Friday 28 October 2016

EATING OUT: Opera Grill Chester

After a nice day out to Wales a couple of weeks ago to see some family, I was getting pretty hungry on the way home! Hubs suggested that we should try this new place on the way back in Chester called the Opera Grill. Apparently it's part of the Club Individual brand (you know, Piccolinos peeps) so I thought why not? I love a bit of Piccolinos now and again, how bad can it be!


First impressions were pretty good to be honest. I didn't venture upstairs but it all looked very nicely done. We were sat on on the ground floor near the entrance in a booth area so pretty comfy too.



I went for a little mooch around the restaurant downstairs so I could take some pictures for you of the bar and the kitchen. It all looked very impressive - loving all the white marble especially!








So, as you can see this place is pretty nice. Then came what I feared the most though, the food! I know that sounds a little bit weird, but if you have been reading my blog posts recently, you have probably heard me go on about these 'uber cool' places with the 'artsy' food and the 'fancy pants' people - you get my drift right? Well, I was gutted to say this was one of those places. Don't get me wrong, I love a cool venue with all the cool cats and some tasty, arty style food - but only when the food is good! When it's not, it's so depressing... well, maybe not depressing but it's a bit of a let down - especially when the food is pretty expensive! It was also one of those places where their menu is globe trotting all over the world, selling anything that's cool but doesn't really go together. As in Japanese sashimi along side barley risotto? It was all a bit random! It's like a world fusion cuisine ha ha!


This was the teriyaki salmon. Covered in sauce with even more on the side. It was unfortunately cooked to an inch of it's life and was quite dry inside - I was disappointed - it was £17! Normally I wouldn't mind spending this kind of price on a piece of fish that's cooked to perfection, but unfortunately this was not! :(


Chargrilled asparagus that when you took it off the skewer it was as limp as a wet rag! 


This was the salmon tiradito. This was actually quite nice finally! Kind of like salmon sashimi but with an acid style dressing. It tasted quite vinegary but it was quite refreshing as it was so cold.


Prawn tempura with a rather thick and heavy batter, it was ok - nothing to really write home about.



Ooh, this was the fattoush salad. This was actually quite nice as well, it didn't help though that we had the best fattoush salad ever around a week ago in Dubai though! Too much spring onion for me, but I can imagine that most people would like it.


Beef skewers too. I obviously didn't try these but hubs said they were quite nice. A bit on the chewy side but good.

Listen, this place is pretty nice. One of those places that I'm sure is good for a drinky poo's with some friends but it wasn't amazing. I wouldn't normally write a bad review and to be fair this isn't. I just found as beautiful as this place is, the standard of the food wasn't worth the money. I can understand the prices, but only if the food is up to a good standard, otherwise it just becomes rather disappointing and another restaurant I would have to write off as a 'nice bar'.
If you're out and about in Chester, are dolled up to the nines (hubs and I were not ha ha!) maybe give it a shot. For me though, it wasn't up to par for that kind of price. We had a bottle of water to share and one juice and with the food it came in at around £65 for the two of us. I will let you decide, if it were me though, I'd step across the road to Piccolinos, sometimes it's better the devil you know!

Thanks so much for reading,

Big love,


Em x









Share:

No comments

Post a Comment

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required
© FOOD | LIFE | + em | All rights reserved.
Blogger Template Crafted by pipdig