed with it!

For our main we decided to order the mixed grill, which was recommended for two people to share. This took a little longer to arrive than expected, but given the comfy atmosphere of the venue, this was fine. Our waitress also came over to let us know that it wouldn't be too much longer, which was appreciated.

The mixed grill comprises of pork rib, lamb, chicken, pork neck loin, two sausages, and was served with any two sides, and any two sauces. We chose potato wedges and spicy rice as our sides, and Baltic sauce and 'green' sauce as our sauces. These sauces didn't sound like they were going to be anything special but they were truly delicious, and really enjoyable to dunk the various meats in to see which worked best. The Baltic sauce was made with ketchup, mayonnaise, coriander, dill and garlic, and so had a Thousand Island feel but with extra depth. The 'green' sauce was gherkins, coriander, dill, mayonnaise, and garlic, and had a wonderfully fresh and creamy taste to it.

The food itself was excellent. The mixed grill was filling and tasty. Everything was perfectly seasoned and cooked, with the rib meat falling off the bone. The sides were tasty and fresh too. I'd love to say that we tried one of the delicious Baltic desserts, but the starters, mixed grill and sides were so very filling that we simply didn't have the room!

The value was also very good, not even coming close to breaking the bank, with special offers mentioned on flyers and menus, and lunchtime offers.

We were both thoroughly impressed with Baltic Cellar and will definitely return. We know several people who will really enjoy it here, and we recommend it if you enjoy hearty and fresh food in a pleasant environment.




Baltic Cellar
The Vaults
Bolton Market Place
Bolton
BL1 2AL
(01204) 386 854
www.baltic-cellar.com