New look, new grill, new menu
The refurb of the restaurant at the Worsley Park Marriott has taken a while, it had started when I came last March and was still ongoing when we came with family at Easter. But now it’s finished and we popped in to check out The Grill In The Park for a midweek treat.*
Its been a big job transforming the hotel restaurant into something that will appeal to local residents as well as hotel guests and exec chef Tom Gardner has overhauled the menu.
The Grill In The Park takes it’s name from the fact that the kitchen has been redesigned around a brand new grill which caramelises the outside of food thanks to its 300c heat.
This is the ‘extension’ to the dining room which has always been bland compared to the rest, but it too has now been finished with some nice squishy seating to break it up.
It’s a big restaurant but the new look is quite cosy thanks to their use of wood and light colours.
It’s also a big menu- literally-but it is much more appealing to a wider market than in the past.
Our wonderful host for the night Alison was happy to share her recommendations and tell us about the refurb whilst we nibbled on fresh breads and delicious hummus and pesto dips. 
Before I go on, apologies for the purple hue. Everywhere seems to be installing lights that makes food look like it is in a Prince tribute act after dark.
To start I went with poached egg, asparagus and hollandaise. Basically I love eggs Benedict for breakfast so this was a dream for me. The egg was perfectly runny and thankfully there was bread left for me to mop up the sauce.
Andrew started with haddock risotto – and another poached egg. I don’t know, maybe we thought it was breakfast time! Really tasty and he liked the leeks, though we both thought that it was a little heavy on the black pepper.
We had to go from the grill options for our main courses- it would be rude not to. I knew Andrew would go for ribeye so I went for a pork steak.
Pork steak isn’t something I’d normally choose, but it was cooked really well, perfectly seasoned and was still nice and juicy in the middle. It came with a fried egg and we chose to share sweet potato fries.
The pork was lovely as it was served, but I had ordered a port and shallot sauce on the side. This is a game changer. It was like onion gravy’s sexy big brother! It would have been too sweet for Andrew’s beef steak, but it complimented the pork and fries perfectly. I’ve been looking at recipes to recreate it at home and have with sausage and mash.
The ribeye steak was 35 day aged, and again nicely seasoned and sealed- and the new grill really gives a great balance of charred outside and juicy through the middle. It was obviously a good quality cut as well which is always the most important factor.
Looking around, I would definitely go for mash next time as I saw creamy mounds of it being delivered to diners around me. The buttermilk chicken, also cooked on the grill, looked like a good choice. So that’s next time sorted…
Come pudding, my brain was saying nooooo, but my greed was saying hell yeah. We decided to share a pecan pie because to the best of my memory I do t think I’ve had one before. To quote Agent Cooper it was a damn good pie. It was late and the pie was a sweet smack in the face. But in a good way. The filling was like treacle tart piled high with nuts. It was awesome.
We’ve enjoyed lots of Sunday lunches over the years at this restaurant, and Alison assured me that the popular Sunday carvery option hasn’t gone anywhere. But now I have somewhere quite close we can nip to for a quality meat feast when the need strikes.
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SHE LOVES: great food practically on my door step.
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The Grill In The Park. Worsley Park Marriott Hotel. M28 2QT
* PR invite
pin it for dinner
