So-Lo

This restaurant in Aughton, set in a converted pub, was opened in November 2021 by Tim Allen, who formerly ran The Flitch of Bacon, and Wild Rabbit before that. Before that he worked at Launceston Place, Whatley Manor and l’Ortolan. So-Lo gained a Michelin star in 2023. The restaurant offered a six-course tasting menu at £98, with pescatarian and vegetarian alternatives at the same price. Tim Allen’s French wife runs the front of house. the restaurant can seat 36 covers at capacity and tonight there were three chefs in the kitchen. The dining room has well-spaced tables and a real fire in one corner, which was welcome on this cold November night. 

The wine list had 91 bottles and ranged in price from £34 to £160, with a median price of £58 and an average markup to retail price of 3.1 times. Sample references were Cave de Turckheim Alsace 2021 at £39.50 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £14.40, Serra Lupini Angelo Negro 2023 at £47 compared to its retail price of £20.40, and Chateau Angludet Margaux 2011 at £93.50 for a wine that will set you back £52.80 in the high street. For those with the means there was Chateau Boyd-Cantenac 2009 at £140 compared to its retail price of £62.40, and Chateau Batailley 2009 at £160 for a wine whose current market value is £75.60. Some sweet wines were available, but only by the glass.  

The meal began with a pair of canapés. Smoked eel with apple and horseradish tartlet was lovely, the pastry delicate and the acidity of the apple balancing the richness of the eel, with the gentle bite of horseradish lifting the dish (17/20). The second canapé was a pot of miso savoury rather like a chawanmushi, made from onion juice, pickled shimeji and crisp maitake mushroom. This was also excellent, the blend of textures working very well (16/20). The bread was made here from scratch, the dough made from malted flour and covered with crushed poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. The resulting bread had soft texture with the seeds providing a contrasting texture. This was an excellent bread.

The first formal course was mackerel with finger lime, buttermilk, fresh tapioca, cucumber and oscietra caviar from the high-quality Paris supplier Petrossian. This was a very pretty dish whose flavours worked very well, the finger lime balancing the natural oiliness of the mackerel (16/20). This was followed by red mullet with fricasee of squid, tomato, aged Parmesan, saffron, onions and a bouillabaisse sauce. On the side was a squid ink puff with rouille. The fish was beautifully cooked and the flavours worked harmoniously, a really terrific dish (18/20).

Scallop from the Isle of Skye came with Iberico lardo, little cubes of pink fir apple potato, dashi vinegar and smoked pike roe. The scallop had good natural sweetness and the earthy potato was an interesting contrasting flavour, the sharpness of the vinegar balancing the sweetness of the scallop (17/20). The next dish was cauliflower with vadauvin spice mix with lentil puree, buttermilk, beer vinegar, puffed charcoal and freshly grated lime. Cauliflower is an excellent vehicle for spice and the freshness of the lime and sharpness of the lime worked well with the earthy flavour of the lentils (16/20).

My main course was sika deer from just a few miles from the restaurant. This came with Cevennes onions, tamarind, 18 month aged aerated Comte, Madagascar pepper, petit choux shredded cabbage with ransom and capers. The deer was cooked pink and had very good flavour but for me the star of the dish was the Cevennes onion. This onion, hand-picked from a mountainous area of the south of France, has exceptional sweetness. It was a lovely foil for the sika deer and the earthiness of the cabbage. A final garnish of a cylinder of potato crisp added a pleasing extra texture (17/20). A pescatarian alternative was sea bass with young leeks, Morecambe Bay cockles and mussels as well as girolles, Nori and duck yolk. The fish was beautifully cooked and the leeks nicely balanced the richness of the egg (17/20). 

A cheese board was all English except for a solitary Italian, a truffled pecorino ewes milk cheese. Otherwise there was Red Leicester, Mrs Kirkham Lancashire, Wensleydale Lanarkshire Blue, Winslade, Rollwright cheese and Yarlington. These were in excellent condition and came with pickled figs and caraway seed cracker. An initial dessert was goldfish apple from France in the form of a compressed terrine with garden verbena and popcorn (16/20). The final dessert was Valrhona chocolate as well as pickled pear, Greek yoghurt and sorbet. (17/20). Difference Coffee came with a pair of petit fours: chocolate truffle with cognac and a blackcurrant liquorice.

Service was charming and the bill came to £171 per person. If you shared a modest bottle of wine then a typical cost might be around £130 per head. So-Lo is a superb restaurant. It uses high-quality ingredients and the kitchen demonstrates top-notch technique. This meal was a real joy.