For those of you who are time poor or very hungry and need to get to a restaurant fast, here’s my snap review; go to the Sticky Walnut, it’s fantastic!
For those of you who have a little more time on their hands or prefer a bit more substance to a restaurant review, here’s the blow by blow account of our lovely evening at this little gem of a restaurant;
We went on a Monday night for our anniversary and despite it being a Monday, the restaurant was bustling (but in a quite background noise kind of way, not shouting over your neighbouring table) which is always a good sign. Every 6 weeks (ish), they have guest chefs visiting as a result of owner Gary’s substantial list of industry buddies and contacts (the last visitors were from Tom Kerridge’s Hand and Flowers). This particular week was the turn of Joshie Kitson from 64 Degrees in Brighton. They ran a fixed 4 course menu with half the guest chef’s dishes and half the Sticky Walnut’s dishes at a very reasonable (when you consider the work that goes into each dish) £50 per head.
Jess looked after us for the evening and was brilliant at recommending some wine pairings for us. They do good old fashioned ‘small’ glasses of wine which allowed me to try different wines with each course, further enhancing the beautiful food.
Each dish was an absolute corker and I couldn’t separate out who’s was who’s (guest chef or house dish) which bodes well for when we go back on a normal night. I was very pleased when Fregola transpired to be giant cous cous with the lamb after mis-spelling it in a Google search, I was worried it was going to be with strawberries! Fregola will definitely be making making an appearance in my store cupboard now.
The rummy gummy bears to finish were a brilliant bit of fun to end the meal and showed that despite demonstrating some serious technique and effort in all the dishes, that the Sticky Walnut doesn’t take itself too seriously.
I’d highly recommend this restaurant to anyone who enjoys fine food and good service without over the top pomp that can sometimes come with this standard of food; well done the Sticky Walnut for delivering a down to earth but delightful experience!
Date of visit: September 2015
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