Normally when I have dined somewhere, I come home and post a review on Trip Advisor. I'm not doing that this time - I'm really fed up with them since they allowed someone to use my BT email address to set up an account and seem to be unwilling to fix that. So I'm going to write my review here.The Advocate Arms has a slightly forbidding exterior, mainly caused by the weird single person revolving door which propels you into a no man's land: in front of the bar, between the restaurant and the cafe, not sure which way is up. I've been here a few times now, so we know where things are.
We were asked to go and have a drink at the bar before being taken to our table, something that several of the restaurants in Market Rasen seem to like to ask patrons to do. It always seems a bit odd to me... in London most restaurants (unless you are having to wait for a table to be free)
will take your drinks order when you are at the table and have the menu. We sat in the bar and ordered a drink, but had to move to our table almost the second our drinks were delivered.
The restaurant was a bit warm and sticky, and the busiest I have ever seen it. Despite this, the service was spot on, with waiters and waitresses appearing at regular intervals. The food was delicious. I ordered the citrus-cured sea trout as a starter, my companion the marinated duck breast and both were very well presented and tasted gorgeous.
As a main course I chose the roast chicken supreme, which was delightful. It was presented on a bed of Lincolnshire Poacher potato, with parma ham crisps and buttered green vegetables and I savoured every mouthful. My companion had the calves liver, which was very good indeed, he reported.
For pudding we both chose the Strawberry and Champagne panna cotta, which came with sorbet and strawberry terrine and little meringue buttons. It was perfect, it enhanced the delicate flavours of the fruit and wasn 't too sweet. I loved it. With two aperitifs, a bottle of prosecco, a bottle of sparkling mineral water and two coffees, the whole meal came to around £60. The Advocate have a special offer on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday which is a bargain at £13.95 for two courses or £16.95 for three.
If I have any complaint at all, it's a tiny nit-picking one: the restaurant uses local produce which it labels as "Lincolnshire" this and that. If they are as careful about sourcing their ingredients as the food preparation indicates, it would be nice to have more detail about where the meat and fish come from, on the menu.
Other than that, it was an extremely enjoyable meal, at a bargain price -what more could you want? For Trip advisor one usually marks a restaurant out of five, and I have no hesitation in awarding the Advocate five stars for my meal this evening.
