In the spotlight: Purslane, Cheltenham

Location: 16 Rodney Road, Cheltenham, GL50 1JJ

Contact: Facebook | Website | 01242 321639

What: If you like seafood, you’ll love the Purslane Restaurant in the heart of Cheltenham. Combining the freshest, sustainably-caught British seafood with the very best local produce to be found in the Cotswolds, it offers the perfect pairing of land and sea.

Experience: 

Chef, Gareth Fulford is from a family of butchers, but his passion for produce of the sea shines through. His menu is a real homage to diversity of the fabulous fish to be found along the British coastline. From the use of lesser known fish such as gurnard and silver mullet, to the ever-popular fish like cod and hake; Purslane is a seafood showcase.

Interestingly though, fish are not the only stars of the show. Seasonal, artisan and rare breed produce from the surrounding Cotswolds region play a major supporting role. All of which led a friend and I to go there recently for her birthday to try out the Early Supper menu.

Early Supper Menu

The Early Supper menu at Purslane is just £15 for two-courses and £18 for three-courses (served Tuesday to Thursday from 6pm-7:30pm), so is not only fantastic value, but with their promise to serve two-courses in under an hour is a great pre-theatre option for anyone with tickets for a show at the nearby Everyman and Playhouse Theatres.

Our starters of Label Anglais Chicken and wild garlic kiev with purple sprouting broccoli, were an immediate hit. In most people’s minds, chicken kiev is a dish of the 1970’s, but this dish whilst true to tradition in its basis, was delicate and modern. Cutting into the chicken released an unctuous flow of delightfully garlicy butter that gently spilled out onto the plate. The breaded chicken was moist and perfectly cooked; the broccoli firm and flavoursome.

For mains, we chose land again with the Old Spot pork fillet, black pudding, roast Jersey Royals and asparagus. Plus we simply couldn’t resist side portions of triple-cooked chips with black truffle and creamed spinach with a bone marrow crumb; yum! You can always tell when food is fabulous when talking ceases in order to focus on the flavours; silence reigned.

We chose the Picpoul de Pinet from the Langeudoc to complement our meal. Its crisp, zingy freshness was a wonderful accompaniment to the delicious dishes. Sadly, we were just too full to sample the dessert of organic espresso sponge, chocolate, hazelnut, milk ice cream as scrumptious as it sounded.

Of course, no restaurant experience is just about the food and wine. The team at Purslane are welcoming and friendly, epitomising the restaurant’s approach of ‘‘relaxed, fine dining’. We’ll definitely be back.

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This post was bought to you by our Cheltenham Champion Susan Duncombe of Secret Concierge. You can find out more about Secret Concierge here...