Restaurant review: Kash Tap Rooms, Chester

Perhaps with a trace of irony, the Kash Tap Rooms music playlist selects, not for the first time in the evening, that classic Specials song Ghost Town.

Save for myself and my two housemates, only one other table is occupied at the Brook Street venue, with the polite barman resorting to his phone to keep himself preoccupied.

I guess this is what happens when I chose to eat out on a freezing cold, damp Monday evening in January. On a night which I would call ‘Blue Monday – the most depressing day of the year’, except I don’t, because such occasion was conjured up by a fancy PR agency a few years back so doesn’t actually exist.

This is all terribly unfair on Kash, incidentally. It shouldn’t matter what day of the week or time of the year it is, as come rain or shine, everyone should be thinking of paying a visit to this bar, with its exotically painted walls, its friendly service and its excellent taste in music, beer and food.

One big highlight Kash has to offer is its reputable range of beers. Kash has a selection on tap and in bottles which meets the approval of many seasoned beer enthusiasts; it is no coincidence the Chester Beer Awards will be held at this bar in an all-ticket event this Saturday .

Both myself and my housemate selected one from the Blueball range. The refreshing American beer I picked – 1492 – was flavoursome and filled with character from the first sip to the last.

As a bonus, these beers cost just £1 as part of us making good use of the bar’s ‘craft beer and burger’ offer.

And the burgers are where Kash really shines. We found picking just one of the burgers from the menu a tricky task, as there were so many tempting treats on offer.

After much deliberating, one of my housemates plumped for the Lucifer (£13) – a burger which comes with a jalapeño fritter, spicy cheddar, jalapeño peppers and hot pepper sauce. The other of my housemates opted for the Bomb (£12) – a bacon cheeseburger with Blueball ale chilli.

As for myself, as someone who spends much of his waking life designing pages for the Ellesmere Port Pioneer , I decided to remain ‘brand loyal’ and pick the Pioneer burger (£12).

For this I was richly rewarded, as this resulted in being served a burger packed with bacon, mushrooms, caramelised red onions, Swiss cheese and some garlic mayonnaise to polish it all off.

The conversation fell pretty quiet as we three hungry carnivores tucked in to these succulent burgers with considerable relish, with each ingredient taking its turn to deliver a knockout blow to the senses.

At the centre of it all, the beef was cooked just right and provided the firm foundation for all three of these meaty treats (it should be noted at this point there is a vegetarian burger option available).

Accompanying these dishes were very generous portions of hand-cut thin seasoned fries which, unlike the chips in my last review at Ed’s Easy Diner , were utterly delicious and soon in short supply on my plate once I’d devoured them.

There was a moment’s hesitation once we’d finished our filling meals, but ultimately we decided there was just enough room to go for dessert.

And unfortunately this is where we stumbled across the bar’s Achilles heel. While both my housemates found their respective Hot Fudge Sundaes (£5 each) satisfactory if not stellar, I struggled gamely with a Belgian Waffle (£5) that was far too hard and crunchy for my liking, even with its ice cream and toffee sauce.

Despite the relative disappointment of the desserts, they didn’t take the shine off what was overall a fantastic dining experience, one which I’d recommend anyone to try, whatever the weather.