Wheeler's of St James Liverpool is one of two restaurants owned by Marco Pierre White in the city,…read moreit is one of two "Wheeler's", with the other being in London. After a great experience at the MPW Steakhouse, also in Liverpool, I have wanted to try this place since it first opened recently.
The overall feel of Wheeler's is nice, it is inside the new Pullman Hotel in overall it has a nice, modern, new feel to it, with Marco Pierre White inspired decors, such as the "sofa", and various pictures of him and his career around the restaurant.
The service here was also very good, the staff were friendly and had a great knowledge of gluten-free, albeit there was no gluten-free menu made available online, but they did have a self-written menu which shows what items could be made gluten-free from the festive menu, examples included the Christmas Turkey dinner, excluding the pigs in blankets and stuffing, or the pumpkin soup which could come with gluten-free bread on request.
I ordered three courses from the lunch menu which came to £22, this is a price per person yet it is increased after 5pm to a "dinner" menu at the price of £30, remembering, of course, this price is subject to a 10% service charge so ends up going to £24.20 and £33 respectively. I dislike the idea of service charges, as I feel it should be the customer's choice whether to leave one or not, and it is just adding price to the menu which I can't understand, if they want the prices higher why not charge 10% more rather than adding it at the end?
The feel of this place was also nice in the sense that, there was a huge open-kitchen, meaning during lunch service, you can see and smell and even hear the kitchen and the food cooking, from the flames used in the cooking process.
The location of this place also is good, it is quite central and within walking distance of the city centre and Liverpool One, as well as being under a mile away from the train station, and part of the ACC Liverpool complex which includes the Echo Arena, Convention Centre and Car parking.
Starter:
For my starter, I ordered the pumpkin soup with mushrooms and parmesan, this was also made available with gluten-free bread on request, the gluten-free bread was unlike any other bread I've tasted which is gluten-free (GF), It tasted and looked fresh, and it didn't even have any holes in which one normally associates with Gluten-free bread
The soup its-self was reasonable quality, however, I found the mushrooms to be a little slimy and the soup on its own didn't taste great, perhaps it was the flavour combination of pumpkin, some parts of the soup, in my opinion, were too thick, hence I had to spit it out, yet still the soup was edible and nice to dip my bread in, but not really for anything more.
The choice of starters wasn't fantastic from the festive menu, there was a choice of 4 and the pumpkin soup was one of three which was gluten-free, the other one which contained gluten being the Haddock Chowder, my friend ordered this and appeared to enjoy it, she commented "I rarely eat chowder and the thought of it would normally turn my stomach, but the taste and quality of the fish was good."
Main:
The best selections for GF were the mains, again I could eat 3/4 items as long as they were modified, the only item which wasn't suitable was the vegetarian option, the pasta.
I decided to order Traditional roasted turkey breast and leg, chestnut stuffing, roast parsnip, duck fat potatoes, sprouts, Chantenay carrots, this was made gluten-free by removing the stuffing and "pigs in blankets" which came with it.
The quality of the food overall was good, the turkey quality was good and it was seasoned well, however, I only tended to like the bits of turkey breast, the other parts were a little chewy and fatty.
The duck-fat potatoes were a good dish, they were flavoured well with the duck-fat, the portions of potatoes were good, but also offering mashed potatoes would have made it better.
The carrots were a bit hit and miss for me, on one hand, the flavours were great with the Chantenay, but overall I found them to be a little hard. On the same topic of the veg, the parsnips were decent.
Dessert:
For my dessert, I had the Chocolate Mousse with Peppermint Marshmallows, made gluten-free by having no Graham Crackers, the mouse very rich, and although fresh and good quality, I feel the mouse could have done with some a flavour such as orange or peppermint inside, rather than just the small layer of marshmallow on the top, which did, however, taste good.
My friend ordered the chestnut and white chocolate pannacotta, I also tried this, we found it to be too creamy and it didn't burst out with flavour, it was one panna cotta on a base of white cream.
This is briefer than what I would have liked due to 5000 character limit; this, however, is a good restaurant and warrants a four-star rating.
