Tasting Menu at Purslane Restaurant Cheltenham

The first Thursday of every month sees Purslane Restaurant in Cheltenham host their 'Taste' evening. For £45 per person, customers are able to take a tour of some of the options on the A La Carte menu, sampling five seasonal dishes plus a few added extras.

Despite always recommending Purslane, it had been ages since we'd actually eaten there ourselves (shamefully it was their special Lobster Night back in August 2014!). Armed with some vouchers given to us by Father Christmas, The Chap and I were very excited to be going along to the March event. 

With just a handful of tables, Purslane is an intimate space, though with decent lighting - none of that so low you can barely see what you're eating stuff here - and a tasteful grey and lemon yellow colour palette, there's a more friendly neighbourhood restaurant vibe about it. And being instantly greeted by the bubbly Parisian manager Stephanie, you get this impression as soon as you walk through the door. Coats are hung up, you're shown to your table, given menus to peruse, and relax; you know you're going to be well looked after.

Although the menu has a strong focus on seafood - all their fish are caught in Cornwall and served up the very next day - there are meaty dishes and veggie options too. The kitchen prides itself on sourcing as much as possible from nearby suppliers - vegetables from Vale of Evesham, an abundance of local cheeses and rare breed meats from the Cotswold Hills - and chef Gareth Fulford sure knows how to get the best flavours out of each and every one of them.

We began with homemade breads, taramasalata and seaweed butter. I'd remembered that their bread selection was good last time, and here we had slices of sourdough, treacly soda bread and a fennel seed roll. Serving seaweed butter instead of the straight up kind was a nice twist (and a good nautical nod); it had a fresh "green" flavour to it, whilst still having the saltiness you require from your classic bread 'n' butter.

The taramasalata was a dream too; not the blancmange pink kind you'd normally find in shops, instead, a desperately pale salmon colour, jujjed up with a pinch of paprika. Paired with a glass of Champagne, we were off to a fine start.

Our amuse bouche was an oyster, topped with saucisson and a green apple granita. I've had oysters in many forms, but none quite like this. Pork and apple, apple and shellfish, citrus and oyster; it all just worked, and kind of set precedence to our official first course.

Pressed suckling pig, black pudding, langoustine, celeriac and pickled pear. Although sounding quite hefty with double pig, it was wonderfully delicate and the langoustine wasn't overpowered. The creamy ribbons of celeriac and the sweet-sour pear kept it light, whilst the crackling added a welcome texture.

Our fish course was John Dory, monk's beard, sea kale, wild garlic and spaetzle. Monk's beard is all the rage right now; similar to samphire, but a lot less salty, I've seen it crop up in fish dishes all over town. And I'm sure that every chef is happy about the fact that wild garlic is just coming into its bountiful season too! Including it in this dish, along with the sea kale, made it like a foraged feast from both land and sea.

Of course, those were just counterparts to the beautiful fillet of fish and the buttery spaetzle (little noodle-cum-dumpling-kind-of-things - The Chap and I tried making them once...we don't talk about it now). With fish as their forte, it came as no surprise that this was a highlight, and Stephanie's pairing of un-oaked Chardonnay was a cracking choice.

Wye Valley duck, breast and croustillant, heritage carrots and chicory was our main course. Not only did it look incredible with pops of bright yellow carrot puree against its sultry orange, brown and green tones, but every mouthful was equally a joy to eat. The tender pink strips of duck draped themselves over the chicory - like a drunk uncle at a family wedding - being propped up by the more sturdy croustillant (confit duck in a crisp casing).

What we notice is that whilst we had root veg galore, there was no starchy-carb-overkill, which would have easily seen us roll home. And that's what I find so great about a tasting menu; restaurants aren't out to fill you up in three over-portioned courses, they want to excite and tease your tastebuds with a number of delicious dishes, leaving you feeling satisfied not sick!

Our wine match for the duck was a Fleurie, which was full of red berries and spice, and it had just the right balance of tannins and acidity in order to lift the dish rather than overcomplicate it.

Yorkshire rhubarb, white chocolate delice and rose meringue was our pre-dessert, paired with a tawny port. The rhubarb came in four ways - jelly, ice cream, poached and puréed - a sea of pink and cream in contrast to the black plate; it looked amazing. Sweet and creamy vs. cold and tart, harmonised by the strong floral crunch of the meringue. Out of all the options on Purslane's A La Carte dessert menu, this is the one I'd have picked, and The Chap said he preferred it to our final course too!

Hazelnut fondant, malt ice cream, salted caramel and milk stout jelly. Fondants are more often than not in some sort of chocolate form; get them right and they're great, get them wrong and they're unsalvageable. As a lover of hazelnuts, but not of Nutella, this really appealed to me - and it didn't disappoint!

Cutting into it, its lava-like liquid centre oozed out onto the plate, putting the toasty ice cream, bitter jelly and the tongue tingling salty caramel in their places. This is a dessert that means business, and with the spirity heat of a glass of Amaretto, Purslane's Tasting Menu ended on a high.

