Cellar Door @ Double Tree by Hilton

Honey colored wood walls stretch high to the sky at Cellar Door, dampening music and conversation. An equally handsome wooden floor and soft incandescent lighting create a subterranean ambience akin to a monk’s cheese cellar.

Softly illuminated in the room’s center is a long bar that dominates one side of the dining room and is comfortable enough to encourage casual conversations. Behind that bar is a vast selection of whiskeys and beers, and a cocktail menu that’s serious, but not intimidating.

Flip over the booze menu and Cellar Door reveals its other strength – it is very serious about its food. Yes, there’s a burger or two, but thanks to the revamping of the menu by Chef Andrew Blundy , it now also offers great English pub grub options such as steak and kidney pie, shepherd’s pie, fish and chips, bangers and mash, ploughman’s lunch, prawn cocktail salad, liver pate and pasties.

The menu may be modern, but the philosophy behind it is time-honored. “Feed people well and they’ll come back,” says Chef Blundy.

that addictive “dirty” crust on my favourite chicken pie

Drinking on an empty stomach is never a great idea. Drinking alone is not a good idea either. So the best option is to meet friends and colleagues over a glass of wine in a welcoming, rustic atmosphere and indulging in a ‘dirty crusted’ pie or two. The secret is indeed in the crust, and there’s no other way to put it – it is a dirty, dirty crust!

Our entrees were served, and it was time to dig in..

devilled whitebait with tar-tare sauce and thai ketchup

prawn cocktail with granary bread ( one for the ladies!)

a sharing plater of fine chicken liver pate, hot crust chicken and duck pie, mixed charcuterie, pickles and Branston chutney

liver pate (in this case parfait), best eaten by heaping a chunk onto bread and slathering it in chutney..heavenly! Take a bite out of the pickled onions and know that this world is a better place for it!

Cod fish and chips with proper beer batter, triple cooked chips, sauce tar-tare and truffled pea puree

salt and vinegar with fries – something I learned to eat in the UK!

cottage pie with cheesy mash and seasonal vegetables

lovely chunky meaty beef beneath a golden potato top

a cool selection of condiments

check out the names!

desserts are fantastic here.. must orders include treacle tart with old school custard, sherry trifle with fruits of the forest, sticky toffee pudding with vanilla bean ice cream and black forest gateaux with kirsh soaked morello cherries

sherry trifle with fruits of the forest

sticky toffee pudding with vanilla bean ice cream

The Cellar Door is also a wine lover’s Eden, with over a hundred wines hand-picked by the in-house sommelier, to choose from. Complementing the bar is a full variety of local and imported beers, spirits, cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages such as English tea and coffee.

Unwind after a busy day or stop by for an after-dinner nightcap. What ever it is, it’s definitely worth a visit just to take a bite out of that gorgeous dirty crust!

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