Western Daily Press (Saturday)
The local bistro now demanding to be taken seriously
Mark Taylor visits a restaurant that changed its identity for the better
THE populist touch - that’s the name of the game in the increasingly challenging restaurant business.
It might sound obvious, but if you give the people what they want at a fair price, they are sure to flock to your restaurant.
Ensemble in Wells opened three years ago in the building once occupied by the excellent Old Spot restaurant.
For the first couple of years, Ensemble ticked along nicely enough but it was trying too hard to please everybody by serving breakfast and morning coffee as well as lunch and dinner.
It might have been fulfilling an important role as an all-day neighbourhood joint but it lacked that all important identity a restaurant needs if it is to be taken seriously as a food destination.
And so the owners went back to the drawing board and fine-tuned the offering, dropping the breakfast, cakes and coffee and reinventing Ensemble as a local bistro that only
The menu is literally crammed with populist dishes you want to eat
opened for lunch and dinner. Business has improved ever since.
More significantly, perhaps, this family-run operation started to give customers more of a back story.
After all, Ensemble has a more interesting story than most restaurants because the family that runs it has been involved in Somerset hospitality for more than 50 years.
Ensemble owner Stephen Leyton’s grandfather, Paul, may be best known as a Chief Rocket Development Engineer (he was in charge of Black Knight, Britain’s first rocket programme), but he also ran the Miner’s Arms pub in Priddy, which became famous in the 1960s for serving Mendip snails (or wallfish as they were known).
Along with his wife, Amy, Stephen Leyton runs Ensemble with his cousin Simon, who worked as a chef at London hotels like The Waldorf and The Dorchester. He then worked front-of-house and was apparently hailed “one of the top three restaurant managers in the world” by hardto-please restaurant critic Michael Winner.
With its engraved brass panels, handpainted animal motifs on the walls and ornate tiled floors, Ensemble has a Mediterranean and North African look despite its oh-so-English location.
From most tables, you can glimpse Wells Cathedral through a large rear window that illuminates the airy restaurant.
At lunch, there is a set-menu at £15 for three courses or £13.50 for two and it’s sensibly concise with five starters, six main courses and three desserts, plus a local cheeseboard for a supplementary £8.
Of the tempting dishes I didn’t get to try this time, there was a starter of crayfish salad with cucumber and Marie Rose sauce, and a main course of fresh tagliatelle, mushroom sauce, tomato and Parmesan.
There is also a beef burger and a buttermilk chicken sandwich with fries. And who can’t fall for the charms of a restaurant that serves a chorizo and Cheddar omelette with bitter leaf salad and fried potatoes? The menu is literally crammed with populist dishes you want to eat.
My starter of pheasant and parsley terrine, watercress and toast was faultless. The thick slab of moist and meaty terrine was full-flavoured, properly gamy and served with enough toast to go the distance. The new season watercress was fiercely peppery, its freshness countering the richness of the terrine.
It was followed by a plump salmon fishcake with a crisp exterior and a filling that achieved the correct balance between potato and salmon flakes.
It was also speckled with mustard seeds which added a spicy note to the comforting potato and fish mix. A ruffle of bitter leaves and a pool of punchy and sweet chilli sauce was all that was needed as an accompaniment.
To finish, a moist and buttery rhubarb and almond tart was well made although, apart than a couple of tiny strips, the rhubarb was conspicuous by its absence.
With a final bill of just £15 before drinks and service, this was a meal that represented excellent value con- sidering the quality of food and service.
It may have taken a couple of years to find its feet but Ensemble now has a clear identity as a neighbourhood bistro of some considerable note.
RATING 4/5
Ensemble, 12 Sadler Street, Wells, BA5 2SE. Tel: 01749 676246.
www.ensemblewells.co.uk