I finally got my latest huge technical report finished earlier this week, and took a day’s leave today to unwind and relax. I decided to treat myself to lunch out at a new restaurant that has recently opened in Malvern – The Terrace on the Hill. By day it’s a cafe/brasserie serving light lunches, and on Friday and Saturday evenings it metamorphoses into a fine dining restaurant with a Michelin-starred chef serving a 7-course tasting menu. I’m sure that Christopher would have loved that, but it’s hardly the sort of thing I’m going to indulge in on my own. I was however curious to see what the restaurant was like, so I thought I’d give lunch a go.
My first impressions were very favourable. It’s a small restaurant with not much more than a dozen tables. It’s been very tastefully done up with comfortable seats and good quality furnishings. There’s some sofas in the window for people who just want coffee and cake, and I was pleased to see that newspapers were provided. When I’m dining on my own, I do like to have something to read so that I don’t feel so self-conscious about eating solo. I’d taken the precaution of putting a book in my handbag, but didn’t need to resort to it.
The menu I found was surprisingly limited. Three soups, three salads, a small selection of pasta dishes, and some upmarket all-day brunches. It also heavily featured smoked haddock, an ingredient which I positively loathe. There wasn’t actually very much that I fancied eating, which was disappointing. I settled on the Eggs Benedict which were very good, but made a very light lunch indeed. So light in fact that I had plenty of room for a dessert, from their selection of freshly-baked tarts and cakes. I chose a pear tart, with gorgeously crisp pastry and a side order of clotted cream.
It was a pleasant and very reasonably-priced lunch in comfortable and friendly surroundings. However, I’m not sure that I’ll become a regular unless they significantly change the lunch menu – it just wasn’t interesting or varied enough for me. I would be interested in trying their fine-dining tasting menu, but I think I’ll have to talk my sister and brother-in-law into coming over for a visit to make that viable!
