Showing posts with label adlington. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adlington. Show all posts

I'm late to the party with this one, I know. Lucianos at The Millstone is a very popular Italian restaurant in Anderton, between Horwich and Adlington, towards Chorley, and has been so successful that it has also opened a sister venue at Middlebrook Retail Park. Before now I had been to neither. There's a lot of Italian restaurants around Bolton and it was hard not to think "oh, another Italian restaurant".





But this is where Lucianos is different. The first thing you notice when you walk in the door is that the staff are talking to each other in Italian... that's a good sign in a true Italian restaurant! It's decorated in a bright and modern contemporary style, showing modern Italian dining rather than the old fashioned 'Ristorante' style we often have over here with candle-filled Chianti bottles, faux grape vines and nick nacks all over the place. A couple of trendy Vespas are found on the way in, with a dining area to the left, and a modern bar area to the right, making it clear this is a modern venue, not another cheesy Italian themed restaurant.



Despite not having a reservation, we are welcomed warmly, and shown to a pleasant table where we are given our menus by a charismatic manager / maitre'd, who seems very much at home in that role, and has fine tuned his patter; he asks if we'd like any wine by the bottle, but we were only having soft drinks, so he took the glasses away with the quip, "less mess for me!", I also like that when we were browsing the dessert menu later on, he chimed in, "Remember, signori, I will never let you struggle... all desserts come with a third spoon for me". I like this. You don't get the bon viveur style head waiter so much these days, and it's nice when you find it, and it seems genuine and warm hearted.

For our starter we order Budino Nero, which is black pudding served with sweet peppers, chorizo and red wine reduction, served with crostini bread, and the Terrina a modo nostro, a duck and chicken liver pate, finished with aged brandy and port. Served with cranberry compot and crostini.

As we wait for our starters, we look around some more at the decor and the layout. I never visited this place when it was a pub, but its hard to imagine, as it's been so pleasantly decorated in white wood panelling, black photo frames of modern day Italy, and plum coloured accents in the linen, and dark plum leather effect booth seating. Very stylish.


Before too long our starters arrive, and are beautifully presented. The lighting in this venue really shows off the food well. The pate was delicious and fresh with a little salad, and the black pudding starter was simply beautiful. It was meaty but with a red wine reduction which was deliciously sweet, and worked well in contrast with the meaty flavours and richness of the chorizo. I was so impressed with it that I asked one of the wait staff if they could find out what the sauce was for me. Marvellous!



We were so impressed with the starters that we were salivating at the idea of our mains! Main courses took a little longer to arrive, but the venue was starting to get busy, so it's not surprising, plus frankly I'm happy to wait longer for good quality food cooked fresh to order.

We ordered the tagliatelle carbonara speciale, and my partner decided to try something new, and opted to try the Ravioli All'Argosta, which is egg ravioli filled with lobster in a lobster and tomato bisque.

The carbonara was presented as well as it can be, and I took the offer of fresh parmesan topping. The flavours were excellent, and it was wonderfully creamy and filling! The lobster ravioli looked... well... there's probably not many ways you can make it look good on a plate given the nature of it as a dish... but it was there on the plate... and was very tasty with a distinct flavour without being overbearing. The quality of the fresh pasta was superb too!



So our starters and main courses were both excellent, two thumbs up! We were enjoying relaxing in the atmosphere of the place too, so the wait didn't feel too bad. We were very full, but decided we simply had to try some of the desserts... you know, to properly finish off!

I ordered one of the home-made caramel cheesecakes, and my partner ordered the canolo (tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling usually containing ricotta... a bit like a brandy snap). The cheesecake was tasty but a lot softer than I was expecting, probably as I've become more used to American style baked cheesecakes. The slice was a bit on the thin side, but the flavour was good, and wonderfully creamy. The canolo was also a little bit of a small portion. Admittedly it was listed as "canolo" (one) rather than "canoli" (multiple), but this one little canolo looked a bit lonely on a huge plate with a dusting of icing sugar over it. I think as a portion perhaps three of them would be a better portion and look better, but again the flavours and textures were excellent and couldn't be faulted. Delicious!



By now it was getting very busy, and we had trouble getting the attention of any of the staff to be able to ask for our bill, so I had to go to the main counter and ask the manager, but he was very friendly and gracious and brought the bill over straight away.

All in all, we were very very pleasantly pleased with Lucianos on what was a simple spur of the moment visit. The quality of the ingredients, the style of the setting and decor, and the professionalism of the staff really made this an enjoyable visit, and we will most definitely be returning! Buonisimo!


Lucianos at The Millstone
Bolton Road
Anderton
PR6 9JH
(01257) 480 205
http://www.lucianosatthemillstone.com/
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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/

Retreat

by on 12:19
Retreat has two restaurants, Retreat Bolton and Retreat Adlington . At this point I'd been to neither, but decided to try Adlington ...
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