Pierre White’s steakhouse success is not just TV hype

TV screens are cluttered with celebrity chefs plying their latest amazing creations.

Food, it seems, is the new rock n’ roll, where it’s cool to be class act in the kitchen.

While this may be a little too much for those of us who would rather watch Bourne Identity, there’s one very good spin off.

It is that people like cookery king Marco Pierre White can run a steakhouse in Liverpool providing outstanding food at affordable prices.

It’s no exaggeration to say the meal my partner and I were treated to at its relaunch was the best dinner out we’ve ever had, when we visited the refurbished restaurant on Chapel Street on Thursday night.

Granted, we were given the media VIP treatment, with no-holds-barred outstanding service.

The team in the kitchen even managed to make the Welsh Rarebit with Poached Egg on toasted sardough (£6.95) sing. My partner could not believe how good the two poached eggs were. The secret, we were told, is use very fresh eggs.

Meanwhile, I was treated to one of my favourite dishes, Crispy Devilled Whitebait with lemon and tartare sauce (£7.95).

Then came the piece de résistance – our main course of Chateaubriand 16oz (for two) at £56.

Served with homemade pommes frites and a classic steakhouse green salad with Merlot dressing.

This came with a Béarnaise sauce (£3) which although was excellent, we did not need, the meat was so good.

The follow sweet course was the icing on the cake – or should I say the meringue on the strawberries and ice-cream – The Box Tree’s Eton Mess (£5.75). No superlatives I can think of can adequately sum up how good this experience was.

All this was consumed alongide a £25 bottle of red – Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz-Malbec, Flagstone Longitude, Western Cape, South Africa.

With all that we toddled off to spend the night in the Hotel Indigo, above the restaurant. In the worlds of the Arnold Schwarzenegge… we’ll be back.