Disappointing Monday

Mr W was away working on Monday so missed out on going to the Lime Tree with my Dad and his girlfriend.  I was so looking forward to it, I love the Lime Tree - it's always been my favourite restaurant in Manchester.  Unfortunately it disappointed this time.

My Dad is a regular there and had received an email about a special evening which featured meat from the Lime Tree's small holding in Cheshire so decided to invite us.  He will be coming here for Christmas so it was his way of doing something for us.

I only remembered to take a photo of the starter - mussels marinere.  They were full of grit and very unpleasant, but my Dad didn't want to cause a fuss so I kept schtum.  I would have liked to have complained they were that bad, there is nothing worse than crunching down on sand and grit.  Terribly disappointing!

For main course I chose cassoulet.  It came as a bed of beans with chorizo with a small duck leg, sausage (claimed to be Toulouse but was more like a Lincolnshire which I'm not a big fan of) and a piece of pork belly.  I coud not find one bit of meat in the pork belly, it was all fat :(  I could honestly have done better myself which is not what I expect from such a normally first rate establishment.

Thankfully the sticky toffee pudding with ice cream and spun sugar was fabulous as ever.  I may go back now and give them another chance thanks to the pudding - that was their saving grace. 

Shame though, this is the only bad meal I've ever had there and it has made me wonder whether it might be going downhill.  Hopefully not!