Solstice opened in 2021, rebranded from its former incarnation of being ‘Kenny’s cafe’ on the decision of Kenny Atkinson to make it a continuum and next chapter of House of Tides. By all accounts this was a serious menu and the details of my menu experienced are as follows:  

SMOKED EEL – this was a brandade, with crème fraiche, smoked eel, compressed granny apple and N25 hybrid caviar, served chicken skin crackers. This had a beautiful balance of the salt from the eel and caviar combined with the softening creme fraiche and acidity of the gel.   

BEETROOT – a crusade with chewy beetroot cooked in salt crust for 4-5 hours and seasoned with diced, dehydrated beetroot (having cooked in beef fat), cumin, elderberry pickled from last year, horseradish creme fraiche, carroway, and lightly pickled beetroot. This was good, with a chewy, salty texture and lovely crunch of the crustade. 

DUCK – chicken liver parfait with Pedro Ximanez sherry, pain d’epiese, fermented plum, dill and fresh flowers served in a spring roll pastry, parcel.  This was frankly outstanding – the perfect texture of the parfait also had real liver depth and was balanced with the supporting plum and dill gave the sweet and lightness it needed, all combined in the beautifully brittle pastry for texture – wonderfully enjoyable.

PORK – this course consisted of two elements, a dumpling and a broth.  The dumpling, pork shoulder, was made with dashi, cooked in pork fat, black bean paste, ginger,  pickled daicon, yuzu ponzu and trout roe – a lot of elements and a nice result with a very light batter and softened pork flavour.  The broth of pork collar was made with shiitake mushrooms, ceps, ginger seasoned with ponzu and miso oil. This was a very dark broth and quite salty.

LOBSTER – cooked in its own oil and served with sancho pepper, fresh red currents, yuzu gel, yuzu caramel, yuzu butter cream sauce and lobster head oil on top. Although the lobster piece was only just warm, the small piece had good sweetness and texture and overall lovely combinations of cream and citrus combined.

SASHIMI – a ‘palate cleanser’ which came with sea bass, cured in sake brine, rolled in black radish, blanched, finger lime, dill and ponzu, aged mirin, infused with shiitake and kombu, seasoned with bergamot, zest and toasted sesame oil.  This was aromatic to the last, complex and light. All the aramats worked well together and was good to have some vegetables in the mix for the meal.  

PARMESAN – a cheese mousse from 35 day macadamia nuts, glazed with Lea & Perrin sauce, gold dust, truffle, Parmesan sauce and South of France truffles from truffle company Wiltshire truffles.  This was absolutely delightful. I was grinning as a genuine dopamine moment from the first moment of this course.  Overall it had the perfect seasoning in amongst the aerated cheese with the truffle and  – beautifully done, showing real skill.

CATCH OF THE DAY – Monkfish from Hodgson Fish of Cornwall was dry-aged for texture, served with melody blossom, apple marigold and a smoked creamed sauce using Craster kippers. This was probably one of the best Monkfish I have ever had (they can so often be too chewy, but this was perfectly supple and smokey in flavour with amazing sauces, all washed down with a wonderful Riesling whilst listening to Simply Red For your Babies playing as the restaurant music in the background – I was utterly happy in this moment with everything.

SQUAB PIGEON – from Anjou, near Lyon.  The pigeon breast was served with a cherry glaze, cherry juice, miso, sake, sugar, seasoned with pink peppercorn, salt baked celeriac, topped with puree of celeriac, yeast, black garlic, cherry gel, butterfly sorrel and parsley.  The sauce was made using the carcasses of the pigeon wings and chicken with Madeira wine, chopped truffle, Parker house brioche brushed with chicken fat.  The pigeon was absolutely spot on with a lovely, deep sauce that had a delightful hint of aniseed touch in the sauce.  Beautifully made milk bread was provided to soak up all of the sauce possible and this was used to the maximum level possible. 

PEAR – a picturesque pre-dessert of goats yoghurt and goats milk crémeux came with horseradish jam, mashed pears, pear sorbet and a tuille (from pear pulp) with a final drizzle of pear and sage juice with sage oil. This was refreshing and lovely. Done. 

HONEY – the main dessert was a celebration of honey from the Northumberland Honey Company made from heather honey, parfait bergamot, fresh bee pollen, ice cream from grain.  The honey parfait was delicious with good texture and the ice cream with a pleasantly contrasting (nutty) toasted cereal flavour.  It was in effect an absolute showcase of honey as a dessert and one of the best honey desserts I’ve ever had. 

