I got to the 2 mile point and was almost ready to stop, thinking “Well 2 miles is better than none”, but I then kicked myself up the ass and carried on through. Some people may think “4 miles? So what? I run 8 miles or more a day” – well you carry on doing that and I will carry on exercising on my trainer and hopefully lose more and more weight!

This restaurant has been awarded 2 Michelin stars and it is clear to see why; excellent food and amazing service that went “above and beyond” anything I’ve ever witnessed in a restaurant before. I think the third star won’t be too far away personally. As with most Michelin starred eateries it isn’t cheap but I choose to spend my hard earned cash on food, which is one of my loves in life so I tend to not “worry” too much about the £££s as long as I enjoy the experience, and this one I truly did. The restaurant is a fairly large affair, with little areas here and there and the decor is low-key but stylish. Our table was set in an alcove, near the windows, and had an “eyes-in” to a section of the dining room – it was almost like a private dining area with it only having 5 tables. The chairs were very comfortable as the dining session was just short of 3.5 hours but it didn’t feel like we had sat there for that length of time (always a good thing!). Also, the service was very discreet – not 100′s of waiters dancing all over the place but a small group of well-honed waiters and front of house that delivered each course with minimal fuss (a stark difference to that of the Waterside Inn).

I wanted to “splash out” so we opted for the Chefs Menu with Wine Pairing. This menu consisted of 10 courses (so get comfy as this is fairly long), with a couple of amuse bouche and chef’s specials. At the end of the evening we both felt very full, which isn’t always the case when trying some taster menus. So, here’s what we had (along with the wine pairings as we asked for a copy fo the menus to take home which is always very handy!)

First things first – bread. I think it’s a good sign if the bread is good, and this was. I had soda and then potato & onion, Mini had rye. There were 2 butters; a plain butter and one quenelle of beurre noisette which had a nutty taste to it, really nice and the first time I’ve ever had it as an accompaniment to bread.

Kicking off with a glass each of Ruinart champagne we munched on our amuse bouche; 1 was prawn rolled in sesame seeds – pop the whole nibble into your mouth and immediately get a mouthful of fresh prawn, quite a depth of flavour too from something so small, a great start. The other was pork hazlet; a cube of around 1cm in size. Think of your best sausage roll you’ve ever tried and multiply it by 100. Deep flavours, balanced seasonings that stayed in your mouth for some time afterwards – a great start we both thought.

Chefs pre-starter was Cauliflower Cheese. Not the stuff you had at school that was all gloopy, wet and minging. This came in a tall shot glass. Pureed cauliflower, hot, topped with a cold cheesy foam sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Starting off with the spoon you take a swipe out of the foam and get a whoosh of cheese (Wotsits on steroids!) and you then realise that the cauliflower is hot below, a brilliant contrast. The puree/soup was very fresh and packed with flavour.

Dish #1; Orkney scallops, grapes, cucumber, Kaffir lime, Alexanders paired with a glass of Fiano di Avelino, Pietracupa, Campania, Italy 2009.
Scallops intertwined between a thin strip of cucumber, lying on top of lime mayonnaise, with some salad leaves and half a grape (I did comment to Mini that for the menu to say “grapes” you needed more than one!). Scallops were perfectly cooked, slight brown on the outside. Paired with the lime mayo they were incredibly fresh and tasty. The wine fitted perfectly (as did all the others, and they weren’t skimpy servings either)

Dish #2; Foie gras, sorbe, walnut, date, milk tuile paired with a Vouvray ‘La Reveillerie’ Lemaire Fournier, Loire Valley, France 2003 – almost like a dessert wine; real depth of flavour, great neck and lovely orangey/brown colour.
3 dollops of foie gras moose (like mini merengues just piped) – incredibly light and smooth, not too powerful in the taste either which was just right. The walnut bread was about 2mm thick and 10cm long but it tasted like you had a whole walnut tree on a plate – so full of flavour. The milk tuiles were small shards which were stuck into the foie gras – think of Nice biscuits – really nice. The sorbe was a small dollop of fruit, that is similar to pear, and gave a sweet edge.

