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.

You can download the menu here Scousetro at The Academy Restaurant

Booking for this event will take place entirely online, this is a new system for Scousetro Club, but one we will be implementing for all future events. To book a place you simply follow the link below which takes you to the payment page, once your payment has been received your places are confirmed. In the case of this event payment in full of £21 per person is required, this is due to the excellently prices menu offered by Academy restaurant.

We’re expecting this months event to by extremely popular, due to both the price and quality of menu on offer, thus please book early to avoid disappointment.

To book and pay for your tickets please click here

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.

Photos courtesy of Sara Barwell  you can read here full review here

Further photos by Helen Winslow

Related articles

• Introducing Scousetro Club (liverpoolfoodblog.co.uk)
• Welcome to Scousetro Club (thescousetroclub.wordpress.com)
• Lunch At Lunya (liverpoolrestaurants.wordpress.com)

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