An array of petit fours was presented with coffee.  A cranberry tart crémeux with cinnamon, orange, cranberry gel, mascarpone; Granny Smith Apple financier creme patissiere  (lovely apple crumble feel to it); Manjeri chocolate with 64% cacao (not overly bitter, and nicely smoked sea salt complement); blood orange pate de fruit (fruit paste), infused blood orange, cardamon, Madagascan pepper (very good mix of spice and sweetness) and finally a tonca bean petit four of single origin Manjari 70% Valrhona chocolate, filled with tamarind gel and chilli ganache with chilli coconut – once again, very good handling of spice, heat and sweetness.

This was a very impressive menu and the consistency I enjoyed that pretty much every single course had a degree of freshness in amongst the sometimes complex mix of elements without confusing the overall result.  The atmosphere of the restaurant was charming with the lovely touch of the kitchen team bringing out and explaining the dishes themselves.  There is real care and pride in the work here and rightly so.  I thought this was Kenny Atkinson at his absolute best and certainly the most intricate and impressive menu I have enjoyed of his yet. I will wager that Solstice is very much the flagship beacon of the brand now, even if it is a more recent addition.

I have yet to have a bad meal in any way on any of my visits to Kenny Atkinson’s venues – they have strong consistency and based on this meal, Solstice is highly recommended as a result.

Food Grade: 87%

A series of well-prepared canapés began the meal.  ‘Uncle Juan’s rosti’ came with  sour cream & pickled onions and was a superb start. Next, for the meat eaters, ham, egg & Berkswell crumpet (just the egg for the vegetarian version) which was appealing, followed by an Oxtail & Thyme custard, bone marrow cordyceps and tarragon bite (minus the beef elements for the vegetarian option) – all fine.

The amuse bouche was Umbellifers (flowers) cooked in allium broth with ricotta, thyme and ramson (a form of wild garlic flower); this was deep and beautifully done.  Home made bread and whipped, salted butter were very well done.  Onion, onion, onion, mint was the name of the next course that comprised of onions cooked in dashi and celery, served with ricotta, onion crisp, thyme leaves and oxalis petals.

The first of the mains were corn fed roasted crown of chicken served with a herb rosti, honey glazed alliums, smoked aubergine and a white onion puree.  This included thyme, tarragon, pickled carrot, sour cream and ramson oil for the chicken and the seabass pescatarian version.  The sauces for these had good depth and worked with both dishes with another superb rosti to go with the mains.

The dessert was a delight and reminded me of Norwegian Rødgrød – a sweet composite of plum and damson served with goat’s milk, marigold oil, brown butter/sugar crunch on top.  Some at the table felt this was too sweet, but I thought fine when balanced with the goats milk and loved the texture of the butter and sugar crunch.  There will have one or two calories in this dish for sure, but I thought very good.

Redbank coffee was served with petit fours of buttermilk custard madeleines, sea buckthorn pastiles and chocolate grenache, all of which were good.  It completed a meal that was satisfying, clean cut and well presented.  The next time I am passing I will be delighted to come back in and try a freshly made sausage roll from Kevin Tickle’s team with a beer in their pub area – for around £10, I predict that will be one of the best purchases available.

Food Grade: 81%

First up, the interior is a converted pub in tasteful and very homely decor.  On entering, my group felt right at home, the feel was utterly unpretentious and I was delighted to discover it is a husband and wife team (Tim in the kitchen literally on his own with Kitchen Porter assistant) and his wife on front of house and in the restaurant.  Amazingly, they were able to accommodate my group of 8 guests after the British Open being held in Liverpool for 2023.

The set lunch meal was a staggering £45 per head for this special, no choice menu for this size of group, but the normal menu is still an incredible £42.50 for 3 courses.  This is frankly outstanding value for money when having food of the quality.  When I return (which I am already planning), I will definitely be staying over somewhere so that I/we can enjoy the full tasting menu at £95.

Our meal started with some of the best focaccia I have ever had in my life and dare I say, I think it even may be a fraction better than the beloved Sportsman, in its outstanding lightness and crust appeal made with its own butter.  Next came a construction of tomatoes with tomato consommé with yuzu sourdough, Parmesan and Iberica ham.  The consommé was utterly transparent, light, with good flavour to compliment the  sumptuous, peeled tomatoes and the lightly cooked sour dough had the perfect crunch (not too oily) with befitting parmesan and ham to accompany all.  Cornish cod was next which came with aerated eel dashi, horseradish, a lovely, smoked Pike roe and nori seaweed.  This all came together beautifully, the roe not too salty, the dish again light in feel and went down extremely quickly.

