A Welsh restaurant that handed back its Michelin Star in 2018 has now been awarded a place in the prestigious guide. The restaurant decided to hand back its Michelin Star when the restaurant relaunched as Checkers Penny, you can read more here.
The Checkers in Montgomery was owned by Stephane Borie and when Stephane stepped back from working in the kitchen, to work for private clients across the UK and Europe, his partner Sarah Francis and her sister Kathryn Francis decided to relaunch the restaurant. After changing the name to Checkers Penny from The Checkers Sarah and Kathryn handed back the Michelin star.
Now the restaurant is owned by husband and wife duo Andrew and Rachel Birch. The restaurant has also returned to using the name The Checkers. You can keep up to date with the latest What's On news by signing up to the newsletter here.
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Andrew grew up in Swansea and has returned home to Wales to run The Checkers after working as head chef at Gordon Ramsay’s Savoy Grill in London. He and Rachel, who is from Hampshire, met while she was working in Wales and she has worked with him at previous restaurants before they owned The Checkers.
Andrew and Rachel posted on The Checkers Instagram page to say they took over the restaurant in February 2022. Improvement work at the restaurant included a new sign, new room names with Welsh love spoon key fobs, and new plates and glasses for the restaurant.
The restaurant, which offers a three-course menu and seasonal tasting menu has re-claimed its place in the guide in June 2022. The Michelin guide credited the restaurant for the "eye-catching dishes".
It said: "Andrew is a classically trained chef who knows how to get the best from the local, seasonal ingredients, and his eye-catching dishes come with harmonious flavours. The 3-course lunch menu offers great value for money, and the 8-course tasting menu comes with recommended wine pairings."
The lunch menu includes home-smoked salmon with crab, keta caviar, and radish, confit belly of middle white pork with black pudding, apple, pickled white cabbage, and Wye Valley strawberry and champagne trifle with basil and almonds. Three courses cost £30 per person.
With two tasting menus, one for vegetarians and one with meat options, there is plenty of choice. Dishes on the tasting menu include line-caught turbot with wild asparagus, laverbread, and chervil risotto, warm salted caramel tart with creme fraiche, apple, and vanilla and herb risotto with Tunworth cheese, truffle, and pine nuts. Both tasting menus cost £65.00 per person.
The Checkers also offers Sunday lunch with three courses costing £35.00 per person. Dishes on the Sunday lunch menu include smoked eel with crispy pig head, celeriac, and apple, sirloin of longhorn beef with Yorkshire pudding, and vanilla panna cotta with rhubarb, hibiscus, and pistachio.
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