The Fishermans Retreat

Looking for somewhere special for our wedding anniversary meal, I hadn't heard of The Fishermans Retreat in Bury, but when it was recommended I gave it a look online and definitely liked the sound of it. Despite the name, it isn't a seafood restaurant but a restaurant showing off British quality cuisine, nestled in the rolling hills of Ramsbottom, where you keep thinking you're getting lost until you see the occasional sign popping out of the bushes telling you that you're nearly there.

As you park up, you see the wonderful surroundings of the place and hear the rush of a nearby strong stream. Very pleasant. You walk into the front doors and the first thing you see is a nice bit of provenance, showing the construction of the restaurant in 1992. I love things like this, it's nice to see people being proud of something they've put their passion into.You then pass by a large whisky bottle shop. Surprising, but a nice touch of class!

Greeted at the bar, we give our names as we made a reservation and we are taken through to the next room, which is a real dramatic first impression. You walk though a small arch and into an extremely large room with a gigantic window at the far end, looking out onto the rolling moors. It's definitely a "wow" moment. The room is quite modern and a touch on the stark side, but the view makes up for it. The furniture is large chunky modern wood, and generously seated so everyone has room.

We're seated and given our menu along with the day's specials. We order a couple of Diet Pepsi's, and have a nosy at the menu. The drinks take a while to appear, but I'm happy to say that two different members of staff came to update us about the situation (a problem with the pump), and gave us some water in the meantime. Service like this is what makes a potentially poor situation well handled and happily received.

We start by ordering the garlic bread, described as oven baked focaccia brushed with garlic butter and served with aged balsamic and duo of pesto. I'll get this part out of the way because this was the only underwhelming part of the experience. When it came out we were quite surprised at how small the garlic bread was considering it was listed as "to share" and was £8.00, and despite being a nice piece of bread, we couldn't actually taste much garlic or seasoning at all, which was a shame. However the pesto and balsamic worked perfectly with it and saved it a little.

For our mains, I ordered the beef wellington. I've never had beef wellington in a restaurant before and it seemed the perfect "special" choice. My partner ordered the steak and mushroom pie.

Both arrived very pleasantly presented. The quality here was superb. The pie was bursting with flavour, and the pastry was perfect. The chips were also just as crunchy and satisfying as you'd hope! The beef wellington was stunning. I was asked if I wanted it pink or cooked through... it's nice to be asked but if you're ordering beef wellington cooked through you might as well order a burger. The beef was pink and juicy, the mushrooms superbly flavourful, and although the pastry was a touch soft, it was still delicious. The part I actually enjoyed most however was the dauphinois potatoes, which was a brick of beautifully flavoured and seasoned layers. I enjoyed every last mouthful of it, and the dish as a whole was really excellent!

We were really impressed by the food, and so just had to order dessert! My partner opted for the sticky date pudding, and I opoted for the Baileys and white chocolate cheesecake, which they kindly allowed me to substitute chocolate ice cream for their cookies and cream ice cream as I'm not a big fan of chocolate ice cream.

Both came nicely presented but the cheesecake really did look special! The date pudding was rich and comforting, and the perfect way to round off the meal. The cheesecake was deceptively sized! It looked little but was a big portion, and was superbly creamy and tasty indeed, but the cookies and cream ice cream was actually superb, I really enjoyed it and could easily just have got three scoops of that!

Basically we loved our meal and our visit to The Fishermans Retreat. The venue itself has that one main large room, a couple of function rooms, and a very cosy and warm looking bar. The one detail I found odd was that the ladies toilets were a door just off the main room, but the gents are actually out of the room, through the bar, down a corridor, and by the front door... very odd! More than once we saw blokes going to what they assumed was the gents toilet in the next door along, only to wander into a cloakroom and be quickly chased by a member of staff directing them the right way. The service is friendly and professional, but we did on occasion find it hard to get the attention of some of the staff, despite there being quite a few around, but when we did, they were happy to help and very professional. One detail I saw which struck me as superbly professional was that I saw one member of staff put on a pair of latex gloves to get clean cutlery out of a draw and delicately place them onto napkins ready for the tables. He wasn't doing this to be seen, this was just good practice. Superb.

We will definitely return. Especially as before we left, a lovely friendly member of staff told us about special deals on certain evenings and some great options. We had a great time :)