Dish #3; Crab, chestnut, agnolotti paired with a Dido, Rene Barbier, Monstant, Spain 2008.
The crab was served in two parts; the brown meat wrapped within the agnolotti (think ravioli), white meat was shredded along side a piece of claw meat. The little pockets of ravioli were lovely, small yet dense. Unfortunately when I was eating the rest of the dish I found some chunks of crab shell – not what I would expect from a 2* restaurant. It spoiled this particular dish and I informed the waiters who were very apologetic.

Dish #4; Sweetbread, goat’s curd, squash, caper butter paired with a Piper’s Brook Estate, Pinot Noir, Tasmania 2005, fairly light for a pinot noir but a great match with the sweetbread.
I “love” sweetbreads and this one hit the mark, nicely caramelised giving some small crunchy parts. When ordering I said that I didn’t want the goat’s curd but when delivering the dishes they mixed them up so I had the plate with the curd on. Nothing major some may say, but again this shouldn’t happen at a place like this. Another “let down” was the caper butter – neither of us could taste the capers. At this point in the evening I was feeling a bit “low” as 2 dishes had not lived up to expectations, I was really hoping we hadn’t already hit the peak with the 2nd dish and was now nose diving.

Dish #5; Scottish lobster, broccoli paired with a Chassagne-Montrachet ‘Enceigneres’ Dom. Marc Colin, Burgundy, France 2008.
Broccoli 3 ways; mandalin thin slices of the floret, a bright green puree and poached stalk. The lobster was simply divine; 2 good chunks of this wonderful seafood.

As I said a few lines up, what with the crab shell and the mixup of plates I was feeling somewhat let down with the evening, due to these 2 errors. Now this is where a restaurant earns 2* with amazing service. As an apology, and they said they were very sorry about the crab shell incident and plate mixup, we had an additional course. A small plate of pasta (we think Fettuccine) with herbs which came with a small copper saucepan. The waiter then showed us the saucepan, took the lid off and inside were 2 black truffles. He then commenced to grate a good helping onto each dish, not skimping at all. I was very happy with this, not only as we had this extra course but the fact that they had acknowledged the 2 issues and acted speedily to resolve it.

Dish #6; Halibut, cockles, fennel, clementine paired with a Viognier ‘Les Contours de Deponcins’ Francois Villard, Rhone.
The first time I had tried Halibut and I loved it. Perfectly cooked, falling into small pieces with the push of your fork. Fennel done 2 ways (braised and grilled), with some cockles and clementine – I really like the mix of fish and orange, Mini wasn’t sure as we had something similar at another place and he still wasn’t sold on the idea.

Dishes #7; So now, the main courses. I chose the Cumbrian lamb, sweetbread, quince, leek paired with Barolo, Francesco Rinaldi & Figli, Piermont, Italy 2007. Mini went for Galloway beef fillet, Dorset snails, horseradish, kale paired with Gramercy Cellars, Syrah, Walla Walla Valley, USA, 2008.
Both dishes were A-M-Azing. Seriously. The best lamb I have ever eaten. Considering the portion size (and again it wasn’t skimpy, 4 good cuts of a cannon of lamb) it tasted as though all the sheep in Wales had been condensed into this one cut. I was lost for words when I tasted the first bite, on par with the scallop I had at Le Gavroche (2 of my all time dishes now). Mini had his beef blue – you can only really order blue when eating at a place that knows what blue is. This was cooked perfectly, looking like the cow had slowly walked 1M away from a candle. Mini said the beef was “melt in the mouth” good, and all I heard was a lot of “mmmms” when he was munching, which is his sign of enjoying the meal.

