The Hillbark, on Wirral

[MaLO]

I booked a Friday lunch here a few weeks back – before the changes. We did contemplate not going.

We decided to go. Glad we did. The food was good.

We ate

Breads as before. Very nice.

Amuse of duck consommé and other ducky bits including a sliver of cured breast, liver mousse and tiny diced duck. The consommé was really very good, clear, glossy, slightly gelatinous and deeply flavourful. Very good.

Starters

Foie gras with chestnut veloute and chestnuts. Very similar to the smoked foie, parmesan veloute preparation. Nicely seared liver, caramelised, hot, but still firm. The chestnut veloute was a bit sharp, good, but a bit much towards the end.

Scallops with pumpkin risotto was also nice. Three sliced scallops with a rich, tasty pool of risotto. Almost Milanese in appearance. Vivid, colourful and tasty.

Mains

Plaice with red wine and ricotta dumplings. They were described as ravioli but there was no pasta, gnocchi I would suggest, tasty if slightly doughy. There was also some pickled cabbage. Plaice, for me is a bit like Pollock; a bit rubbish. This was actually good. Presentation helped and the little I had was fine.

I choose middlewhite pork. Seared then oak smoked fillet came with some fatty belly, baby artichokes, something porky breaded and fried and apple. If you like smoked stuff then it is great. If you don’t then you are buggered. I do, so I was happy enough.

Pre dessert was earl grey panna cotta, lemon jelly topped with some thick foamy stuff.

We took one of each dessert.

Chocolate crème brulee, chestnut sponge, candied chestnuts and two very smooth quenelles of vanilla and chestnut ice cream.

The second was a play on lemon meringue. Lemon parfait with soft meringue, crisp shards of meringue. A little lemon thyme rice pudding / risotto was slightly savoury but as a whole it was rather good.

It was very good. For £23ish it is still well worth a look.

There was a restaurant manager I had not seen on the couple of visits made when Aiden was chef. There will also be dinner on Saturdays when they re open in January.

Edited December 11, 2010 by MaLO (log)

[sped98]

My god ...how slow am i ???? Ive only found out that Hillbark closed...Tragic , was one of lifes memorable meals.

So onwards and upwards i suppose....Collingwood , any pics ??? any menus ??? Would be interesting to see what Aiden`s doing.

[MaLO]

I went back for lunch last week.

The food remains very good.

£23 lunch bought starters of salomon with purple potatoes and a warm pork terrine. Mains of poached turbot with asparaugs or lamb with morels. We took one of each starter, a turbot each and split a lamb. Very nice too.

Desserts were the lemon parfait with merangue and a little rice pudding I had previously and a rhubarb and panna cotta thing. Very nice.

The ingredients and the cooking all very good.

We were the only diners. A shame really as there is no where (with the exception of fraiche) for miles in any direction that you can eat this well. Still definatly worth a look if you are in the area.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29225248@N06/

[david goodfellow]

Food sounds and looks the part, as appealing as our last visit.

Clearly working all those years with Aiden, Stuart Warner and Jenny Thoden are top class.

Since Aiden has now severed ties with the Hillbark should this now be called Stuart Warner at The Hillbark? Just a thought.

Edited April 22, 2011 by david goodfellow (log)

[MacD]

I'm confused - in February, Sped said the Hilbark had closed down - is it still open? Also, has anyone been to the Collingwood?

[david goodfellow]

Its still very much open. It never closed Here's the Website.

They do a roaring trade as a specialist wedding venue and I guess as this is now the wedding season, busy, busy, busy.

Only the fine dining side changed when Aiden Byrne left. However his highly talented former team have taken over I'm very pleased to report.

Not been the Collingwood, but have a feeling MaLo may have been. If I find anything on the forum, will let you know.

[MaLO]

The hillbark didnt close - Aiden left but as David mentioned the team he had cooking with him (for quite some time) remained. Very tallentedt they are too.

I have eaten a few meals at the collingwood. Its not bad. The bar food is good - the fine dining side is pretty good too, and will probably get better when the kitchen team are all up to speed. One visit was not so good, possibly down to the absence of Aiden one evening. Perhaps the moderator can change the title to Stuart Warner at The Hillbark...

[Struts]

David you must have been in possession of a crystal ball! The fine dining room at the Hillbark hotel is now Stewart Warner at Hillbark.

