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'If I could clone Sticky Walnut, I would. I'd plonk its like the length of the land, replacing every Frankie & Benny's and La Tasca and Café bloody Rouge'
I have no time for people who slag off Twitter, chaps who intone, as David Cameron did, that "Twitter is for twats", fancying this to be exquisite wit. Me, I love it. Apart from the odd salvo of abuse from keyboard warriors – usually "your writings crap", swiftly followed by "are u single?" – it has been nothing but a blessing, a rich source of info that I'd never otherwise have unearthed, especially the discovery of restaurants not trailed by big PR budgets.
Sticky Walnut in Hoole came to my attention not via its swaths of slavering local reviews, but by its chef/owner Gary Usher's gung-ho way with a tweet. His, um, robust ripostes to the kind of numpty who likes to say "the lady wife and I" on Tripadvisor quickly went viral among industry types, and I remember tweeting "Like his style". The response was an unexpected one: "Please don't travel to eat here," he typed, "it's just a bistro"; and "we are not worth 400 mile trip".
Well, bubba, sorry, but that's the reddest of rags to this here Taurean. So hello there, Gary. *waves * Turns out I love your restaurant, sorry, bistro. I love its informality and warmth, the friendly butcher's-aproned staff and the walls covered with menus and the bookshelves lined with cookery books and the rickety wooden tables and chairs. I love that the wine we order is one we last enjoyed in swanky Forte dei Marmi. And, yes, I love the food, from the cushiony, oily herb focaccia to the lemon tart whose progress Usher tweets like a proud papa: it's exactly the sort of thing you'd like to eat any day of the week, any time of the day.
There are sticky walnuts – of course – candied and served with beetroot that tastes as though it has been slowly confit-ed, a sultry Lollobrigida of a root; crunch comes from toasted pumpkin seeds and delicacy from little puffs of fresh ricotta. The dish is nothing new, nothing to make one gasp and stretch one's eyes, but it's beautiful. At the risk of coming over a bit Partridge, the chicken liver pâté is textbook. They're not afraid of a cheap cut or a dod of offal: lamb's tongue is crumbed, fried until crisp and split to reveal its rosy, liverish interior, the gaminess piqued by chermoula and soothed by goat's curd and a smoky chickpea puree.
Everyone is doing truffle and parmesan chips. (I think it was Jamie who started it, and Usher has worked in Jamie's Italian, as well as the altogether more luminous Chez Bruce: you can detect both their influences – Oliver's knockabout brio and Poole's virtuoso technique.) These are wonderful: dark-crusted, as if fried in animal fat, the interior fluffy and truffly – workaday luxury. They come with slow-cooked, sapid, sticky beef shin that's almost too intensely beefy until you scoop it up with a dollop of mollifying white onion puree. But the clincher is pork, the sweetest cheeks I've eaten, fat melted through for almost spoonable meat. It's nudged by little butternut croquettes, bonbons of deep-fried pleasure; scattered on top, a minuscule dice of apple, nut and dried fruit with a bracing acidity – cider vinegar, perhaps. There's fillet, too, served medium-rare, a bravery permitted by the quality of the pig. Where does it come from? Our lovely server goes off to ask chef. The answer: "The butcher round the corner."
If I could clone Sticky Walnut, I would. I'd plonk its like the length of the land, replacing every Frankie & Benny's and La Tasca and Café bloody Rouge. I'm beyond glad I ignored Usher's instruction to stay away. But I can understand why he wouldn't want the likes of me sticking my nose in, trailing a wake of metropolitan plate-sniffing "foodies" all ready to be underwhelmed, all peering in local estate agents', muttering, "They call it Notting Hoole, you know?" and disenfranchising the current happy, normal clientele. Sorry, Gary. Couldn't help myself. Tweet me, yeah?
• Sticky Walnut 11 Charles Street, Hoole, Chester, Cheshire, 01244 400400. Open lunch, Mon-Sun, noon-3pm (2pm Fri and Sat), dinner Mon-Sat, 6-10pm. About £35 a head for three courses plus drinks and service.
Food 8/10
Atmosphere 7/10
Value for money 8/10
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