The Assistant Manager came over to see how things were going and, for the first time, I said “Best Lamb I’ve ever eaten, please pass my compliments to the chef”. He was very happy that we had our evening turned around, and passed my compliments to the chef. So now it got even better. On his return he asked if we would like to take a tour of the kitchen. “Let me think about that for 1micro second”….”Yes please!”. We have never had this oppurtunity at any other restaurant, and he said he had asked someone else previously who had turned it down! So off we trotted to “where the magic happens” (my phrase, not his) and he explained who was doing what, that this was the main “cooking” kitchen with the prep kitchen “in the bowels of the building”. It was a flurry of activity and a smallish size of kitchen. We chatted with the Head chef (not Mr Wareing unfortunately, but that would have been amazing if he was there), and also with the pastry chefs (Gods). When we left we realised how hot it was in there, I know a silly thing to say but I take my hat off to those cooks; you really have to love your job to work those hours in hot kitchens. I was literally buzzing after this, like I’d done a line of coke (not that I ever have) – I was beaming just like after meeting Michel Roux Jr when he came to our table at Le Gavroche (get me name dropping!!!!)

Bring on the desserts!! Ok, so a pre-dessert (bend my arm then). A little hazlenut and chocolate layered slice, imagine a Kit-Kat crossed with a Topic bar but a bit fancier. Very scrummy.

Dessert #1; White Chocolate ice, redcurrant.
Another shot glass affair, with white chocolate upto the brim and redcurrants sprinkled on top. The chocolate was thick, oozy, umptious with the redcurrants piercing the richness. Not sure where the ice bit came in, but I wasn’t complaining.

Dessert #2; Apple, crispy cinnamon pastry, apple jelly paired with Umathum, Scheurebe, Beerenausslese, Burgenland, Austria 2009.
Something like a deconstructed apple pie. The apple jelly had a real wobble on it, good sign there, and was intense with apple flavour. The pastry was a mille-feuille tower of crispy cinnamon pastry with pureed apple in between.

Dessert #3;Cru Virunage chocolate.
A small slab of chocolate, probably 5cm square, 7mm high and served on a small slate tile. The chocolate on top was a small veneer of melted chocolate with gold leaf, and below it a chocolate sponge. Considering a spoonful size this gave a real WHACK of chocolate flavour, incredibly intense. After finishing one I don’t think you could eat another without feeling a bit sick – in a good way, not wanting to be ill but just due to the richness of the chocolate. We each had a cup of tea at the end. The tea “menu” was a box of phials containing the tea leaves, allowing you to smell each one and also having a short description. I had Dragon Well – a nice strong brew, and Mini had Verbena Mint Tea – very lemony and refreshing.

Phew! Reached the end (fingers aching). A thoroughly enjoyable experience was had by both of us. Not without a couple of issues, but fantastically turned around by the shear expertise of the staff; they were all very friendly, unpretentious and helpful – they also took off the 12.5% service charge (which was discretionary but they took it off without us asking). We had a copy each of the menu, and also a bag of chocolate truffles to take home (these were very nom). The cherry on the cake would have been meeting Marcus Wareing, but the cake was still bloody brilliant.

Cost – £465 (Chef’s menu £120 each, Wine Pairing £105 each, Tea £5 each, Water £5.50 for the table)

Food – 9/10

Service – 10/10

Value – 8.5/10

Let’s hope I can finish this diet properly, well not finish but attain a decent low weight especially with this possible 2nd DVT that I may/may not have in the same leg that already has one. Waiting to hear from the hospital to get an ultrasound, if it’s positive it means I will be taking Warfarin tablets for 6 months so fingers crossed it’s negative.

