Chef Mike Robinson to open the Forge restaurant at Hotel Indigo Chester

Chef Mike Robinson, co-owner of the Michelin-starred Harwood Arms in London, is to open his third restaurant within a Hotel Indigo property on 19 May.

The Forge will launch at the Hotel Indigo Chester and feature a 70-cover restaurant, bar and 10-cover private dining room.

Head chef will be Curtis Tonge, a regional finalist in the postponed 2020 Roux Scholarship who was formerly sous chef at the Chester Grosvenor and Northcote in Lancashire.

Mari Ford, who has led front of house teams at King Street Townhouse in Manchester and Holbeck Ghyll in the Lake District, has been appointed general manager.

Tonge will serve a menu using only British ingredients, with wild and locally reared meat that will be aged on-site for a minimum of 45 days and cooked over wood and charcoal in the open kitchen.

Oak, ash and beech from local forests will provide the fuel and wild fallow and Muntjac venison will be sourced from Robinson’s herds on the estates he helps manage.

Menus will be priced at around £45 for three courses, with dishes set to include wild wood pigeon salad with smoked bacon, apple and Lancashire black pudding; whole baked market fish roasted in the charcoal oven with vegetables, buttered Jersey royals and lemon; and a cherry Bakewell soufflé.

Robinson said: “I truly believe that hospitality will bounce back, and that quality, great service and value for money will be as important post-Covid as before.

“Being in such a beautiful city, like our other restaurants in Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath, there is no doubt the Forge in Chester will have great appeal for those choosing to holiday in the UK this year, and eventually for overseas tourists, as well as our most important guests, the local business community and residents."

Robinson also oversees hotel restaurants the Woodsman in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Elder in Bath in partnership with hotel management firm Castlebridge Hospitality.