Shropshire Magazine

Jean Gartell is responsible for the stylish, comfortable interiors.

Review by Neil Thomas.  Pictures by Russell Davies

I love it when the chef comes out into a restaurant to mingle with customers — unless, of course, he’s waving a meat cleaver and shrieking Italian profanities after you’ve sent his linguine back.

Enjoyment of a fine meal implies an intimate bargain struck between talented chef and sophisticated diner. The menu can offer the finest raw ingredients expertly put together to offer subtle and complex flavours, but if the person with the knife and fork has the kind of nicotine-coated palate that comes with a 40-a-day Woodbine habit, then the partnership doesn’t work.

Likewise, the well-travelled gastronome is likely to be frustrated to be trapped in a restaurant where it becomes slowly apparent that the cook can barely be trusted to boil an egg.

As customers, we may be the passive partners in this arrangement but we should never underestimate our importance to it. Running a small restaurant is a vocation as much as a business. The chefs, many of whom are also the proprietors, aren’t just after your cash, they crave your appreciation too. A superb dining experience requires a talent for tasting on both sides of the deal and when you’ve had a triumphant evening, it is always a pleasure to meet your doubles partner in the victory.

Peter Gartell.

That is why it was such a delight to meet Peter Gartell, proprietor/chef at Gartells Restaurant at The Sun Inn at Marton.

This is very much a family affair. On the evening we visited Peter cooked while wife Jean was front of house and daughter-in-law Sally greeted us from behind the bar.

The Sun Inn offers the best of both worlds, operating as a pub with quality bar meals and excellent beer — I enjoyed a superb pint of Hobsons — and a classy restaurant.

Peter, who hails from Cheltenham, has over 40 years experience of the restaurant business, working his way up from breakfast chef at the Carlton Hotel to head chef at the Golden Valley, Cheltenham. He also enjoyed a successful period at The Clive, near Ludlow.

He and Jean owned Gartells Restaurant in Gloucester for seven years, moving to The Sun Inn in November 2006.

Peter is clearly well respected by customers and peers alike. He has been invited to compete in the Chef Potter awards and is a regular demonstrator at both Ludlow and Narberth food festivals.

He arrived, smiling and easy-going after our meal, and it was a pleasure to have the opportunity tell him face to face how much my wife Vanessa and I had enjoyed his food.

Filletted Cornish sardines with rocket and watercress on homemade-bread toast and pepper salsa.

His fish soup starter was worth the visit alone. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Smooth, perfectly seasoned to bring out a subtle blend of rich flavours, it was utterly delicious. Among the other starters in Peter’s interesting and diverse repertoire are duck and pork terrine with fig and date chutney; tea-smoked chicken on a celery, apple and walnut salad; goat’s cheese, fresh fig and honey tart; king prawns in coconut and chilli sauce, and asparagus with melted butter.

Vanessa’s steak main course was excellent; quality meat perfectly cooked medium-rare as she asked for it. The pepper sauce was a perfect accompaniment while the chips were positively magnificent — light fluffy centres with a crispy coating.

My roast duck breast was, again, skilfully cooked to maximise the taste — pink and bursting with flavour. The vegetables were fresh, seasonal and an ideal complement.

As with the starters, Peter sensibly keeps the menu tight to essentially offer quality over quantity. It is surprising how many kitchens in small restaurants make the mistake of over-reaching themselves with long and complicated menus.

Slow roast belly pork with Thai spices, sticky coconut sauce and stir-fry vegetables.

Other main course options at The Sun include roast partridge with pear in ginger wine on a bed of root vegetables; hake with spinach and a light cheese sauce; slow roasted pork belly on a bed of stir-fried vegetables with spicy coconut sauce; roast gilt-head bream with roast pepper and courgettes; and a pave of root vegetables with tomato and red wine glaze.

We shared a sticky toffee pudding dessert, a popular restaurant staple done very well here, with a light sponge and delightfully creamy sauce. Other tempting desserts included baked blueberry cheesecake, iced lemon parfait, crème brulée, and apple and blackberry crumble.

Coffee and petits fours were, in keeping with the rest of the meal, of superior standard, with top-ups offered.

The wine list offered more than 30 choices of reds, whites, rosés and bubbly, with detailed accompanying notes to help the diner make an informed choice when matching them with food. We chose a silky Italian red from Puglia with aromas of raspberries, ripe black cherries and blueberries, and a long buttery finish. It was voted red wine of the year for the 1999 vintage, which comes as no surprise.

The bill for two came to under £75 which I thought represented outstanding value for such high quality.

Peter demonstrates a lightness of touch in the kitchen and a pleasant and easy-going nature when he steps out of it to mingle with his customers, attributes which easily explain why he has survived and thrived for four decades in the tough restaurant trade.

Charm

Jean brings a quiet charm and efficiency to her role at front-of house. Hospitable and friendly without being intrusive, she and Peter clearly make a winning team.

Like Peter she hails from Cheltenham, but her career has not been dominated by the restaurant industry. In fact, she originally trained as a couture dressmaker before moving into specialist garden design.

She has brought her design skills to The Sun Inn, though, designing the interiors for the bar and restaurant, which are clean, bright and contemporary, while retining the flavour of a fine period building and restaurant — strikingly attractive and comfortable places which play their part in the overall enjoyment of the dining experience.

Her fresh new design, bizarrely, also gave me the chance to legitimately use the ladies’ loo. One remark I recall from a newspaper review of The Sun, long before the Gartells took over, was that there was an irritatingly steady flow of customers from the bar walking past diners in the restaurant, to use the toilet. In fairness to the previous proprietor, this was the only niggle in an otherwise five-star rating.

Jean’s design has put that right, with new toilets in the bar. The restaurant toilet is now a unisex facility for restaurant diners only — though still says ‘ladies’ on the door.

So every angle is covered, it seems, to ensure the comfort and enjoyment of the customer from a family who clearly know the meaning of the word ‘hospitality’. A faultless evening.

• Gartells Restaurant at The Sun Inn, Marton, Powys SY21 8JP. Tel: 01938 561211. www.suninn.org.uk

The Sun Inn: Apart from the fine dining, it offers quality bar meals and excellent beer.