When I started my blog I knew that it was never going to be one of those that got updated every day – I probably could do one like that but it would be bloody boring! Not that my life is that boring (honestly it isn’t) but apart from work and stuff most of my days are pretty similar. I’ve also only subscribed to a small number of blogs to read, and of those I only really read about 4. I’m just not one of those people that reads constantly stuff all over the net, hell I’ve not even read my Kindle for a week or 2…

This year has been, on the whole, a rather good one (as far as my eroding memory reminds me). We gained a new pet in April, @TheCassieCat on twitter and pics of her on Facebook all over the place; she really is a sweet little cat but does occassionally let you know her belly isn’t ready to be tickled!!! We went on 3 holidays; Amsterdam, Berlin and Gran Canaria – all 3 were lovely and relaxing. Met our friends here and there during the year – wish we could meet them more often but with todays lifestyles weekends get eaten up very quickly and it’s sometimes tricky to have free time where everyone can make it. On the flip side of that there are also other friends that I haven’t seen for some time – Facebook makes this even worse as you can keep in touch but it’s not really the same as sitting down face-2-face and having a good chat.

One thing that did happen, and wasn’t great but will hopefully end with good news, is that a very close friend was diagnosed with a large, aggressive brain tumour at the start of this week (that’s the 19th Dec). Initial prognosis was terminal, then the next day the surgeons decided to try the operation to remove as much as they can without causing any damage and then treat the rest, if it’s treatable. We won’t know until the next few days if radio/chemo therapy will be an option – all hoping it will. Thankfully, post-op he was in great shape; no effects on his speech or motion. It just brings home the fact that life is so very fragile and things can change in an instant. No matter how much you plan ahead of time it only takes one thing to flip your world upside down.

So, here’s wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Best Wishes for 2012. For those of you I haven’t met up with in 2011 let’s try harder and do something in 2012. For those I have met then let’s continue that trend, and for those reading this that I’ve never met then say “Hi”!!

I find using TripAdvisor always very helpful when looking to visit places abroad, and I always try to do a review for each place I visit, you can each single one here; http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/members-reviews/MarkBarefoot.

I’ve put a small summary of each place we visited, and what I thought, below. To find more check out my TripAdvisor link

Merlin Restaurant, Playa del Ingles – our 2nd visit over a 3 yr break, and the place still delivers high quality food and service. Authentic Spanish dishes and we had their awesome Paella for 2.

Restaurant Ola, Cita Centre, Playa del Ingles – again, one place we ate before but we had forgotten about it! We were stumbling round the Cita Centre trying to find somewhere to eat and saw this, and the penny then dropped. Again, really good food and service. One negative was the time for the courses to arrive, I think the kitchen only had the 1 chef that night.

SushiMex, Maspalomas – a first time for us. This area has a load of restaurants, and I liked the idea of this fusion. I wanted to see if it worked, and at the end we both agreed that it did (in the most parts). Some of the best plated food I’ve seen in a “standard” restaurant for a long, long time. High quality ingredients, packed with flavour and good portions. The only thing that we thought didn’t work was serving Jalapenos with Sushi (a forced fusion!) – they weren’t wasted as I snaffled them up for my burrito:)

Oscar’s Restaurant, Puerto Rico. Recommended by a couple of good friends, and I’m glad we were lucky enough to get a table as the place had lots of reserved tables (and this was at 7PM on a week night). Excellent seafood, well made sauces and good staff. The tables are close together, and the main restaurant is thin and long so not a place you can really go for a romantic night. Well worth the visit though.

El Capitan, San Augustin. One we stumbled upon during our final part of the week. Located right at the beach having a massive choice of seafood, and all fresh. I had the fried squid, perfectly cooked. Thick rings of lovely squid, served with the Gran Canaria “Baked Potatoes” which are the new potatoes drenched in a “Mojo” sauce (bright orange and a little spicy). Mini had a Spanish Omellete that was fairly simple but still tasty.

This wasn’t a special occasion really, just an excuse to think of some nice courses, goto some local places to buy the ingredients, and spend a Saturday afternoon preparing and cooking, then enjoying the fruit of our fayres later in the evening.

