First visit to this restaurant, which recently received its first Michelin Star. The Royal Oak at Maidenhead is owned by Michael Parkinson, with his son Nick -  the pub has won many awards – find out here.

Sunday the 14th, Valentines day. The pub had a fairly extensive A la Carte menu, which covered 3 courses plus coffee and petit fours. The menu had a large choice and we plumbed for the following:-

Both had Chicken Liver and Fois Gras pate served with Brioche

My main was the Welsh Salt Marsh Lamb, with liver, braised lettuce and champ. Mini had the venison with mash.

My dessert was Quince, Apple and Rhubarb crumble with custard, Mini went for the chocolate fondant.

The starters were really nice. They came with a quinelle of fig and a port reduction. The fig was very subtle, and the reduction really packed a punch – deep and some realy tangy black fruit flavours. The pate was “melt in the mouth” nice, spread onto the very light brioche.

Welsh Salt Marsh lamb, with liver, braised lettuce and champ. This was my first taste of Salt Marsh lamb. I’ve seen it on TV, in “The Great British Menu” and heard chef’s rave about it. It’s not as “lamby” as your everyday lamb is, but has a slightly different taste, but the texture is wonderful. This was cooked perfectly – nice and pink. Liver was smashing – with there was a bit more! Champ was good, not much to say about mash and scallions

Venison with mash. Mini said the venison was excellent. Really well cooked and with a black pepper crust, which went well with the meat itself. The mash was ultra smooth and the sauce was very good. I tried some and to me it tasted like Marmite, similar consistency too! I asked the waitress to ask the chef, and they replied that it was a beef reduction, so marmite it is then!!!

Chocolate fondant, pistachio ice cream and a nut twill. No flash on the pic, hence the grained result. Fondant was textbook good – opened it up and the chocolate oozed out of the middle. Nice bitter chocolate taste too. The ice cream was very subtle for the flavouring, perhaps too subtle.

I didn’t take a pic of my dessert as it was just a bowl of crumble and a small jug of custard. The crumble was a close runner up to the lamb as best dish for me. The topping consisted of mixed toasted nuts, and under this layer was quince, apple and rhubarb. Great combination and not too sweet or sharp. I found the custard a bit weak, not enough vanilla to stand up against the crumble (especially as the nuts were quite powerful) and I would have preferred a slightly thicker custard too.

Coffee was rocket-fuel, just how I like it. Petit fours were nice, only 3 each and one, which I think was a quince jelly, was far too sharp for my tastes – resulted in my eyes twitching!

Overall I would rate this 5.5/10. The food was “homely” – nice fayre but nothing “wow”,  service was very good, and the ambience itself was cosy, fairly intimate and nicely casual, especially as this is a 1* Michelin establishment. The price in this instance was a fixed price of £55 per head, which included a glass of champagne with the meal, and the coffee/petit fours etc. We had a couple of drinks during the evening, and as the main meal was pre-paid, only ended up paying about £2 for the service charge, which was done against the drinks only – not sure if they realised this when they did the initial offer. I would like to know what other people have had in a normal sitting, as this may not have been the best way to sample something for the first time, especially as it was a special day item.

Definitely worth a look though.