Rating ***** Neil Thomas and his band of dining enthusiasts are wowed by French chef Stéphane Borie.

This may make me appear a shallow success follower, like those feckless football fans who, with no natural allegiance, gravitate towards Manchester United or Chelsea simply because they win the odd cup.

For no sooner is The Checkers Restaurant with Rooms awarded a Michelin star then I’m in there with my snout in the trough.

Restaurants probably share that characteristic with football clubs – that trophies bring in starry-eyed punters. Michelin stars undoubtedly create demand and those swayed by such things will travel great distances to dine at restaurants that have them.

A ‘new kid on the block’ is bound to attract the attention of the culinary cognoscenti and so The Checkers may have to brace itself for an unusually busy 2012.

This, of course, is excellent news for the local economy though regular pre-star customers of The Checkers might understandably be on edge that their favourite restaurant may be taken over by hordes of star-chasers. They must be dreading the, ‘sorry, we’re fully booked on Saturdays until 2014’ response.

I am one of those pre-star fans of The Checkers. I remember French chef Stéphane Borie doing great things when he, his long-term partner and dessert chef Sarah Francis and her sister, and restaurant front of house, Kathryn Francis, started out together at The Herbert Arms at nearby Chirbury in 2008.

The food and service were fabulous then and clearly still are if they meet the demanding standards of Michelin Guide inspectors.

We visited shortly after the announcement of the award last month and found the team on top form. My wife Vanessa and I were joined by friends Huw and Annie Evans, from Welshpool, who have also supported Stephane and Co since the early days. Annie co-owned one of the area’s most successful restaurants for many years while husband Huw is a real gourmand, so it’s fair to say they know a thing or two about good food.

The Checkers opened earlier this year and has an elegant and roomy bar and lounge area, which makes a very welcoming reception space to relax with pre-dinner drinks including Three Tuns, the delicious real ale brewed at nearby Bishop’s Castle. The 30-cover dining area is an intimate and charming room.

The restaurant was full and there was a lovely atmosphere. We didn’t duplicate a single course, therefore since we enjoyed 12 entirely different dishes between the four of us, we can fairly claim that our research was comprehensive.

Inside The Checkers Restaurant, Montgomery

I love Stéphane’s cheese soufflé (£7.50) and nothing was going to sway me from starting with it, although tasting Huw’s pheasant pithiviers (£12) won me over for next time. Vanessa’s foie gras (£13) and Annie’s scallops (£12) were wonderful. In fact, to cut the word count and prevent me having to sift through a thesauraus to find a dozen different and increasingly outlandish superlatives, I’ll just say that every dish was superb.

The meat dishes – my roast duck (£19.50), Huw’s crispy pork belly (£16) and Vanessa’s venison (£24) were prepared to perfection, bringing out the maximum flavour, while Annie’s sea bass was lovely crispy skin and delicious white flesh.

Crème brûlée (£7), chocolate mousse (£6.50) and panna cotta (£6.50) were all restaurant classics done very well. Vanessa enjoyed excellent French and Welsh cheese with biscuits (£7.50).

The wine is very reasonably priced and the list well put together to match the menu.

We rounded off our meal with excellent coffees and delicious home-made petit fours.

The restaurant is known as ‘The Frenchman and the farmer’s daughters’, since Stéphane is from Agen in south-west France and the sisters’ parents Roger and Helen Francis run a farm near Oswestry.

Stéphane’s kitchen apprenticeship began in France before moving to London in 1997. He went on to spend seven years with Michel Roux at The Waterside Inn, Bray, the three-Michelin-star restaurant, where he met fellow chef Sarah, whose first love is the pastry section.

Stéphane went on to Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons and Daylesford House as private chef to Sir Anthony Bamford.

The French undoubtedly have considerable bragging rights when it comes to food. France gave us Carême and Escoffier, the father of haute cuisine, as well as string of modern-day stars. Much of France’s gastronomic lexicon has so insinuated itself into the British culture – haute cuisine, à la carte, gourmet, cordon bleu, maitre d’, nouvelle cuisine and petit fours – that it has become part of our language, used without thought by diners, many of whom may never have conjugated a Gallic verb in their lives.

With this comes a received wisdom that French restaurants are stylish with great food and fine wines. With this is the assumption that the French are terrific cooks, a legend enhanced by celebrity chef Rick Stein in a TV series a few years ago in which he travelled the length of France by canal boat, dining on local dishes at every stop and, with wide-eyed wonderment, heaping hyperbole upon superlative after each mouthful.

Crikey, Disney’s animated feature film Ratatouille even had it that French rodents are master chefs.

Time was that in Shropshire and Mid Wales you had to travel many miles for top class French food cooked by a native Frenchman. Now, though, we have Stéphane Borie, a new Michelin star who thoroughly upholds his nation’s reputation for great cuisine.

ADDRESS
The Checkers Restaurant, Broad Street, Montgomery SY15 6PN
Tel: 01686 669822
Web: www.thecheckersmontgomery.co.uk

MENU SAMPLE
STARTERS
Smoked tomato soup with goat’s cheese cream £6
Salad of rose veal and tuna £9

MAIN COURSES
Fillet of Celtic Pride beef with basil creamed potato, market vegetables and basil jus £24
Pan fried red mullet with Israeli couscous and gazpachio £19.50

DESSERT
Hot passion fruit soufflé £7.50
Dark chocolate and raspberry delice with summer berry ice cream £6.50

ATMOSPHERE
Intimate dining, in a lively setting. The restaurant was full, and there was a real buzz about the place

SERVICE
Friendly, and very efficient