For this meal there would be 6 of us dining, the most I’ve been involved in cooking for to date, although admittedly not single handed. The menu we decided on was;

• Curried Butternut Squash Volute & home made rolls
• Pea, broad bean and mint Risotto
• Pork 3 ways
• Lemon Posset
• Macadamia and caramel baked cheesecake

All in all the prep and cooking took around 5 hours, with 2 of us doing the the 3 courses, and one person each doing a dessert (so 4 cooks in the kitchen, thankfully it was plenty big enough to cope with the movement of bodies, ingredients and utensils!!)

The food, even if we say so ourselves, was bloomin’ great – I would reckon a few of the courses were on par with some of the plates I’ve had from quality restaurants. All 6 of us had a thoroughly good time devouring it, and all got full – we had to forego the cheese course as we were so full!

The recipes for each course is shown below….

Curried Butternut Squash Volute

• 1 Butternut squash, halved, de-seeded and the flesh scored near to the skin in cubes
• 50g (we didn’t measure so guessing here) of unsalted butter
• Garam Marsala (medium sized pinch, enough for background taste for this and the spices below)
• Curry powder
• Fennel Seeds
• Star Anise
• Bacon Lardons
• Pork Stock ** (see below for this)
• Smoked Oil

Once you’ve prepared the squash, mix the butter and remaining ingredients into a smooth paste and rub liberally into the squash flesh. Put the 2 halves of squash into a roasting tin and roast at a high heat (prob 220′C) until the flesh is soft.

When the squash is cooked, let it cool down enough to handle and scoop out the flesh. Place into a blender and blend until smooth, adding enough stock throughout to achieve the required consistency – this should be smooth and not too thick, something you could easily suck up using a straw.

Place a few bacon lardons into the bottom of a medium sized bowl, pour the volute in and drop a few spots of the oil onto the surface. Serve with the warm bread rolls.

Pork Stock

• leftover bones from the pork belly (pre-roasted as part of the belly cooking)
• roughly cut onions, carrots and celery
• bay leaves
• peppercorns
• star anise
• salt and pepper to flavour
• water

We used this stock for the volute, risotto and to make a jus, so it tied the first 3 courses together. The pot we were using held about 7L of water, and we let the stock simmer throughout the afternoon (about 3 hours or so), reducing by about 1/3. For the volute and risotto we ladled it directly in to the ingredients. For the jus we strained the remaining stock through some muslin and thickened with a small amount of cornflour.

Risotto

• Aborio Rice
• Onions and Celery (finely chopped)
• Frozen Peas
• Broad Beans (cooked then shelled)
• Mascarpone cheese
• Parmesan Cheese
• Garlic
• Pork Stock
• Butter
• Seasoning

Soften the onion and celery in a large frying pan. Once ready, add the rice and coat everything in the oil. After a few minutes of stirring the rice add a ladle of stock. The secret to cooking good risotto is to keep stirring (this releases the starch from the rice, making it gloopy) and feeding stock in controlled measures. As you see the stock disappear, just add another ladleful. Repeat this until the rice is “al dente”. When it reaches this stage, remove from the heat and add the peas, beans, mascapone and parmesan. Stir everything around. Once the cheese has melted in, get a large knob of butter, place in the middle and put the frying pan lid on – this lets the butter melt and the whole thing gets tied together with the flavours.

For serving we used a ring mould, topped the rice with micro herbs, poured some lemon oil dressing round the side and did some home made parmesan crisps (this was my first attempt and they weren’t great. Basically shave parmesan, add some seasoning, place a heap of the cheese about 3″ apart from the next and bake. Next time I will grill them)

Pork 3 ways

• Pressed Belly pork (with the skin scored and bones still attached)
• Pork Loin
• Parsnips (for the puree)
• Chorizo
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Crackling
• Pork Jus
• 2 Apples, peeled and cut into segments
• Brown sugar
• Butter

For the Pork Loin sauce mix the following together

• 3 tbsp Dijon Mustard
• 2 tbsp White Wine Vinegar
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil

The pork element was served 3 ways in this dish; pressed belly pork, sliced pork loin and sauted chorizo. We bought all the ingredients at a local farm shop, and they were top quality. We asked the butcher for a piece of belly pork big enough for 6 portions (each portion of belly was about 2.5″ sq per person).

