I’ve been living in South Wales for over 15 years, to be honest Chepstow is not exactly the culinary centre of the world. But, we do have Bristol just 25 minutes away, with a reputation for independent operators and great start ups. Bristol is our go to place for all things food and shopping, there’s a lot of choice and every cuisine is catered for.
For my birthday we planned a night away in Birmingham, with a stay at the Hotel Du Vin. I was REALLY keen to visit The Grand on Colmore Row and see it’s refurbishment. It must be twenty years since my last visit when I was a food sales rep, charming my way around the midlands selling fine foods for a company called Larderfresh. Although I dealt with pretty much every premium location, The Grand evaded me, I think it was part of a group we weren’t nominated for, or maybe the chef just didn’t want to see me. His loss! Larderfresh was a terrific, forward thinking food supplier, ahead of it’s time with an excellent reputation.
To start with we had not been able to book a table at Isaac’s, rather frustratingly, but as people that don’t give in easily we managed to secure one on the day. A charming smile and a friendly conversation and our name was on the list!
We started with cocktails in Madeleine’s. The atmosphere was excellent, the decor stunning, definitely the coolest place in town right now. The cocktails were interesting, great quality, a perfect start to the night.
Isaac’s was not very busy, I think because they were soft opening, but it was a lovely space, brasserie style and I can imagine it would be super on a busy night.
The fresh Cod I ordered was stunning quality, perfectly cooked and big creamy white flakes. My husband had the burger, which he said was one of the best he has had in ages! The star were the sides, perfectly seasoned fries and the cornbread was to die for. In fact we had that in a doggy bag and devoured it the next morning!
The real highlight of the whole visit was the team. They were friendly, personable and a real pleasure to meet. Special shout outs go to Malwina for looking after us with a genuine smile. Cocktails in Isaac’s were prepared by the highly knowledgeable Fabio, who was keen to mix something to delight us. Ben kept the whole thing together and is everything a true hospitality front of house person should be.
Will we go again? Definitely. Next time we won’t go out for lunch first, so we can eat more food!
Thank you to the team at The Grand for making my birthday a real occasion. I will be recommending it far and wide as the coolest place in town.