I visited Saturday night as part of a party of four. We arrived up the very impressive driveway to the oppulent looking hotel where one of their ubiquotous weddings was in full swing. As we approached the doors the FOH manager welcomed us and led us into the bar where we were kindly offered a glass of bubbly. Canapes of smoked pork crackling and grilled tiny Morecambe bay shrimps were served with an apple and thyme sauce and accompanied by a smoked fennel soup. We were advised that chef had just developed a summer tasting menu, how could we refuse.

The summer tasting menu consisted of:

Cucumber soup, langoustines and creme fraiche

Mackrel, Heritage tomato, nasturtium and black olive salad

Terrine of Foie Gras with gooseberry, brioche and sweet wine

Poached Brill with cockles, baby artichokes and broad beans

Kid and crayfish with St George mushrooms and peas

Blacksticks blue with apricots and amaretti buscuits

Sweetcorn pannacotta and caramel popcorn

Summer berry consomme, pistachio cake and goats cheese sorbet

Apart from the Cucumber soup, we all felt that the combination of dishes got better and better. The brill and kid were superbly crafted and hats off to chef for the kid haggis! Service from the FOH was very attentive and they even calculated in a break between courses so we could enjoy the fireworks arranged for the wedding taking place elsewhere in the hotel. We also had the opportunity to meet Stewart and he discussed the current menu, including how he and Jenny Thoden (sous chef and partner) came up with the idea of the surprising and excellent sweetcorn panacotta... the converstaions they must have at home!!

We really have splurged recently in top places in London, Edinburgh and Birmingham and I am happy to report that on the quality of this meal Stewart and Jenny are a class act and I hope more people will come to the Hillbark and ensure that they are not enticed away to the bright lights, and can challenge Marc Wilkinson at Fraiche, Aiden Byrne at Collingwood and continue to strengthen the Wirrals growing rep for food.

[david goodfellow]

I love those pair. Not spoken to Jenny but both are an unassuming couple, totally devoted to what they do. Heads down, delivering on the plate excellent, classy food.

Its clear they have inherited a huge amount of class from Aiden Byrne in much the same way Aiden inherited the same, when he was Tom Aikens head chef. Long may this perpetuate. You can see Aidens style in the dishes, but what shines more than anything else is the depth of flavour in each dish. In time Stewart will develop his own style but rest assured big flavours will be top of the list.

I feel a visit is on the cards.

[david goodfellow]

Well, those of you that have been following this thread know that Aiden Byrne left here virtually the same week of our only visit. He was not in the kitchen on the day that we dined, but we were most impressed with what was presented on the table by his head chef Stewart Warner, and partner Jenny Thoden. Since then of course the reports above have echoed our feelings. So another visit was much relished.

Firstly we can understand why this spot is so very popular as a wedding venue. Its fabulous and classy, and of course that comes with a price tag. So dad's, lock up your daughter's, because if they ever visit here they will not want to get married elsewhere. So the venue will be more than memorable to both of you for perhaps different reasons.

We chose a tasting menu of sorts, but unusually for tasting menu's we chose on purpose, different dishes off the carte plus a few additions as amuse and pre dessert. Which meant of course alas that we had different dishes, but I really wanted to showcase photo wise what exactly was on offer.

Now then, I have been seduced by many different things in life. Art, wildlife, landscape, the opposite sex, and of course food. And as I get older, food porn is now perhaps top of my list now. I'm a sucker for a pretty plate of food. So I was in my element with this meal.

We started with an amuse of various titbits as follows Deep fried morels, Cod brandade in violet potato crisps, Lemongrass marinated and grilled shrimp, fennel gazpacho, and a selection of nuts, popcorn and potato chips. (phew)

Bread was excellent, with a choice of three. Plain white, a black olive tapenade, and a seeded. Some unsalted butter to the front with sea salt if you wish to add.

First up proper was a silky smooth Foie gras terrine with gooseberry and sweet wine.

An excellent summers soup next Langoustine, cucumber, creme fraiche, and caviar. Oh, and did I mention dill mousse?

Roasted and marinated scallops with confit lemon and radish salad. What a beautiful plate of food. Fresh as a daisy scallops, it ate ever so well.

Sardines, heritage tomato, black olive and nasturtium. The nasturtiums are actually from Stewart's garden at home. Its all held together with a tomato foam, some raw shallot and a crispy onion topping.

We had a fish course next Poached sea bass, baby artichoke, cockles and broad beans.