The Parsnip Puree
The parsnip puree was made by roasting 10 large parsnips, drizzled with oil, pepper and salt, until soft enough to easily stick a fork into the thickest part. When cooked, allow to cool until ok to handle and scoop out the inner flesh. Pop the parsnip into a food blender and blend to a medium puree using the stock to help loosen it. Prior to serving, warm through in a saucepan and add 50ml of double cream and season to taste. Blob a heaped tablespoon onto the plate, and do a fancy chef smear.

The Pork Jus
So, the leftover stock at this point has been passed thru cloth to remove any bits and pieces, and then slowly simmered to reduce further. When we had enough volume wise, we added some more butter, checked the seasoning and then thickened it up with a little bit of cornflour. We aren’t looking for a gravy consistency here, something a little looser.

The Crackling
For the crackling ask your butcher for some extra crackling, and you should get some free of charge. We then sewed one sheet of this (about A4 size) onto a grill tray. We then oiled and seasoned and placed into a very hot oven until the crackling started to bubble up. To make things easier, you should cut the uncooked skin into strips, and then fix these in place on the grill rack as when we tried to cut the cooked crackling, it just shattered. It wasn’t a disaster, the crackling was very tasty, but it would look better on the plate as a rectangular strip.

Caramelized Apples
Cut the apples into eighths and leave in water, with lemon juice to stop browning. Heat some butter, about 50g or so, in a frying pan, then when it has melted gently add the apple slice. Add the brown sugar, enough to give a good dusting on each segment, and gently fry them. Turn them over during the cooking process and once they are looking medium brown, remove the pan from the heat and let them carry on cooking in the residual heat. Be careful when cooking with sugar as it gets VERY hot!!!

The Belly Pork
Place the belly pork onto a roasting tray, oil lightly and season. Cover with tin foil and roast at 140′C for 240 mins. When cooked, remove from the oven and remove the bones (used in the stock). Let it cool down a little and then get something really heavy (around 4kg) to use as a weight to press the pork. Leave this pressing for at least 1 hour. Once it’s been pressed, cut the pork into individual portions. This pork needs cooking a second time, which we did when we cooked the Pork Loin.

The Pork Loin
For the pork loin, simply sear in a hot pan, “paint” the sauce on, and roast for 30 mins at 230′C. When cooked, slice the loin into 1″ thick fillets and gently pan fry to brown off (when we cooked this, the pork loin was moist and still a bit pink in the middle). Let both meats rest for at least 15 mins.

While these 2 meats are resting, saute the chorizo until it starts to bleed oil and cook the vegetables. The carrots and broccoli should only take about 15mins (carrots the full time and broccoli less)

You may know that Highclere castle was used to film Downton Abbey – I’ve yet to see this series but friends at work have been to the castle (as part of a work outing) and had seen the various places where the filiming took place. The castle itself is lovely and I think they mentioned that the designer took inspiration from the House of Commons. Obviously being a castle it has lots of land, and the main area for the concert was held at the rear of the castle.

The basic format for these events is; you turn up either equipped with picnic stuff or hire it at the event; find a space within the marked area to set camp; sit back and enjoy the show. There were approximately 7500 people on the day but it didn’t seem that busy, however the picnic area did cover a vast amount of space.There were also a handful of stands selling the usual stuff, and a small fairground.

The main show started at 730PM and before that a Dixie/Jazz band played a few numbers, with some other pre-recorded classical pieces going through the speakers. At 645PM there was a display on horseback, showing how soldiers would use cutlasses to fight with – in this instance it was riding toward cabbages on spikes, but you get the idea. The horses also performed a ballet later in the evening.