Tea, coffee and petit fours followed (after a much needed break I hasten to add), and The Chap and I both said that this was the best meal we'd had out in 2016 so far! Fresh and clean flavours, put together with flair and imagination; I'm annoyed at myself for not returning sooner.

The next Taste on Thursday is April 7th priced at £45 per person - you can view the menu here. The Tasting Menu is also available on Friday and Saturday evenings throughout the month, priced at £55 per person, and the accompanying wine flight - 2 glasses of fizz, a white, a red and two dessert wines/spirit - is £35; quite a bit cheaper than some of the other fine dining restaurants in Cheltenham!

Just make sure you book before visiting Purslane, having only 12 tables you don't want to be turned away!

KIBOUsushi via Deliveroo Cheltenham

Do you remember me telling you about Deliveroo Cheltenham's expansion at the end of last year? After spreading themselves further across Cheltenham, and adding a number of new cafés and restaurants, they ran a Christmas themed competition to get people talking about them… And talk about them they did.

Hypocritically, despite writing about Deliveroo's #SpotaSanta Campaign, I'd never actually used the service before - terrible, I know. But with a new account set up (along with a little thank you credit), I took the plunge.

Having to decide what to order in one restaurant alone is bad enough for someone like me, but with the Deliveroo App you have up to 27 menus at your fingertips at any one time! Luckily The Chap and I were on the same page, and it was only ever going to be KIBOUsushi.

I was given free reign with the ordering, with the only stipulation being that Chicken Katsu Curry had to be on the list. Picking out a few faves, and impulse clicking a couple of random dishes, our order was processed, and the countdown began.

On the app, like some sort of backwards sat-nav, we watched as our Deliveroo driver left the restaurant and headed over to our house. Peering out of the window in excitement, there he was! In just over half an hour, for a small delivery fee of £2.50, we were feasting like kings.

First up, Pork Gyozas (£5.70) - a personal fave - the chewy dumplings, with a crisp base, were tightly packed with fragrant pork mince, and came with an addictive vinegary dipping sauce. Another starter, Takoyaki (£5.95), was a first for the both of us; five deep fried batter balls with octopus in the centre, dressed with a Japanese-esque mayo and ginger. I don't think I've had anything quite like it before. I imagine they might be even better straight out of the kitchen at the restaurant, but nevertheless the bitesized spongy spheres will always be a must from now on.

We thought that eating the hot food first would probably be the best option, seeing as sushi isn't going to spoil if it hangs around for a while, so next we attacked the Chicken Katsu Curry (£13.95). It's not a something that I'd choose for myself - it's all a bit beige - but I do like the salty-sweet curry sauce,... And the fact that it's essentially a giant sliced up chicken nugget with rice.

With the volume of food we ordered, sharing a main course dish was definitely the right thing to do. Crunchy breadcrumbs encased the juicy white flesh, and there was more than enough sauce (which came in its own little tub) to coat every piece of chicken. I think it's the zip of acidity that I often miss in Japanese cuisine, but by pouring our leftover gyoza dipping sauce over the rice, it really hit the spot. I should say that The Chap was perfectly happy without my adjustments though.  

A variety platter - Jo Moriawase (£14.25) - is a good way to try a few types of sushi without committing to one particular roll. Our 12 pieces comprised of 4 slices of sashimi (2 salmon and 2 tuna), 4 nigiri (squid, prawn, salmon and tuna), and 4 California rolls (I'm pretty sure the menu said eel, though my photo looks more like seabass). Pickled ginger, sachets of wasabi and soy sauce accompany all of KIBOU's take out sushi too. Apply too much wasabi at your own risk!

As an off-the-cuff-pick, we had Ikura Gunkan (£5.50); 2 pieces of oval shaped sushi, wrapped in a strip of nori and generously topped with pearls of salmon roe. The Chap wasn't too convinced, he found it a bit too salty, but I thought it was a welcome alternative to the other things we had. Not only did the rolls look luxurious, but with the delicate salmon roe bursting in your mouth, they felt pretty extravagant too.

8 pieces of Spicy Tuna Iso (£8.95) were our final sushi choice, probably because we're a little obsessed with raw tuna, though feeling a little full we grazed our way through them whilst watching crap Saturday Night TV and sipping Champagne... Fizz goes very well with sushi by the way! And speaking of drinks, I noticed that you can order beers from KIBOUsushi via Deliveroo - yay - but their amazing Plum Wine isn't available *cries*. Maybe one day... Hint hint.

Although I'd generally prefer to go out to restaurants to eat, when it's blowing a gale and pissing it down outside, or when you're feeling under the weather and are quite content in your pjs, I can see that this is where Deliveroo comes into its own. I'm betting that hangovers are quite a popular reason for people using the service too, and with that in mind, I'm already eyeing up the menus for the next time I've had a heavy night!

Cheers Deliveroo & KIBOUsushi for giving me a little slice of Japan in the comfort of my own home.