The Marriott Hotel, Bournemouth, is home to the Highcliff Grill restaurant. Contemporary but traditional, the restaurant features classic design with hints of vibrant colour. The restaurant serves food in a similar style; classically designed but with hints of contemporary style. Located on the seafront and overlooking the cliffs, the Highcliff Grill focuses on serving fresh and local produce.
On our visit to the Highcliff, we ordered a bottle of Moët & Chandon to accompany our meal. The restaurant was clearly child friendly, but we wanted to enjoy a quiet meal and so the staff kindly laid a table for us outside. We chose the Taste of Dorset menu, which included a four course tasting menu.
“The staff were very accommodating and friendly.”
We both began with green pea soup with cheddar beignet and I followed this with Markham farm asparagus with quails egg, sesame crisp, lemon and Parmesan. Both dishes were extremely fresh and very delicately presented. My guest followed the starter with a dish of seared hand dived scallops with peanut satay, fresh crab, mooli and fresh coriander. The scallops and crab were both very fresh and the high quality shone through.
For my main dish I chose a Chinese inspired pak choi dish with coconut biryani, puy lentils, natural yoghurt and coriander served with parsley glazed carrots. The dish was, again, very fresh and the ingredients perfectly complemented each other. My guest chose to sample the 35 day dry aged fillet on the bone from West Tisted Manor Estate Farm. The beef was delicious and very tender, served with wonderful spinach, béarnaise sauce and Dorset watercress, all of which were delicious.
Finally, we both shared a selection of mini Highcliff ice cream cones including clotted cream, vanilla, passionfruit and toffee. All of the ice cream cones were very enjoyable and the quality of the ingredients came through in the delicious flavours. This was a wonderful end to our pleasant meal at the Highcliff Grill, throughout which the staff were very accommodating and friendly.
The Bill: £55 per head
