June 2012 Caveau Liverpool
Posted: 29/04/2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Food, France, June, Liverpool, Meal, Restaurant, Scousetro Club 1 Comment »
After a months break Scousetro Club returns in June with a fantastic meal at Caveau, a classic french bistro situated in woolton village. A small, intimate restaurant by Chef Dave Roberts it provides the most exquisite of dining experiences. The warm modest interior is the perfect setting for a relaxing dinner while sitting only forty covers at a time, you will feel a sense of exclusivity lost within larger establishments.
True to its name everything from the service to the food is unmatched, each dish having been uniquely designed and intricately prepared using only fresh produce creating contemporary flavours you would be hard pressed to find anywhere else outside of France itself.
To Book your place(s) Click the button below
We currently have only 1 place left.
Liverpool
L25 7RE
April 2012 The Malmaison
Posted: 12/03/2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Black pudding, Chef, cooking, Food, Liverpool, Mal, Meal, merseyside, Restaurant, Scousetro Club Leave a comment »
So far Scousetro Club has been a huge success, after two fantastic meals at Lunya and Academy restaurant, I’m very pleased to announce that the meal for March will be hosted by The Malmaison. Sitting amongst Liverpool’s historic waterfront, The Malmaison Liverpool is a chic modern hotel, with excellent brasserie and luxurious rooms. The food at The Mal is centred around the very best of local produce, prepared by the head chef Adam Townsley.
The menu is below
Review
This months Scousetro was a good night, hosted by The Mal and taking place in one of their private function rooms. For the first time at a Scousetro club meal we all sat round one large table, a bit like a giant board room. The Mal’s staff had made a great effort, the room looked excellent and it made for a lovely atmosphere.
Our first course proved to be the most popular of the night, sweet perfectly cooked scallops with a delicious risotto. It was a great start to the evening, a dish enjoyed by all and would hopefully set the tone for the rest of the courses.
Second course was homemade black pudding with smoked apple purée and sauce grabiche. This was the dish I was most looking forward to, I love a bit of black pudding and I was hoping for something special. The dish came out reeking of smoke, it boded well for the course as the smell wafted around the room. Unfortunately the flavours didn’t quite live up to the aromas, with the sauce and pudding lacking the the required flavour, a heavier dose of spice to the black pudding would have really lifted what was a reasonable dish.
Braised hogget, our main course, was full of flavour soft, tender and sweet, a touch over seasoned for my tastes but very well done. I was nice to have a slightly different meat than the usual suspects. The melt in the mouth bone marrow in the accompanying sauce punctuated the dish with delicate melting flavours. A greater amount of fennel would have brought a better balance to the dish, but we were all very happy with our mains.
Dessert consisted of a soft pistachio fondant, with sweet almost marzipan like texture, it was very good and the melted chocolate at the bottom of it made it all the better. It came with a white chocolate sorbet that was nice, but very sweet. Every time in my life when I’ve had sorbet I’ve always wished for ice cream, a good dose of animal fat to wrap everything up on your pallet is generally a good thing. Thus, although I did like the sorbet I think an ice cream would have lifted this dish.
On the whole the meal was well received, the the Scousetro Clubbers enjoyed the food served to them, the atmosphere was relaxed and friendly. I was disappointed, however, to find all our meal dishes on the main brasserie menu. The aim of Scousetro Club is to provide different food and I feel that the Malmaison didn’t embrace this to the full extent.
March 2012 Academy Restaurant
Posted: 02/02/2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Academy Restaurant, Cook, European cuisine, Liverpool, Liverpool Community College, Restaurant, Scousetro Club 2 Comments »
I’m very pleased to announce that Scousetro Club for March will take place at The Academy restaurant in the Liverpool community college. Set amidst the backdrop of Liverpool’s historic RopeWalks area, The restaurant is located in the college’s Duke Street facility. It offers a mouth-watering selection of both British and European cuisine ranging from contemporary combinations, to traditional favourites displaying a modern twist.
The Academy Restaurant is run by a dedicated team of staff, and highly motivated students who are developing professional skills ready for employment in the catering and hospitality industry. Dishes are expertly prepared using the highest quality, locally sourced ingredients by our young chefs of the future.
For the fantastic price of £21 Academy will be offering us a five course tasting menu.
Review
I was approaching the second Scousetro Club with some trepidation, the first event had been great fun and a success, but I was somewhat worried by beginners luck. Scousetro Club can certainly run as a one-off, but its continued success was and, in some ways, still is an unanswered question. However I was pleased with the number of bookings, twenty-eight of us took our seats, hoping the The Academy restaurants menu could live up to its promise and quite excellent price.
On arrival we had been greeted with glass of Denbies, an excellent english sparkling wine, and an interesting and tasty tipple. I’ve felt with both of these events that pre dinner drinks is always a bit more reserved than the meal, but once seats were taken with various mixed tables everyone seemed much more relaxed. Conversation was freely flowing as was the wine, which came from a matched wine list put together by Chris the food and beverage manager.
At this point I must apologise for the shonky photos, my main photographic technique involves hopefully waving my iPhone at a dish and seeing what comes back. Thus the following pics aren’t great, but hopefully will give you an idea of the food we had.
