As you drive into the car park at Signatures, you may wonder if you’ve made the right choice for dinner. Yes, it’s a restaurant that’s at a “holiday home resort” – and that’s a posh caravan park to you and me. But, fear not, we’d been here before and know that it punches above its weight, making it one of the better restaurants along the coast.
The menu is well rooted in “Modern British” food which means it occasionally makes a leap away from the comfort of Northern Europe. As in a starter of king prawns, dressed in a quite pokey satay sauce, served with a crispy noodle salad. It worked. As did a lobster bisque which had the richness of the one you get in jars at Waitrose but enhanced with small bits of lobster. It’s accompanied with a small slice of toast, topped with mayo, crab and prawns.
Sirloin steak was accurately cooked as requested but could have done with a bit of seasoning. It came with classic accompaniments – nicely cooked “fat chips”, grilled cherry tomatoes and a field mushroom… “Trio of lamb” was a good representation of the modern classic of “meat three ways”. A couple of slices of perfectly pink fillet. Some long cooked shoulder. And breast, also long cooked, then pressed, breaded and fried to crisp. That came with “Palouise” potatoes – Google doesn’t find that term but it seemed be a boiled potato topped with buttery gloop (no, I wasn’t a fan). But it’s more than made up for by Savoy cabbage, roasted carrot and a lovely rich sauce.
We often pass on dessert but not this time. Two classics on the menu, Firstly sticky toffee pudding – it’s rare to see a menu these days which doesn’t have it on. And, most times, it’s not worth the calories. But, here, it’s a delicious light sponge, pretty much perfect butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream, Homemade “Arctic Roll” and jelly will whisk a generation of Britons back to their childhood. Ice cream surrounded by sponge was fine. The fruit jelly was excellent – really fruity rather than just generic “sweet”.
Good coffee to finish.