725PM was the Evening Gun Salute – The gunners of the English Field Artillery Company heralded the commencement of the evening’s musical programme with a volley of shots from an authentic vintage field gun, answered by infantry musket fire.

At 730PM the orchestra started playing Holst’s ‘Jupiter’ as a restored WWII Spitfire performed aerobatics – I still get goosebumps now thinking about it. A perfect blue sky, setting sun, and this hero of the skies flying overhead to some beautiful music. It was very stirring stuff and I felt myself getting a bit teary! The pilot was the wife of the man who found and restored the plane. 3 years after getting it to flight status and using it he was tragically killed in a car crash. His wife knew his passion for the Spitfire so she got her pilot licence and has been performing these displays for many years now.

Various other pieces were played during the evening, and another highlight was  Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with live cannon fire and fireworks display. The signature piece which gives this special event its name: Beethoven’s ‘Battle Symphony’, a work which was originally composed to include the firing of 193 cannon as part of the score. We didn’t count the cannons, but there were quite a few and boy did they make a noise. The area where they were was soon covered in smoke, and it was like the old battles probably looked like.

Rounding off the evening were the flag waving pieces; Jerusalem, Rule Brittania and Land of Hope and Glory being rounded off by a brilliant firework display. If you’ve never been to one of these events then I would urge you to go. The website is here.

The Iron Duke is a quaint little restaurant, located in rural Stratfield Saye – an area that crosses the Berkshire/Hampshire border. I couldn’t find any reviews for the place, so went in “blind”. As it was a Thursday evening, and around 715PM, it was very quiet, but started to fill up more as the time passed by. Both of our waiters were very friendly, chatty and attentive. The dining area had 3 parts to it, all of them airy, clean and felt homely. We chatted with both Matthew & James (the owners who were also serving us) who said they had bought the place in Nov 2010 and refitted it. This refit was to a high standard too. They asked if we had been there before, to which we replied no and I said about seeing the sign going to work. I pointed out that the sign was near the Wellington Arms Hotel, and they informed us that they had both worked there the year before, but left to pursue their own place, good idea I reckon!

So, onto the food…..

We both ordered starters. I opted for the Baked whole Camembert infused with garlic & thyme which came with some dressed leave and chunky toast. Mini opted for the Ardennes pate with plums & Brandy served with warm toast & salad. Both starters were served on slate, never really fussed about slate to be honest. I thought the Camembert was very flavoursome, got hits of garlic in areas. Mini thought the pate was “so so”, it looked nice but I don’t think it delivered on flavour as much.

For our mains we both opted for Wellington Estate Lamb Wellington served pink with sauteed new potatoes & shallot salad. Cracking piece of lamb from the nearby Wellington Farm Shop (where we buy a lot of our meat), cooked perfectly too. I also ordered a side of their chips – yes I know but as you know if you’ve read my other posts, this is my benchmark of a chef, and I am happy to report that the chips were good! We did have one comment here about the main, we both thought the portion of potatoes could have been bigger. I think it was about 2 small potatoes cut in half, and they were small. The chips filled the gap though, but it was an extra cost.

For desserts I opted for Orange & Amaretti Truffle Torte. Nice light crumbly base, hint of Amaretti and a burst of orange here and there. Mini went for, surprise surprise, Chocolate fondant with ice cream which he really enjoyed. We both thought the desserts were a bit on the small side though, again nothing major but they were £5 each and I think my slice was about 1″ at the widest edge and about 1″ high. We finished off with coffees.

It was a really nice meal, with a few tweaks here and there it could be better. The fact that Matthew and James source as much as they can locally is commendable. They have a brilliant attitude, and really switched on with their service. I would recommend this to anyone who fancies a nice meal in the area. Total bill, including 1 pint of ale and 1 G&T, came to £78 – not cheap and I feel for these prices they could give a bit more in certain areas with regard to the portions.

