The Clockspire opened its doors in 2019 much to the delight of the local, and even the not so local, as its reputation grew. Being welcomed at the door by the smartly dressed, super polite maitre d' and shown to our seats, either in the cocktail bar upstairs or straight to the restaurent is important to us, and signifies the beginning of, what we hope will be a wonderful experience. The ambiance is always perfect here, with an eclectic mix of jazz playing in the background, although there is perhaps a little more of a buzz in the main dining room where we were seated, but thats very much personal taste. So, although not having the financial rescources to call ourselves 'regulars' we would probably have called ourselves monthly visitors until we had a disappointing meal some time last year (although this was dealt with admirably by the manager!). However, we looked out of the window on Sunday morning and it looked and felt, just like January often does; cold, dark and miserable and we felt in severe need of a fillip. So we decided to book Sunday lunch at the Clockspire and although 4 O'Clock is not necessarily everyone elses definition of lunchtime, it suits our Sunday routine nicely.
We were met at the door by name, pleasantries exchanged, coats accomodated, and ushered to our table. The set menu at £45 for three courses had plenty enough to offer us, and both of us chose the smoked mackerel, beetroot, wasabi and seaweed cracker (although I have a strong suspicion that that wasnt exactly what we were served as there was a delicious mayo accompanying the dish and no sign of wasabi) which was absolutely delicious!
For our main course we chose differently; I had the roast pork loin, yorkshire pudding and every vegatable known to man, whereas Vicky had the smoked fish agnolotti, roast fenel, orange and a shellfish sauce which had her purring! The pork was mostly tender and well cooked, vegatables were perfect, but unfortunately much of the fat wasn't rendered down and the crackling, well, didnt crackle which spoilt it a little, but it was never the less very enjoyable.
For dessert, we often share, we had one pannetone bread and butter pudding with vanilla custard and then some local cheeses, both of which were fabulous! The meal was brought to a close with coffee and a couple of home made petits fours (or petits twos in this case). The cost including wine was about £150 for the two of us, which although quite expensive, we felt it was pretty good value for money and certainly worth it, to give us that necessary psychological boost to last us until the end of this dreary month!
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