Meat next and a most welcome pork dish, which I was looking forward to.Middle white pork, grellot onions and fresh almonds.Stewart buys his pork as a whole or half beast and butchers it himself. His supplier provided the pork sausage in the dish which is coated in a grellot onion ash, which gives it a nicely charred flavour. The pink sauce by the way is a peach puree which is made leaving the skins on to gain extra colour.

Another very good looking and very tasty dish Hay baked saddle of rabbit with smoked bacon and butterhead lettuce.

There is lots going on in this dish. Some confit shoulder is in the lettuce. Three little squares of belly are layered with smoked bacon. I seem to think the saddle is stuffed with the liver and kidney. Plus there are three sauces of hay cream, lettuce, and rabbit jus. Yum, Yum.

Its cheese Jim, but not as we know it!

Blacksticks blue, amaretti, poached apricots.

A clever dish this, taking you from savoury to sweet. Note the line of amaretti biscuits. The cheese is coated in amaretti also, and the brown circle is a purree of amaretti. Pure heaven.

Pre dessert nextCaramelised popcorn, popcorn mousse, citrus jelly and sweetcorn panacotta. Wow and double wow.

Desserts next and the food was surprisingly light so we were not struggling, and still had a bit of room left. Remember of course we had different courses each.

carrot cake, cream cheese mousse with raisins and yogurt sorbet.

Summer berry consomme, pistachio and goats cheese sorbet., and dried raspberry crumbs.

Dark chocolate with hazelnuts and redcurrants.The chocolate is actually a layered cake of hazelnut praline smothered in rich chocolate sauce.

Well, what can I say, we simply can't believe how many courses we got through. The pictures surely tell the story of how good this meal was, easily comparable with some of the best we have eaten, and you know we do get about a bit. I have had to be a bit sketchy on the narrative because of the great number of photos and simply because I was enjoying the food so very much I did not take any notes.

We spoke to Stewart and Jenny after the meal to congratulate them on their achievement and it was a joy to meet such a charming and unassuming couple who work their socks off to please their customers.

I definitely must mention the charming Peter Fisher who looked after us admirably, and in my opinion he is head and shoulders above quite a lot of front of house that we have come across. We hope you enjoy looking at the excellent food and can savour some of the pleasure that we had eating it.

Ladies and gentlemen please give it up for a very happy Stewart and Jenny.

Naturally this place is a big, big recommend.

Happy eating.

[sped98]

Well that looks absolutely fantastic....and great news too.

Plates look a little too busy, too much going on and need a little refinement with a delicate touch.That will improve the aesthetics a lot.

The hillbark meal in the window seat with Aiden was one of the highlights of my culinary life,i struggle to think of a better meal ever, simply pure luxury , accurate cooking and a joy to eat.It was devastating when i found out he had gone from Hillbark but we also felt lucky that we were one of the "chosen few" who had experienced the dream.

As for the new team and set up , well all i can do is get myself down from Cumbria , camera in hand and try it myself...the food does look very classy , my cup of tea and i love Hillbark anyways so i should really get my backside down as soon as possible.

Pics are a definite improvement , youre raising the bar...well done.

Alan ( cumbriafoodie )

[sped98]

Im back again.... I was sat in a meeting at work and couldnt concentrate , had to come and look at those photos again.....yeah yeah yeah , so im a sad food obsessed person.

Im definitely thinking of doing a double...Hillbark and Fraiche as soon as i can fit it in. I went on to the Hillbark website , read up on Stewart , checked out the menus....WOW , they`re definitely my cup of tea.

Here`s a reminder from my last trip to Hillbark - Ohhhh it was good.

I shall return and blog , snap and eat to my hearts content

[Struts]

Thanks David for posting these photos, these are a great reminder of our own meal at Hillbark. In fact, just looking at the pictures reminds me that I need to get a table later this year for the autumn tasting menu.

But first things first, I will be heading down the M53 to visit Simon Radley at the Chester Grosvenor.

[Harters]

As you drive up to the Hillbark, you think “Wow. What a lovely well preserved Elizabethan house”. Then you realise it’s all fake. Built in the 1890s somewhere else, it was moved here in the 1920s. Even so, it must be a fantastic venue for the weddings that form the main part of the hotel’s business. But, frankly, we didn’t find it a fantastic venue for an upscale restaurant.

