Sticky Walnut Review

It had been over eight years since my first visit to renowned Chester bistro Sticky Walnut; a fantastic experience I'd not forgotten. I'd visited again in 2016 and had another excellent meal (although I never got around to writing a review here) but I was definitely well overdue a return visit. Whilst returning from a family holiday in Wales, it seemed an ideal time to take a detour for lunch with my wife and two young children, on a warm October Wednesday.

There's still a reasonably priced pay and display car park a short two minute walk away which we made use of. The restaurant was empty on arrival (not at all unexpected for a late Wednesday lunch) but our welcome was warm and friendly and I'll say now, the service was absolutely faultless too for our entire meal.

Internally the restaurant is very much as I remember although I'm sure like the outside, it's had a lick of paint since my last visit. I still really like it; it's a great space to enjoy a meal. I have vague memories of whacking my head on a light on the way to the toilet on a previous visit, but there was no sign of any low hanging fluorescence this time, although it's possible I've just shrunk.

On offer at lunch is a full three course carte menu, a slightly shorter lunch menu (although some dishes are on both menus) and a short but always appreciated two course children's menu. The drinks selection isn't massive, but I was perfectly happy with a couple of Whitney Neil's gin and tonics during the meal, whilst my wife had a non-alcoholic gin cocktail with the kids enjoying strawberry lemonade and apple juice.

We ordered some focaccia for the table to start (like a lot of places now, the bread here isn't free) which was very good. Lunch proper began for me with the cod fishcake served on a korma sauce. It was an excellent dish, the fishcake was lovely and the sauce packed exactly the right level of heat for me. My wife very much enjoyed her beetroot and ricotta cheese salad which was neatly plated and tasted great. The kids went for the fish goujons and chips and chicken and chips which they very much enjoyed also; these were delivered with the starters with no fuss.

For mains, I opted for the roast cabbage stuffed with wild mushrooms. I'm not normally a vegetarian main kind of person, but this was again really nicely presented and really flavoursome. The combination of cabbage and mushroom was balanced well, and the accompanying garlic mash was equally tasty. My wife went for the sticky fried chicken which is genuinely one of the best tasting chicken dishes I've had at this level of restaurant in a long time; just delicious. It was a generous portion too which meant I got to sample a lot of it!

After two great courses there was little chance of us leaving without dessert, but this is sadly where things went a little bit downhill. The desserts didn't really sing on the menu as the starters and mains had, and the one dish that did appeal (the chocolate oblivion dessert) I'd had already at new Elite Bistros venture The White Horse only a few months earlier, so naturally I wanted to try something different.

Just as an aside on this, I know there was a covid-induced period of all the restaurants in the group serving effectively the same menu, but for me I always love to see the individuality of the team if possible and I think that's doubly important when the restaurants are physically not that far from each other. But hey, I'm sure other people might not agree with me there.

In the end, I went for the baked vanilla yoghurt, with my wife choosing the honeycomb ice cream and my daughter having the sticky toffee ice cream sundae. When they were served, all three desserts arrived in exactly the same type of vertical glass. For me, desserts in a two rosette level restaurant should show a bit of pizzaz and a bit of plating finesse; if you can't show that on a dessert, where can you? But there was none of that here, which was a real shame.

My baked vanilla yoghurt in a glass was topped with spiced apple compote and flavour wise it tasted OK (albeit a little dull), although the two accompanying cinnamon palmier's weren't executed very well. My wife's dessert followed a similar path, it tasted fine but wasn't very exciting. To be honest, they both felt like children's desserts really, although I should say we had no complaints about my daughter's sticky toffee sundae from the children's menu.

After receiving the bill (complete with ten percent service charge) with no fuss, that as they say was pretty much that. Overall, despite some dessert disappointment, we still thoroughly enjoyed our visit here. The savoury courses were top rate and the service throughout was excellent also. It can't be easy to keep standards high at the mothership whilst the Elite Bistros empire expands, particularly during these extremely challenging times in hospitality, but this is still by any standard a top restaurant, and I for one would be very happy to eat here again in future.