Solo Review

Opened in November 2021 in the village of Aughton near Ormskirk, Solo is the latest restaurant from multi award winning chef Tim Allen. Having been awarded a Michelin Guide listing in February 2022, a precious star followed a year later as well as rave reviews from the press and regular punters alike. Having never eaten Tim's food before, I was very much looking forward to giving it a try as I rocked up for dinner with my wife, on a warm Friday evening in August.

The restaurant name as you might be aware is technically sō-lō, but I think our website would break if we tried to update it to that. I know everyone loves to be original and personally I don't care at all what a restaurant calls itself, but it does seem like a little bit of a marketing faux pas to me; if you go on the Michelin website for example and search for "Solo", the restaurant doesn't come up.

I booked online a few months in advance which had been pretty painless; there's a £30 per person deposit requirement which I have no problem with at all. There was also the option to select the wine flight in advance which I would have done but their booking system wanted me to pay the full £60 up front for that which I wasn't keen on doing given how far in advance I was booking. I suspect that's more a limitation of the booking system than a conscious decision by the restaurant, and I knew there would be no issue selecting the wine flight on the night.

We drove in so it was good to see a decent sized car park behind the restaurant, which is always handy. After making our way inside, the welcome on arrival was perfectly friendly and we were shown to our table in a corner of the dining room. It's a nice relaxed space; decor is a really subjective thing but it's a perfectly inoffensive place to enjoy a meal. Some parts are maybe looking a touch tired for a restaurant of this standard; my wife had a good view of the open kitchen but I couldn't help noticing the flaking paint in the corner I was facing and the overgrown planters outside (they've gone for the wildflower option, lucky bees). I did also bang my arm on a radiator a couple of times that was very close to the table, but fortunately it wasn't on with it being summer.

We were the first in the restaurant and it turned out to be a quiet evening with only four tables in for the duration of our visit (the restaurant did inform me afterwards they've actually had a very busy August, which is great to hear, and it was just an unusually quiet Friday). I have no issue with quiet restaurants in general, but it did make a few things stand out during the evening I perhaps wouldn't have noticed otherwise.

Firstly another table of two arrived shortly after as us and the gentleman on that table was genuinely on his mobile phone (quite loudly) for around twenty minutes in the middle of the restaurant; a lot of restaurants would have said something, although I can understand why they didn't here and I don't have an issue with that. Then further into service there were numerous very audible comments from the staff to the kitchen about various customers (including us), it was nothing malicious I'm sure but people nowadays can be very sensitive. My experience of top restaurants is universally now (particularly in this era of open kitchens) that they wisely take the decision it's better to not just say anything that could be construed as negative in earshot of paying guests.

On offer at dinner is a single tasting menu with an optional cheese course. Drinks wise, there's a decent selection with all the main bases covered; I had a gin and tonic to start which was fine, whilst my wife tried a non-alcoholic cocktail which she enjoyed also. There's a solid wine list but I went for the matching wine flight with my meal.

The first issue of the meal for me came right at the start; normally when you're offered an aperitif you comfortably have time to drink it with your pre-dinner nibbles and snacks before the meal begins, and that's what I was expecting here (and we certainly weren't given any indication otherwise). But I'd literally had a sip of my G&T and the first wine from the wine flight arrived on the table; it wasn't poured at the table unfortunately, or I might have asked the gentleman who delivered it to wait a bit.

I have to be honest, that irked me quite a lot. First of all, I would have expected a tasting menu at this price level to come with something pre-meal other than just some bread (the bread was nice though), I genuinely can't remember the last time I was offered an aperitif and that didn't happen, and I've eaten a lot of tasting menus. Secondly, our waiter didn't tell us this would happen or give us the chance to wait for the first course. Sure, I have been to places that move you straight into the menu when you arrive, but they don't really offer you an aperitif first for this very reason. One thing to add is I understand from the restaurant pre-meal snacks are coming as part of a future menu, that just hadn't happened in time for my visit unfortunately.

Dinner began promptly with a dish of mackerel, served cold on a granita with cucumber, dill, gooseberry, oyster emulsion and some caviar on top to boot. I was really impressed by this dish; I think in my time I've eaten more bad mackerel dishes than I have good, it's not an easy fish to elevate in my experience, but this was a delicious fresh plate that I'd happily eat again at any time.

Next up was a scallop, with a pea based sauce, onions and tomatoes. I love scallops in general but I'm fairly pernickety about the cooking as often they can be delivered a tiny bit over or a tiny bit under (even in really good restaurants), but that was absolutely not the case here. The scallop cooking was spot on and the dish as a whole was delicious again and ate really well.

An enjoyable spiced cauliflower dish followed but I was glad to see some meat on the menu after that in the form of a plate of hogget, courgette and a "Gentleman's Relish". It was another delicious dish, the lamb cooking was again spot on and the flavours overall really worked well together.

We had the optional cheese course next (and there was no problem with my wife and I sharing a plate) which was probably a bit better than I'd been expecting to be honest; there was a good varied selection of cheeses and all the accompaniments (including crackers and fruit loaf) were very tasty also.

First of the desserts was Sugar Loaf pineapple, served with mango, yoghurt mousse and finger lime. I really enjoyed this, it was summer in a bowl really and I'd happily eat that dish again any time. The last course of the evening was raspberries on a sable breton base with chocolate. This was nice but for me not quite at the same level as the other dishes on the menu (although my wife enjoyed it). I think I would have preferred the dish with strawberries rather than raspberries, and the restaurant did inform me later that is indeed how it's usually served, there had just been an issue with their strawberry supply that particular week (so I think I was just a bit unlucky there).

And so, a very enjoyable dinner came to an end. The star of the show here is unquestionably the food which was of a high standard throughout. The menu pacing was also spot on for me which is always one of the hardest things to get right for a tasting menu (although granted, the restaurant was fairly quiet for our visit as I mentioned earlier).

The wine pairings were interesting and explained well, but not poured at the table as I much prefer. This is certainly not the first high end restaurant I've been to that takes that approach, but the majority of top restaurants do pour wine at the table in my experience, and for me it really adds to the experience and shows a little bit more skill in delivery. I always liken it to if you ordered a bottle of wine and the restaurant didn't pour your first glass it in front of you, it would feel a bit odd, and for me the same principle applies to wine flights. I also wasn't offered a glass of anything to go alongside the cheese course (and the cheese board was whisked away before I could ask) which is normally an easy upsell for a restaurant, and I would have said yes to this for sure.

Service on the whole though was fine, the only real issues were at the start of the meal as I alluded to previously and then right at the end. We ordered coffee and tea (which was accompanied by a couple of tasty chocolate petit fours) but were then abandoned for an absolutely inordinate amount of time. Despite a lot of time trying to make eye contact with someone, after around forty-five minutes I had to get up and request the bill, which I don't like having to do.

Value wise I thought the pricing was fair; there are certainly many far more expensive 1* restaurants out there but at the same time, there are still many 1* venues offering sub-£90 dinner menus, even in these post-COVID times. The automatically included 10% service charge is about as low as you'll find anywhere nowadays, and I did realise quite a long time after the meal that the restaurant hadn't charged us for the opening drinks also, which admittedly does compensate a bit for not having time to drink them before the meal started.

Overall, although there were a couple of issues on the evening of our visit, my wife and I had a very enjoyable dinner and I have no problem proclaiming Solo is a top class restaurant. I wish the team continued success and look forward to visiting again in the not too distant future.