Bisque On a Plate

How often do you make a beeline for a hotel restaurant, excluding the times you’re in Strangetown for annual conference? I’m guessing the answer is rarely. The need for the menu and ambience to appease all usually results in excitement for few, although occasionally there are exceptions. Bisque on Bolton is one of these.

A staircase beckons would-be diners up to the mezzanine dining room from the bustling ground-floor lobby. A series of well-spaced tables lie in wait, dressed in crisp white linen and adorned with classy tableware. Colourful artwork softens the edges of what is essentially a conservative, rather formal environment, and within minutes we’ve met of all three of today’s wait staff. Can I take your coat, madam? Are you here for Wellington On a Plate? Can I get you some water? The crew is giving off the unmistakable air of pride in their work, and that works wonders for whetting one’s appetite.

If the starter was anything to go by, we were in for a treat. A smoked hoki rissole with watercress salad, topped with a poached egg, easily reached the upper echelon of the fishcake division. Sundering the egg with a fork, a lahar of yolk oozed out, pooling into the herbed olive oil at the bottom of the bowl and thus making the perfect sauce for the sweet, smoky fish.

Attention pricked, we progressed to the Fare Game Burger, and groper with lobster bisque risotto. The burger hammed things up, pushing the boundaries of the form but remaining the best we’ve tried so far (read more here). By now up to risotto # 5 in one week, the fish dish needed to work hard to wow us, and this it did. Not only was the fish fresh and expertly cooked, and the risotto rich and lobsterish (or is that crayfishy?), it came with a vibrant fruity relish that added the crucial elements of balance and surprise.

For afters: Kapiti brie, crostini and dessert olives – the latter being the lure. Soaked in sugar syrup, the olives had relinquished their astringency but retained some of their natural flavour; we likened them to a savoury preserved cherry. Strange but interesting, these were the best thing on the plate, the cheese displaying little of the creaminess or fungal characteristic that make a fine brie. The crostini had little to add except the taste of oil.

This is the second enjoyable meal we’ve had at Bisque, a hotel restaurant enjoying a deserved reputation as a destination in itself.