As a vegetarian it’s easy to dismiss some where with ‘Grill’ in the tittle but I’ve tried a few places like this and been pleasantly surprised at the veggie options – Chalk being no exception.
Me and The Bloke chose to visit on a Friday because “Yay Friday!” where there was a live singer singing some classic pop ballads which added to the atmosphere, he also happened to be a friend of a friend – small world eh. I wasn’t really a fan of the minimalistic decor but the low lighting did give it a cozy feel.
They have a fantastic selection of cocktails, wines and spirits but I missed a trick by sharing a very nice bottle of Chardonnay with The Bloke and not ordering myself a cocktail!
For starters I ordered courgette fritters with sour cream and chive. The sauce went beautifully with the fritters which were crunchy on the outside and had a surprisingly creamy texture to the courgette. The portion size was large for a starter but I wasn’t complaining!
The Bloke had ‘some of the best mushroom soup’ that he’d had for a long time. Thick, tasty and creamy.
This is were things started to go a tad awry. Both pie and jacket potatoes are my go-to comfort foods but putting them together to make a meal? Still I thought I’d give it a go. The potato came with sour cream which the made the cheese in the pie taste overly sweet by comparison and the dressing on the salad (tangy and sweet) was yet another dimension of flavour which clashed with the others.
The pastry on the bottom of the pie had completely welded it’s self to the dish but the sides were beautifully light and tasty. The outside of the potato was so tough I couldn’t actually cut through it. I ordered chilli and garlic broccoli on the side to share which didn’t turn up so I had to flag down a waiter and ask after it. It then eventually arrived as I was half way through my main. We were so disappointed to find it utterly drowned in some kind of sesame oil with no explanation as to why.
Compared to the huge amount of food included in my main The Bloke got a rather small souffle with one mushroom, salad and skinny fries. He was very glad there were fries and said that they complimented the dish well and that the souffle tasted lovely. I think he just wished it was larger and not surrounded by so much salad – so I shared some of my pie with him.
This is my ‘posh snickers’ desert which did not remotely disappoint! Dark chocolate logs with a snickery filling (yes that’s a thing now), caramel ice cream, peanuts and burnt sugar. Personally I would have preferred some sweet milk chocolate in there if we are being true to the real snickers but I love salty sweet combinations so I really enjoyed this. I was so full after my main but somehow managed to clear my desert slate completely, heehee.
Overall…
Our experience was a bit of a hit and miss affaire which, when it was good it was very good and when it was bad it was really quite disapointing. Something that I also noticed was that we really had to make eye-contact along with a big smile to get the attention of the wait staff as they whizzed by and the usual little head nod just didn’t work.
Would I come here again?
There is just so much high quality competition in the Didsbury area I’m already spoilt for choice which has a great influence on my decision. If I’m being honest (as always) I’d visit again if I was with a lot of meat eaters but otherwise I’m not quite sure.
We were kindly invited to review Chalk and did not have to pay for our food and drink.
Chrissie xx
Vamp It Up 