I still recall the roasted lobster sausage with citrus jelly and the clever and creative version of hot cross buns. I noted at the time these were both Michelin star dishes, probably two star.

“If you’re excursioning over the weekend and had put a walk on the Edge in the diary, then this would sort you out for a cracking lunch or dinner.”

Problem was for the Alderley Edge Hotel that residents, certainly if staying for a while, would sometimes baulk at the prices and the richness of the fine dining. Instead they’d tumble down into the main village where a gaggle of grillhouses sang like sirens with songs of simpler food.

The Alderley has put that right with a cracking brasserie menu of good value and great flavours.

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Alderly Edge

Oh to be in Cheshire now that spring is sprung: Nodding daffodils, wine bars, stirring walks through beech woods, fine Victorian houses and linen and keys. ( And for that matter, oh to be in Cheshire now that spring is sprung, and one of the perks of the jobs dictates that you get to stay over to road test one of the reader deals).

But linen and keys, what am I on about?

Well the Alderley Edge Hotel ties with the Lowry Hotel for the best presented tables in the region. It wins on the charm front at the point of bedroom entry, by proudly sporting old-fashioned jangly keys. The bedrooms behind are cute and folksy and include a mightily well-stocked bar, a great little bathroom and all the usual internet links and so forth.

Those in north facing rooms get an uninterrupted view across the whole of Greater Manchester to the West Pennines 15 miles away. Beetham Tower and the city centre’s mini Las Angeles profile is very clear. At night when the street-lights come on it’s perhaps even more impressive. Humbling to think that contained in that view is the whole of Greater Manchester’s 2.5m population.

You can read the full review here.

In the vast desert of culinary mediocrity in which discerning food lovers too often find themselves today, there is still at least one oasis of excellence and good taste (in both sense of the phrase) to be found in Cheshire.

The Alderley Edge Restaurant at Alderley Edge Hotel stand apart as a bastion of fine dining.

Here is one establishment that has not succumbed to a menu where average food blends with above average prices, it’s not the sort of place where having paid up a wallet squeezing bill you wish you’d stayed at home.

To read the full review click here.

Steeped in heritage and tradition, the recent refurbishment to the lounge bar and restaurant brings the venue up to date and ahead of its local counterparts. Contemporary yet comfortable and stylishly decorated, the warm tones of beige mixed with baroque-style wallpaper and chandeliers, compliment the mix of aged-antiqued furniture and contemporary pieces.

A mix of light bites and drinks are served in the lounge. The moorish nibbles on offer include delicious home-baked sugar and yoghurt coated peas. The restaurant is set in a light and airy conservatory, serving both the a la carte and lounge menus.

To read the full review click here.

I was invited to Alderley Edge Hotel to take a look at the changes they’ve made lately to the decor and layout in their bar and dining area. Always elegant, it was perhaps looking a little dated, and the steps up and down to the restaurant placed limitations on diners and presented waiters with challenges.

To read the full review click here.

And ‘The Alderley Restaurant’ in Cheshire is the only new three-rosette eatery between Birmingham and Edinburgh in the latest round of newly announced top food accolades.

It places head chef Chris Holland’s team alongside famous London restaurants like Marco Pierre White’s ‘L’Escargot’, Michele Roux’s ‘Le Gavroche’, and ‘Gordon Ramsay at Claridges’.

The AA’s hotel services group area manager, Giovanna Grossi, praised Chris’s “innovative touches along with his creative use of flavours – resulting in top notch cuisine.”

The restaurant was also commended for its ‘imaginative menus’ and use of local produce.

The move from two to three rosettes is, said Chris, “a tremendous reward for a lot of hard work. I’m lucky to have a committed team of people who have all contributed to creating food that just doesn’t exist elsewhere.

“Our main aim has always been to provide our customers with the most exciting food we can achieve but to be acknowledged by the hard-to-please AA judges really is the icing on a very nice cake.”

For the Alderley Edge Hotel’s general manager, Ahmet Kurcer, the rosettes are recognition for his policy of encouraging ‘home-grown’ staff. Chris Holland is a Greater Manchester-born chef and his team are drawn from the surrounding area.

“It’s not unusual for restaurants to grow their own ingredients – and we grow our own herbs in the gardens behind the hotel – but we also ‘grow’ our own staff,” he says. “We give them opportunities, nurture their professional growth and now we can harvest the fruits of their talent.

“Chris has been with us for 12 years and was appointed head chef four years ago. In that time he has become an outstanding chef who has raised the bar for fine food menus. His signature dishes take traditional British classics and give them an often extravagant twist that uses textures and releases flavours to improve the original.”

AA rosettes are awarded twice a year in recognition of “exceptional standards of cuisine”. Three rosettes, says the AA, “takes a restaurant into the big league. Expectations of the kitchen are high, exact technique, flair and imagination must come through in every dish, and balance and depth of flavour are all-important.”

Giovanna Grossi added: “Restaurants serving food of a three-rosette standard are worthy of recognition from well beyond their local area.”