The Pan American, Albert Dock, Liverpool
Fresh fish! Something I love to eat but never eat enough of, it’s a dish I never have the courage to prepare. So when asked to review a new specialty Fish night on Thursday nights at Pan-Am a feeling of healthiness came over me and I couldn’t resist. For a city that started its history as a small fishing village and with a thriving fishing port just up in the coast, I am surprised nobody has thought of this before. The stunning, unforgettable Albert Dock has been out of my regular haunts of late, ( mainly due to its recent isolation from major developments surrounding it) is the perfect location to launch the night, on the edge of the River Mersey and Pan Am an exceptionally chic venue to host it.
If you are unfamiliar with the cooking methods and eating of fish then the process is made very simple on the menu, you choose your fish, the cooking method, your vegetables, your potato and your sauce all from a multiple choice menu – you are actually spoilt for choice in each section. On taking your table you can view a selection of the daily catches displayed on a counter of ice, the waiters are also well informed and offer their recommendation if unsure.
Starters are chosen from the extensive a la carte menu and myself and partner decided it has to be seafood all the way, I chose the seared scallops & Bury black pudding, wonderfully presented, perfectly cooked and succulent, the knife cut smoothly through the scallops and worked well with the black pudding and my partner choose the pan-fried crab cakes with caramelised lemon and chili vinaigrette, which I managed to grab a taste of, it would have been my next choice, the cakes where flavorsome and the wonderful caramelised lemon really completed the dish and emphasised the flavour.
For mains I did surrender to the Head Waiters recommendation of pan fried snapper with buttered vegetables, seasoned new potatoes with a buerre blanc sauce. The snapper was perfectly cooked with a lovely contrast of the crispy skin to the light flakey fish; the sauce was wonderfully rich and worked perfectly with the simpler choice of vegetables and potatoes.
My partner decided to go for a classic main, which pleased me, you can still go to a night like this and have an all-time classic dish, baked cod fillet with a white wine and parsley cream, accompanied with snow peas and bacon lardon’s and hand-cut chips. Again a great combination with whiter-than-white cod and perfectly cooked chips - the type you always hope to turn up on your plate. You can’t really go wrong whatever mix of servings you chose with your fish, it’s the sauce you need to think a little more carefully about.
We were pretty full by the end of the main course but thought it would be a job half completed if we didn’t end the meal sharing the sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream and toffee sauce, I was intrigued to check the presentation, even the sprig of mint was devoured in the end. To drink, we went for a glass of the light and easy on the palette L’ambroise Anjou rose.
Overall service was friendly, music the right volume, the mood sophisticated and the price reasonable with main courses ranging from £13 to £16. Pan Am seem to have nailed this idea and the Dock continues to be a stunning location with a positive underlying buzz about the place, its got a wonderful future now that the Albert Dock is the centre piece of the surrounding developments and with food as good as this, Pan Am will continue to be the great anchor of the village.
Fresh! @ The Pan American Club every Thursday call for reservations: 0151 702 5840.
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