FOOD MATTERS
Plymouth’s Marco Pierre White restaurant ‘will benefit the whole city’ It’s a few days before the official opening of the Holiday Inn’s new Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar and Grill restaurant on March 17, and hotel manager Michael Wood has taken time out to give us a tour. Staff are bustling around, cleaning here, laying tables there, and generally making sure everything is just right. Chatting animatedly over his cup of tea and joining in with the staff banter, you can tell that Michael is just itching for the ‘We Are Open’ sign to go up. Michael has sampled everything on the menu – a tasty perk of the job – and is licking his lips in anticipation of the launch. He’s not the only one: a staggering 1,000 bookings were taken for the restaurant’s first two weeks. Not bad for starters. The restaurant is already paying off, clearly, and Michael predicts that its impact won’t be confined solely to the hotel: “This brings something completely new to Plymouth and the whole city will benefit,” he said. “This is a destination restaurant and people will come to Plymouth to eat here. The restaurant has got everything – location, unique views, it’s the highest restaurant in Plymouth, and it’s got a name – and what a name in Marco Pierre White. There’s nowhere else like this in Plymouth and the volume of interest shows that there is a real demand for it.”
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The Plymouth Magazine April 2017
It’s not your usual hotel restaurant, that’s for sure. The 11th floor setting in Armada Way affords panoramic views of the Hoe and Barbican. But while the views are unbeatable and the décor is smart, the atmosphere is casual and fun, not Holiday Inn manager Michael Wood snooty. There are restaurant and bar areas with a total of 180 covers. The menu pricing has been kept competitive and is, says Michael, comparable to the prices at the restaurant before. Indeed, affordability was a 100% requirement. “We want this experience to be accessible to everyone,” said Michael, “because while the restaurant will of course cater for our hotel guests, most diners will be non-residents.” The menu itself is in keeping with the Marco Pierre White Steakhouse brand and is set to have one of its twice yearly ‘refreshes’ in May. On the current main menu, starters are from £5.95, mains, from under £12 and there’s also a tempting selection of desserts. The bar menu has classic sandwiches, smaller plates and larger plates, and there are a number of afternoon tea options to choose from. Marco Pierre White has been keeping a close eye on his newest restaurant, making sure that the dishes and the generous portions are spot on. The 25 kitchen and front of house staff – most of them new recruits – were also put through a rigorous training process. The chef has retired from the kitchen and now focuses on his restaurant brands. In his day, he was a superstar and in 1995, he became the youngest British chef to win a third Michelin star. For head chef Gavin Hobbs, working for one of his culinary heroes is a dream come true. Gavin moves to the Steakhouse Bar and Grill from the city centre Copthorne Hotel. He admits