"We went here for dinner to celebrate our wedding anniversary, having heard good things. We had been looking forwards to trying it since moving to the local area a few months ago. The evening started well the waitress was friendly, prompt, and efficient, and we were seated at a nice table upstairs. We both ordered the 2 course option from the main menu: slow braised venison for the main and chocolate ‘oblivion’ for dessert. When we were ordering, we asked the waitress about the portion sizes, and she said that they were decent, and that one set of truffle and parmesan chips to share alongside the mains should be enough for both of us, as the venison came with mashed potato. When the mains arrived, we noticed that the portion size was on the small side – what we’d expect for a starter, rather than a main. The venison dish featured venison cooked two ways on the bone and venison sausage. The accompaniments celeriac puree, smoked bacon, caramelised shallot, and jus were very nice. The venison on the bone was lovely; however, with only three mouthfuls of meat (the rest being bone and gristle tendon , there just wasn’t enough of it! Especially as I found the venison sausage quite offensive and couldn't finish it. On the plate there was no mashed potato – we checked the menu again afterwards and confirmed that it was celeriac puree. For the waitress to confuse celeriac for potato is poor form. The serving size of the chips was on the small size (as with the main and we felt that we’d been forced into paying £5 extra for a side, over and above the £42 price for two courses, because there was no carb on the plate. We were still hungry after the main but hoped that the chocolate ‘oblivion’ for dessert would be a decent size. The mint choc chip ice cream was delicious very minty and the dish came with a lovely crunchy dark chocolate tuile. However, the chocolate cake was poor – dense and heavy, with no observable leavening agent, it was one step above having a block of solid chocolate on the plate. The dark chocolate sauce that accompanied the dish was sickly and overpowering, given the dark chocolate cake and dark chocolate tuile. Chocolate oblivion indeed – not in a good way! For drinks, I had a glass of wine (New Zealand Pinot Noir , which was lovely, but my husband was disappointed with his pineapple and rum cocktail – very heavy on the rum and soda water, with barely any pineapple. For £10 we expected better. The bill came to just over £120. We felt short changed and finished the meal wanting. The portion sizes were stingy – during the meal we both joked that when we got home, we would be raiding the Christmas supply of cheese and crackers to fill ourselves up! There’s a problem when the trimmings on the plate the celeriac puree, bacon, shallot and jus in the case of the main, and the ice cream and tuile in the case of the dessert – outshine what should be the main stars of each course (the venison and the cake ! We settled the bill and left without saying anything mean to the staff, but we were both so disappointed. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so let down by a meal. Not the way I wanted to celebrate our anniversary at all, although it did give us plenty to talk about on the way home! We wished we’d gone to the Henry Potts or to the Architect in the centre of Chester instead – both are excellent, with fantastic bistro style food and generous main portions (in the case of the Henry Potts, I've never had enough room left to make it through to ordering dessert! . Eating out at either is much better value for money and a more satisfying dining out experience. Needless to say, we won’t be going back to the Sticky Walnut again."