Food – 7/10

Service – 8/10

Value – 6.5/10

This outing involved 4 of us and we had randomly chosen Dummer to just try out for a pub meal, not knowing what was there (very unlike me as I normally research EVERYTHING beforehand!) we drove through and saw this welcoming building. For a Wednesday evening it was fairly busy – not standing room only, but still a good number of people – this is a good sign I think. Ordering drinks at the bar you can take a look at the Specials board, which had both starters and mains. I had spotted a few bits that sounded yummy already.

The staff are all very friendly, and we asked where we had to sit to eat. They do have a dining area, but you can also sit in the main bar area so this is where we sat. After some deliberating we decided to go straight to the mains. I ordered the Wild Boar steak with chips and veg, and a side of onion rings. Our very friendly and happy waitress bought all our dishes over (from memory we also had lasagna, scallops and chili – all of which were given the thumbs up) and we tucked in.

The boar steak was a good thick slab of meat, and very tasty. I’ve never had boar before so I can’t compare this to anything – I don’t think it was overcooked, but it may have been near it, but still enjoyable. The accompanying veggies were carrots and broccoli. The onion rings were nice, but a bit sparse on the quantity I thought. They were £3 and the small plate had about 5 on there, but it was just a side order so nothing to really moan about (a few more would have been nice though!)

After filling ourselves up with the mains, we were offered desserts. We all “umm’d” and “aaah’d” and decided against it, thinking of our bodies as the well honed temples they are. The waitress cheekily said “I will come back in a bit”. She wasn’t fooling anyone we thought, we had made our minds up and were sticking to them, resolute. When she came back we all caved in and ordered a dessert each. I went for Sticky Toffee Pudding with custard, very nice and sticky. We also had 2 cheesecakes and an apple strudel, again all of these got the thumbs up. Everything, including drinks, came to £86, we paid £23 each which is pretty good for 2 courses and a few drinks.

In summary, if you are out near Dummer then take a look here. They have good beer on tap, a nice atmosphere, very friendly and happy staff and good pub food. Their website is here.

Food – 7/10

Service – 8/10

Value – 8/10

There were 2 of us for lunch and we chose from the Du Jour menu (as it was lunchtime we didn’t want anything too heavy). Upon reaching the main front door, it magically opened and we were greeted by the friendly front of house team.

We were asked if we wanted to have a drink in the bar, which we did (only juice!) and also had some olives and deep-fried whitebait with a mousse dip – nice nibbles. I ordered the following; Ham Hock Terrine, Sea Bream and the “Chef’s featured dish” for dessert, which at this time was Raspberry Souffle.

We had the chef’s appetiser, but I can’t remember what it was (it was something small in the bowl with no descernable taste). My ham hock terrine was accompanied with pickled mushrooms and a white bean puree – it looked very clean and appetising on the plate, and lived up to this when devoured. The terrine was light and flavoursome, and the veggies were well balanced, nothing too sharp.

When the sea bream was bought over, you got an instant whiff of sesame, and it was presented in a stack of noodles, mushrooms, fried onion rings and the fillet. The waitress then poured, from a large glass teapot, the galangal broth. A big hit of Thai spices leapt from the dish. The fish was cooked perfectly – crispy skin, succulent flakey flesh.

The pre-dessert were 2 coffe ice cream cones. Nice mini versions, about 2 mouthfuls, and the ice cream really packed a punch with its flavour. It was like having a handful of coffee beans in your mouth. Really really nice.

The dessert was sublime. A perfect souffle. Light, fluffy, half of it poking above the rim of the bowl. It came with a selection of fruits and a granata, which was lemony sharp.

The staff, as always, were attentive and polite. The restaurant got fairly busy from when we arrived (at 12pm) and had a good buzz to it. I was glad to not be disappointed on this 4th visit.

Food – 9/10

Service – 9/10

Value – 8/10