Last month 3 of us went to the Chronicle to celebrate a friend’s birthday. The Chronicle is a new restaurant in Exmouth which sells food similar to that which you might find in a decent gastro pub. Prices are reasonable and the chef prepares the food herself. This is genuinely a family run restaurant. There is the chef, Kathy and her partner Ricardo and that’s it. Both of them were friendly and they made us feel welcome.
For starters Debbie and myself had a cold starter of Smoked Trout served with pickled onions and Celeriac. Martin and Roy had the soup of the day which was Celeriac and apple soup. The soup was good and thick. Our starter was a generous portion with plenty of trout. The starters came with brown bread and home made warm soda bread. For Main I was undecided. I wanted scallops with black pudding mash and leaks and also rather fancied the pork seared in cider with potatoes gratin and cabbage. I had fish for my starter so the pork won. The potatoes were really nice and creamy and the cabbage was till crispy.
Debbie had the duck which had plenty of meat on it. Roy had chicken and Martin had a pasta dish with minced pork and beef.
All the dishes were fresh. Martin didn’t have a pudding. Roy and myself had chocolate not together pudding which was a chocolate sponge with clotted cream and chocolate sauce in separate pots. This was very pleasant but not as exciting as I would have thought. Debbie had cheese and biscuits and the portion was huge. It came with brie,, Devon blue cheese and cheddar with plenty of water biscuits, celery, pickled onion, gherkins and walnuts, grapes and apple slices. There was loads of it and my only criticism was that there was only rather boring water biscuits. A variety would have been nice.
After our meal Debbie got chatting with Kathy the chef who was happy to discuss the way she cooked dishes such as the soup which was particularly thick and warming. Ricardo was also a friendly talkative front of house person. This restaurant is perhaps a little off the main drag and it has a lot of competition. I see that it has some very good reviews on trip advisor and I wish them well. The website is
http://www.chronicalrestaurant.co.uk
On this page it says the restaurant is open at lunch time. For the time being at least this is not true and they should correct this. This restaurant would certainly not be out of place in any city in the UK and I hope it succeeds. I give it 9 out of 10 and would certainly visit it if you are in the area. My only criticisms were the slightly boring chocolate pudding and the lack of a biscuit choice but these really are minor points.
Graham Page
Mobile: 07753 607980
Fax: 0870 706 2773
Email: gpage@useit.plus.com
MSN: gabriel_mcbird@hotmail.com
Skype: gabriel_mcbird
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