Everyone knows good quality ingredients, carefully sourced are vital for producing a delicious, top-notch meal.
Unfortunately, I don’t have time to go and choose the happy cow I want to eat or pick a selection of fresh herbs from a tranquil woodland.
To my shame I also never seem to find the time to visit a real butcher and watch as my steaks are hand cut to my exact requirements by a large smiling gentleman in an apron.
No, my quality sourcing involves going to a well-known high street store, wandering past the latest autumn fashions and filling my basket with whatever takes my fancy.
On certain weekends I can even get an entire roast dinner, for four, plus a bottle of wine for £15.
And the food is great.
Everything’s packaged simply with straight forward cooking instructions which always seem to be exactly right – even when I use my oven, which has two settings; inferno and off.
In fact the food is so good that if a restaurant or bar wants to entice people away from their own dining tables they have to provide something special.
One place that has been able to entice me away from my ready meals in the past, is The Faulkner in Hoole, Chester.
It is a place that has always seemed to hold its own and its décor was a familiar city cool, low lit, dark wood affair.
Recently though the place has been refurbished and the lights have been turned up.
My wife and I had been there a few times before the bar’s facelift, so went to test out their new menu.
I had one of their special burgers and my wife had the pie of the day, which was fish.
It was fine and tasty.
The food was well cooked, came in a timely fashion and the drinks we had were chilled and well stored.
The new décor doesn’t really seem to be one thing or the other – it’s not city chic and it’s not relaxed rustic.
The cost of the meal was certainly not expensive.
Would I go there again?
Yes, if friends came round and we didn’t want to walk into town.
The Bill:
Big Boy Burger £7.95
Pie of the day £6.95
Drinks £8.95