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It feels like no time since Aquavit first opened. A quirky independent, its menu a strange chimera of French classics and Scandinavian specialities, it seemed at first almost too idiosyncratic. An oddity - colourful yet transient - too exotic to stand much of a chance in Chester's humdrum streets.
Eight years on and it has become a stalwart. It has grown less strange and we have become more familiar. The Swedish touch has been de-emphasised, the use of well sourced English (and Welsh) ingredients is a more dominant theme. Portraits of Greta Garbo and paeans to aquavit, the drink, decorate the walls. Marinated herrings and gravadlax are perennials on the menu. But they are outnumbered by Welsh lamb, Welsh steak, Goosnargh chicken and Cheshire cheese.
The restaurant is one of those narrow, deep rooms that Chester does so well. The walls are filled with objets d'art nouveau. Tables are nicely dressed: if you're the kind of person who regrets the current unfashionability of proper tablecloths, then you will be at home here.
It is often full, especially at lunch time, when you would be wise to turn up by 12 to be sure of a table. Customers are mostly a mature crowd, attracted by the £8.50 for three courses special menu. And you can't blame them: as I write, the lunch menu includes seven main courses with pan fried hake, roast rump of beef and chicken in tarragon cream sauce standing out. You can't eat properly in Chester cheaper than this.
The main themes of the a la carte menu are similar to those excellent value special menues, but prices are on a par with other restaurants of the middle order. The choice is conservative, comforting, familiar. Familiar, at least, if you were eating out much in the 1980's and early 90's - many of these dishes will take you on a vivid journey down memory lane.
There is a curious confusion over the name of this establishment. On the awning outside it is Aquavit. On the menus it is Aqua-Vitus. The phone book has Aquavit. The website has Aqua-Vitus. This is so diammetrically opposite to the kind of corporate brand dogmatism that we have come to take as read, that it seems endearingly happy-go-lucky. You can see it in the menu, with its lavish provision of spelling mistakes. And you can see it in the service: friendly and efficient and a little bit 'cheeky-chappie', at least if you get the same waiter we did.
This is a restaurant of a type that is disappearing fast. An extension of the personality of its owners. Human and therefore inherently interesting; not taking itself too seriously; accessible, yet managing to provide a sense of occasion. The cuisine may not be on the bleeding edge, but is special enough to warrant the outing.
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