Three small lime scallops arrived with a chilli and melon salsa, soft and sweet if ever so slightly over done (I’m really being very picky). A pleasant sharpness from the lime and melon accompanied by a light touch of chilli made for a good dish. It’s all too easy, as I’ve seen so many times before, to over do the chilli and loose the scallop but this was the faintest of background notes.
Second course, the spiced dahl soup was fragrant, warm and comforting as with the first course the level of spicing was excellent neither overpowering or disappearing. Tasty little spinach tortellini punctuated the dish with flavour and the smoked ham parfait added texture and a hint of ham as it broke down amongst the soup.
Next up was a confit salmon and pea puree with poached egg, this dish lacked the same attention to detail as the previous courses, with the fish being a bit dry and over cooked. I thought it also lacked a touch of balance, with the peas being too heavy and over powering. It was beautifully presented, but needed greater care and attention with regards to cooking.
The main course, was perfectly cooked aromatic duck breast, soft and pink in the centre, accompanied by a lovely fondant slice and glazed onions and a not so good pear. To be fair the pear was nicely cooked, but for a dish that relies on rich, meat and juicy flavours I found the pear too watery and it washed the other flavours away.
Our dessert was a mango and white chocolate parfait, some Scousetro Club members thought it was not set enough there was a bit a variance between plates, mine was fine but others were melting much more quickly. Served with a lovely roast plum, crunch tuile biscuit and a beautiful vanilla syrup, it was a delight and probably my favourite dish of the night. However I have quite a sweet tooth.
At the end of the evening everyone was full of praise for the work put in by Chris and the team. The most popular dishes being the dahl soup and the duck. Everyone left happy and we are all looking forward to next months Scousetro Club.
Scousetro Club February 2012
Posted: 15/12/2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Food, Liverpool, Lunya, Scousetro Club, Spanish cuisine 4 Comments »
The first ever Scousetro Club, hosted by the fantastic Lunya, was a huge success, with over thirty people in attendance, the restaurant team ran a really excellent night. The menu, which can be seen below, offered very good food that was also challenging. The accompanying wine package offered suitable choices for all and service throughout was excellent. For a first event this couldn’t have been better, good food and a great atmosphere, it doesn’t get better than this.
I was very pleased with Lunya’s menu, for a very reasonable price, it offered lovely food, but more importantly it was challenging. Certain ingredients such as the Presa Iberica or cockerl crest were new to many of the guests. Our first dish of red tuna sashimi was a simple presentation of very high quality and very fresh fish. Simple classic combinations and a great start to the meal.
‘Flavours of the Sea’ our second course was a real challenge, beautiful ingredients such a fresh lobster and smoked anchovy combined with beetroot gazpacho, liquorice foam, caviar and orange jelly. I really loved the foam and gazpacho as a combination that paired beautifully with the sea food, the orange jelly was a bit of a shock to me. I’m not sure if the combination of salty seafood and orange work for me, but it was a dish that got everyone talking.
Cockerel crest with langoustine risotto, was another interesting plate of food, the confit cockerel crest, was so very soft almost meltingly so, carrying delicate chicken flavour. The langoustine made an excellent combination, a form of surf and turf, although a few of us felt the risotto was a bit too punchy for such delicate ingredients.
The main course, presa iberica was, for me, the stand out dish of the night, primarily for the stand out quality and originality of the meat. Presa iberica is the muscle from the back of the Iberico pig’s neck, due to the foraging nature of the pigs it is well developed with a deep red colour and fat marbling. At first glance it could easily be confused with steak, indeed if I hadn’t known it was a pork I may not have spotted it. It was richer than a normal pork but still with an underlying pokiness. Seared and served medium rare with an olive oil emulsion it was beautiful, top marks for originality.
Our dessert was the dish that perhaps didn’t quite live up to the rest of the menu, a dense sweet rum sponge was very good but the banana on top wasn’t caramelised enough, leaving the whole dish too firm. A larger serving of the chocolate ganache and white chocolate sauce would also have benefited this plate of food.
Judging from the feedback everyone had a great time, meeting new people with an interest in food and trying interesting and challenging food made for a great evening. I would like to thank Peter and the team at Lunya once again for all their work and also all the guest for trying something new and really helping with such a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
Welcome to Scousetro Club
Posted: 28/11/2011 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment »
I started Scousetro Club after being inspired by the Manchester Gastro Club, the idea of getting together with fellow food lovers and experiencing adventurous meals had a very strong appeal. I feel that Liverpool has a really great collection of restaurants, the chance to work with them to bring exciting and challenging meals to city was something I couldn’t resist.
Im currently working with our first venue, hoping to finalise the menu very soon, I’m also in discussion with several other establishments for future events. Our first evening will run during the first week of February 2012, with Christmas fast approaching and the dreary January, where everyone feels fat and skint due to holiday excesses, I felt February would be an ideal time to start. I hope to announce the menu in the coming week, which will allow plenty of time for people to book places.
This blog will be regularly updated with information about past and future evenings, including full menus and write ups of each meal. You can subscribe to the blog by email, in the top righthand corner, or follow our RSS feed we also have an accompanying twitter account @scousetroclub.
I’m really looking forward to what Scousetro Club will offer in the coming year, and I hope to see you keen food lovers there.
Sid
