Entertainments | Restaurant Reviews | Fanshawe's, Market Place, Warwick
Ever walked into a restaurant and felt like you’ve stepped into someone’s front room?
Chances are the immediate impulse is to try and sidle out the door before the host spots you!
Enter Fanshawe’s and the aforementioned panic sets in. But the comparisons with culinary hell end here.
Husband-and-wife team David and Sue Fanshawe have created an atmosphere of charm rather than cheese.
David cooks while Sue runs the customer care side of a very slick operation.
And judging by the rate at which Fanshawe’s becomes fully booked, it’s clear the couple have created the sort of treasured eating experience diners return to time and time again.
Selections were made from the reasonably priced prix fixe menu (£16 per head for three courses, with an extra £1 for credit card payments).
Most tastes are catered for, including an unusually high number of vegetarian dishes, which my better half couldn’t resist.
She chose a giant pancake crammed full of succulent peppers, courgettes and aubergines covered with a generous portion of tomato and basil sauce for her main course, preceded by melon with red grapefruit sorbet.
Fruity
Having slung the diet out the window for the night, I selected a pasta bake with stilton and bacon for starters, followed by the pork, which also came with a quaint apple dumpling.
This was merrily washed down with a mellow bottle of Argentinean red - a 1995 Trapide Malbec.
I know pork demanded a fruity white, but the rule book was tossed aside for just one night.
Although I was tempted to the point of salivation by a dessert item involving the near Satanic mixture of biscuit, peanut butter cream cheesecake and a layer of chocolate, I started hallucinating pictures of Weight Watchers’ books and resisted.
Showing no compassion, however, my wife tucked into a pear and almond tart with franzipan and creme fraiche with all the vigour of someone on the point of starvation. Divorce papers are being filed as we speak!
Coffee and chocolates followed, the latter also bypassing my bulging eyes and gaping jaw.
Service was slick, the background music and decor a little dated, but Fanshawe’s isn’t geared to the trendy market.
It is definitely the place to go for a relaxing, peaceful dinner date with your loved one. As for my wife, she just tagged along!
Rating: 4/5
