Hjem (Hexham)

Wall, where the restaurant is based, is a hamlet within Northumberland and Hjem has a gorgeous view of the surrounding rolling countryside from its vantage point. I very much liked the way that beers and many non-alcoholic drinks options are just as promoted as the more expensive wines upon entry. The restaurant has a lovely bar and waiting area for all diners that were hosted prior to being welcomed in to the restaurant table by table. Another nice touch was the steamed towel for everyone at  the table before any of the meal was served. You only have to dine anywhere in Japan for this to appear, even at the most routine of places every day to realise why it is such a good idea and ask why don’t more places do it in the UK? It’s a delight when it is produced as it was here. 

The opening snack was a choux pastry beignet of duck liver,  spring onion, duck skin, glazed in flower honey. This was a superb start – the pastry was light, good flavour on the duck liver and the salty, crunchy duck liver skin offset perfectly by the spring onion and sweet honey glaze. Could have eaten 5 of these very quickly. 

Cured egg yolk with eel was served in an egg shell with aerated brown butter foam and rainbow chard. This was utterly delightful and light – the salt content from the eel was pitch-perfect and I was overjoyed with the simplicity of this snack. A croustade of lobster emulsion, lobster claw, fennel jelly and fresh dill was next. This was another very good snack: the thin crust shell held the abundant lobster filling well and the hit of fennel jelly and dill were fresh and strong.  On reflection, there is not actually a huge difference between this crusade and that served by Zen, the 3 Michelin starred Scandinavian-Asian restaurant in Singapore by the legendary Bjorn Franzen.

Celeriac tart with trout belly smoked cod’s roe came with a hint of nduja for a gentle kick and I thought worked surprisingly well. Then a tartlet of rump tartrate (aged for 2 weeks) served with anchovies, rapeseed oil and potato which was hard to fault in anyway with a beautifully balanced level sweetness within the seasoning of the tartare on a perfectly thin, crusted tartlet. 

Mushroom on toast home made sour dough, preserved chanterelle mushrooms (pickled from 2021), parsley and lardo from Rachel Hammond (who also supplies the nduja) and mustard seeds. This was beautifully sweet from the pickling and mustard seeds and practically dissolved in the mouth. Another hot towel arrived at the end of this final snack which was another very welcome addition. 

The first course was white asparagus with a butter milk foam and covered in caviar from the prized supplier N25. There was an absolute abundance of caviar on this dish and although I was afraid this would seriously impact on the salt content, it was actually again, balanced extremely well, giving just the right amount of salt uplift to the buttermilk foam. The asparagus itself was good quality and a pleasure, but perhaps more a vehicle for the supporting acts covering it. 

Dover sole from a 5kg fish, gently steamed came with green asparagus and a goats butter with lovage oil sauce. The sole, whilst not the most powerful in flavour was perfectly cooked and was melt in the mouth and the goat’s butter was nicely toned down (goats cheese and milk can be quite pungent and too strong but this was well judged). The asparagus and barbecued vegetables gave a good, complimentary bitterness to level everything up and was an enjoyable dish.  

Bread from home-milled grains to make a brioche glazed with brown butter and serve with air-dried ham. The brioche was wonderfully light and so simple with the glaze and ham doing a lovely job to add the extra finish. No messing around required here and this went down entirely well. 

The next small course was morel mushroom ‘mushi’ served with preserved hedgehog mushrooms, thyme, tarragon, custard of morel with a broth made with pork. A very light and fragrant dish and almost aromatic with the strong impact of the herbs (particularly the tarragon) and when all combined with the salty broth and creamy custard, this was a little interlude that packed a large punch and worked very well together. 

The final savoury course was pork, grilled and barbecued served with cauliflower purée and wild garlic in tempura batter. Entirely enjoyable dish. The pork itself on its own had quite reserved flavour, but with the nicely judged additions made for a very nicely done main course in typical, light fashion with all working well together again. 

The first of the sweets was caramelised oat, horseradish ice cream and apple gel which is also the only dish to have remained on the menu since the beginnings of the restaurant. Although I found some parts of the horseradish and various spoonfuls a little good salty, I appreciate the crossover that it and it’s point as a pre-dessert, blending sweet and savoury.  

The main dessert was a brown butter ice cream, cream with rapeseed and Pedro Ximénez syrup and waffle. Although the crust of the waffle was a little over for me, I could see everyone’s at the same level, so is clearly how the kitchen wished it to be. The brown butter cream and ice cream itself was a good spread to smother the waffle with and that was easily done. 

Coffee was from a Newcastle based company called Pink Lady. I fancied tea instead for a change to go with the abundance of petit fours. These included: canallés of rum and vanilla (slightly harder shell than am used to); tartlets of milk chocolate and black pepper and a melt in the mouth shard of meringue; Munsmuns (Swedish tea cakes) of marshmallow, white chocolate and bee pollen (very nice) and set jellies of elderflower and vinegar and brown butter financiers with caramelised filling (warm and homely final additions). 

Overall this was a quality menu all round served by a very hospitable team and for the quantity of high grade ingredients, the price tag of £120 was perfectly reasonable (editor’s note: now £150 I believe in 2023).  The view of Northumberland from the charming dining room is very pleasant and the whole experience is one I would heartily recommend.  It gets a definite thumbs up from myself and I would return in a heartbeat.

Food Grade: 83%