The Grill on the Market or Smithfield Bar and Grill or is it The Blackhouse Grill?

But that’s besides the point (or is it?). The Grill on the Market is bar/restaurant specializing in the grill section. Our group of 10 had initially pre-booked our table, so we arrived early to sample the 2 for 1 cocktail offer. And what lovely cocktails they were!

This place does some seriously good tasting cocktails. I’d decided to play it safe with my first and opted for the classic Long Island Iced Tea and it was like no other iced tea I’d ever had! Your average Long Island Iced Tea usually consists of a very strong alcoholic tasting cola drink. This one however, had flavour! It was soooo easy to drink. It was literally gone in 60 seconds.

So what next?.. An After Eight Martini of course! It really did taste like an After Eight mint! By this point our group were tasting each others cocktails and loving them all!.. Maybe not the Dirty Harry. An Absinthe lined glass was probably not right for this particular evening.

So, our reservation at 7pm soon arrived and on notifying the friendly ‘front desk’ ladies, we were all politely escorted to the restaurant area. This place has got good service. Our waiter was a lovely man who described all the specials on offer and gave recommendations on anything we asked. We liked him.

Starters, is anyone having any starters? Of course we will! Artisan bread and beef dripping? Yes please! So simple, yet so delicious! Pork crackling? Don’t mind if I do! A crunchy piece of heaven! We definitely enjoyed our starters, but the mains were still to come…

You can’t go to a grillhouse without having a steak… So I did! I went for the sirlion, medium rare, with chips and a bearnaise sauce. And I could not fault it. Cooked as requested, full of flavour and perfectly complimented with a tasty bearnaise and some beautifully seasoned chips.

Any room for a desert? You betcha! Sticky toffee pudding with a selection of homemade ice creams! Hazelnut flavour, delicious! Strawberry flavour, tasted like strawberries! And one other flavour which I can’t remember now! It tasted like the hazelnut one…. Anyway! The sticky toffee pudding was recommended by our waiter who insisted that it was the best ever sticky toffee pudding he’d ever had. He may be have been right! Or very close at least. It’s hard to get sticky toffee pudding wrong, but it’s very hard to get it really right and this one certainly did. A light airy sponge with a clean toffee syrup that didn’t stick to the top or your mouth. Combine that heat with the ice coolness of the ice cream and it became one incredible dessert. Lovely!

So, great drinks, wonderful food and fantastic service. The Grill on the Market? Thumbs up!