Brown Sunday

After a long but fabulous day yesterday eating and drinking and travelling in such style we fancied a relaxed and easy Sunday lunch. Somewhere local and not too much like a Harvester! We opted for Brown's in Hazel Grove, which also enabled an essential familial visit.
Brown's was all decked out in well... brown. Their chairs had brown suedette covers and the banquettes were chocolate brown leather(ette!) and the whole place had a slight touch of Disney meets medieval, with a distressed look to the dungeon effect doors. M thought the place desperately needed doing up, I think it had just been done up and this was their desired effect. Hmm, I wonder who was right?

The food was better than we expected, there was a special Sunday menu with roast beef and all the trimmings being the main option but they were other interesting choices. M plumped for the Thai Crab Cake, I was pleased when I saw the tomato and the coriander that I'd gone for Homemade Leek and Potato Soup instead. My main was Pan-fried Pork Steak, French Mustard, Cognac and Cream and M choose the Salmon which came with more yet tomato. Clearly my tomato-da is working very well! The vegetables were Oven Roasted New Potatoes with Rosemary, Carrots, Broccoli and Ratatouille. The eating of the vegetables mainly fell to me and M limits herself to a floret, a baton or two and a single new potato. They were tasty apart from the ratatouille, which I eschewed (tomato again!). We both finished with a beautifully presented slice of Chocolate Fudge Cake. The chef was certainly enjoying putting the final flourishes to each dish and they favoured large, deep square plates to serve everything on.

The food wasn't bad, the pork was a little dry but that's all, the presentation may have had the edge over the food but it was an extremely pleasant Sunday lunch. The only thing that I found very odd is that no one asked is what we wanted to drink, either when we sat down or when they took our order. I kept thinking they would but not so, after the soup eventually asked for water but after another long pause I got a jug of tap. This was too chlorine-y for my tastes so I asked for a bottle. The oddest thing was when I attracted the waitress and asked for the bottle of water she said we were entitled to a glass of wine with our meal but at no stage had anyone asked what that wine should be or indeed whether we wanted an alternative. I was most perplexed, as I always understood that was how a restaurant made their money - via the drinks.

All in all a little odd but definitely not like a Harvester so a brown fork for them !