You take your aperitifs and canapés in the faux great hall, complete with faux minstrels gallery. It’s a large, cold, souless space, uncomfortably furnished and utterly devoid of any atmosphere. The dining room, furnished in faux Belle Epoque style, is almost as bad. Perhaps it’d be better on the nights when it’s busy (apparently Saturdays) but with only one other table occupied, it was just a dreary hotel dining room. We were almost thankful for the overly loud background music – although we managed to hear the Michael Buble CD three times.

However, and it is a big however, the food was absolutely faultless and the service was that good combination of being entirely professional, yet relaxed and friendly. Canapes were excellent – a shot glass of fennel soup, a cocktail stick kebab of lovely sweet grilled shrimp, a sardine brandade wrapped in a crisp, and a Kilner jar with smoked (and smoking) crackling.

Shrimp again cropped up in the delicate consommé which formed the amuse. And there was good bread – very good bread. For one starter, a couple of perfectly cooked scallops, a little slow cooked pork, sorrel and almonds provided interesting counterpoints. The other was quail – the breasts and legs served separately and I couldn’t resist picking up the legs to gnaw off every last scrap. Some smoked bacon, breaded squash and a smear of a mild goats cheese. Bang on for my sort of starter.

Mains were both in the style of meat cooked two ways – one long & slow and the other a quick fry. Piggy for me – middle white – the long & slow in the form of a slice of unctuous belly; the quick a delicious chop, just cooked through, with a thick layer of sweet fat and crackling that should provide a masterclass in the art of crackling production. There was also scattering of crisp chorizo and what was described as a “turnip choucroute”, pleasant enough in itself but, to me, lacking the sharpness that you might have expected and from which it would have benefitted. But this is nit-picking. Overall I was eating a superb plate of food.

Across the table, slices of medium rare fillet of longhorn beef. Well, of course, fillet isn’t going to be packed full of flavour, but the accompanying braised oxtail more than made up for it. Pearl barley seemed spot-on for a cold, wet autumn night. And there was roasted parsley root providing a clever garnish.

Up till now, dishes had been explained in meticulous detail. But pre-dessert was set down with the invitation to work out for ourselves what it was. Well, we worked out it was a caramelised sweetcorn pannacotta, topped with popcorn. And let’s say it was more interesting than enjoyable.

For desserts proper, chocolate mousse accompanied by a beetroot parfait. I liked this a lot – the sweet earthiness of the beet worked well with the richness of the chocolate. The other plate was slices of fig poached in red wine with accompaniments nicely leaning towards the Middle East with an almond sorbet and honey ice cream.

And we finished with coffee and really good petit fours.

There was good news and bad news on the wine front. The bad news is that there is nothing inexpensive on the list, nor are there any half bottles. The good news is that they will serve you a glass from any listed bottle for one third of the bottle price, so if there was something really interesting you wanted to try, it wouldn’t break the bank. But, even with restraint in my partner’s selection, her two glasses racked up twenty six quid.

And I can't leave the post without mentioning our chat with the restaurant manager afterwards. We'd commented on how quiet the place was and he replies that it's getting better known "We've had that David Goodfellow from egullet in, you know". I kid you not.

[david goodfellow]

Ah John, at last I'm famous. It sounds like all of 15 seconds worth.

I hope that you mentioned that you are egullets North West correspondent

Credit where credits due.

Glad you enjoyed the food, its certainly worth a journey. Have to agree a bit on the venue. It is a bit of an aquired taste. I bet there has been more than a few wild wedding nights at the place though.

Looking forward to my next visit now.

[Harters]

its certainly worth a journey.

We have a rule about non-celebratory restaurant trips. If TomTom says its 60 minutes or under, then it's in. Hillbark came in at 59. So glad it did - in spite of the dire surroundings.

[MaLO]

Had lunch here last week.

Started with a very tasty amuse of chilled wild garlic soup with rabbit bound in crème fraiche.

One of each starter.

Crab with nasturtiums came with fried crab croquettes, tempura nasturtium leaves and other bits and bobs making up a salad.

Cauliflower soup came with a side plate of good pata negra on thin toasted bread, some pickled vegetables and tiny tempura cauliflower.

We each took the poached Dover Sole with risotto and squid ink. This came garnished with diced fennel and squid.

We then took a plate of lamb rump with black garlic, broccoli and teriyaki.

One of each dessert.

Lemon parfait with basil and popping candy

Caramelised banana with chocolate mousse

Three courses are about £23 and it was a very nice lunch.