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Tuesday 12 May 2015

Anniversary at Allium Brasserie

Last month we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. Some of you know this has been a particularly difficult first year of marriage for us. Fighting off the big C for Rich has been more draining than we could imagine, but with hopefully the worst over we are starting to look forward to the years to come.  Postponing our honeymoon is one of the first things we did so in the next 12-24 months we hope to be able to see Italy as planned and eat many of the delicious foods it has to offer. For our first anniversary we booked a meal at Allium Brasserie, run by head chef Chris Staines, in Bath because I'd heard such great things.

Sure enough the weather was really sunny when we arrived and we were a touch early so we headed to the Artbar for a drink. The bar is really beautifully decorated and feels pretty cosy. They have a fairly large cocktail menu as well as the usual stuff. I decided on the gingerbread mule whilst Rich went for a bourbon. Please go and try the gingerbread mule if you find yourself in Bath and passing Allium, they have a nice outdoor seating area and everything, it's the best cocktail I've had in a long time. Hugely refreshing and light, full of gingery goodness you will not regret it.

Once our table was ready we were led into the dining area and handed some menus. The dining room is quite eclectically decorated, part modern part abandoned chateau, I'm not entirely sold on the salmon pink walls but they sort of go with all the gold curtains. Allium do set menu deals for lunch and from 5.30 - 7pm, two courses for £17.50 or three for £23. As we were booked in after 7 we went straight to the ala carte menu. Sipping our glasses of fizz we decided to share some olives and some crab and prawn croquettes with aioli plus we each ordered a 28 day aged black Angus rib eye steak for our main which came with triple cooked chips and beer battered onion rings.
Crab and prawn croquettes
prawn and crab croquettes with aioli
Allium Brasserie Bath

Allium Brasserie Bath

Those crab and prawn croquettes melted in the mouth and went splendidly with the creamy aioli. A perfect little appetiser before our mains.  The steaks arrived along with a glass of red wine each. It was a healthy portion that sat before us. The meat was perfectly cooked and melted in the mouth, right up there with some of the best steaks I've had. The chips were crunchy yet fluffy and well salted, basically what you want from a triple cooked chip. The onion marmalade went very well with the meat.

Personally I found the raw onion in the salad a bit much with onion rings and onion marmalade, but that is just my taste. The onion rings were golden brown and had the crispness longed for in a good onion ring. It was a very tasty and indulgent meal. We didn't have quite enough room for a full dessert so we decided to order a selection of sweet things to go with our after dinner coffee and tea.
Allium Brasserie Bath

In addition, because it was our anniversary, they brought us out a wonderful chocolate mini cake to take home, which was so light and delicious it had to be chiffon or genoise sponge, a touchingly sweet end to a fantastic meal. We will definitely be back to try more of the menu. to find out more about what Allium has to offer visit their website. Allium is a great contribution to the Bath food scene so definitely check it out, if not just for that gingerbread mule cocktail.

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