The meat here comes from the nearby Butcher Fowl Emporium and the meat dish was a maple toffee pork with English peas, truffle ‘snow’ and puffed potatoes.  Delicate is not the word.  The whole table was again blown away how the wonderful pork had been cooked and balanced with the maple sweetness which was not too sticky or sweet as can very often be the case, but at the perfect level.  My group of Singaporean dining companions are somewhat used to meat with an Asian twist, to the extent that anything less than excellent is immediately picked up on – the entire table gave this dish a resounding thumbs up on its handling and wonderful flavour (as did I, especially the sublime texture of the pork) which is probably the biggest compliment to gain from the tough dining crowd.

Cumbrian Duck came with fermented cherries, Scottish girolles, green pepper and sweetcorn.  I was initially concerned about the use of sweetcorn as can sometimes be almost too sweet when combined with other sweet aspects, but again, the fermented cherry had toned this down and the portion size of sweetcorn and all to accompany the superb duck was just right.  Another, carefully conceived and executed dish, gaining empty plates across the board.

The dessert was a triumph.  Lemken Strawberries were served with a vanilla ‘fresher’, garden lemon verbena and meringue shards that resembled the delicacy of my dessert at 3 Michelin starred Zen in Singapore.  This was perfectly light, sweet, refreshing and gorgeous in one.  In a final twist, as the chef knew that we had been enjoying the golf at the British open, the lemon verbena soft cream sphere was presented as a golf ball in a lovely touch for the group. A stunning dessert.

If that wasn’t enough, I was delighted to see that coffee was sourced from Difference coffee, one of the finest coffee producers in the world that only supply their coffee to chosen venues (the Yellow Bourbon being wonderfully full in body but lightly citrusy at the same time) and was the perfect finish with chocolate truffles that were pure velvet inside.  The conclusion was that everyone was sated yet not bloated and frankly, there was nothing that everyone did not enjoy – a huge hit rate.

As mentioned, I cannot speak more highly of this venue and for all the reasons above it is my firm recommendation that you try this venue if you are passing through anywhere near Liverpool or the surrounding counties.  This was the best meal from Tim Allen I have had to date, is easily one of the strongest 1 Michelin starred venues I have enjoyed.  I am frankly excited for the potential of where this could go.

Food Grade: 86%

North Sea Trout, Elderflower & Sugar Kelp dumpling, trout roe was a lovely start. Even more sumptuous was the Berwick Edge cheese, dry-aged carrot, & pickled lovage gel providing nice smokiness to the cheese.  Another bite was diced lobster, pine (naturally),  gooseberry, juniper, spruce brown butter emulsion – there was a sensational kick of pine dressing and gooseberry bits at the bottom of this and was a quality offering.

Shiitake mushrooms cooked in beef fat, with rosehip, elderberry and wild garlic provided the spice with pickled shiso adding a very sweet, element to a lovely mushroom course. The snowball turnip was marinated in sake, yoghurt with fennel pollen, fermented plum & fennel honey and shiso. This was a vibrant and tangy dish. mellowed by the yoghurt to temper the sharper elements. 

Einkorn Sourdough with house butters came with a fallow deer broth (which had a very deep flavour) lemon, thyme and hen of the woods.  The roe deer meatball with sunflower miso jam made from Scott’s pine was absolutely superb – salty, smoky, sweet and beautiful all in one.

Beetroot, cooked inits  own juices, made in to a syrup and then re-added came with Doddington’s Cheddar & last year’s walnuts, pickled green nut cheese rind made in to a mousse. The beetroot was so sweet, almost like apricot consistency and sweetness, gloriously light cheese foam. The restaurant should be given much credit here for converting essentially waste in to a significantly pleasurable cheese foam which would otherwise in 99% of cases simply be thrown away. 

Garden Juice of crab apples, Bradley’s, mint, sorrel and juniper was a very sweet course (verging on too much sweetness) but was a very good combination at the same time. Next came Monkfish, Fermented white asparagus, kale, sour cream, sugar kelp, rosemary & thyme oil with pumpkin seeds on top.  The (very good) fish is sourced from Hodgsons suppliers from the North Sea and was a very nice combination all round of creamy sauce and herb oil.

Dry-aged hogget (1-2 yr old) held a lovely fat content and was served via rump, leg and sausage made hearts livers and shoulders, dry aged to firm up flesh.  Artichoke & Magnolia (ginger flavours) sugar kelp from coast Berrick, lamb sage and mint jus with shiitake with oil from shechuan pepper leaves. I loved every element here and this held superb combinations and even the offal and liver sausage were great.  A magnificent dish worthy of a higher accolade than its current one. 

Next came a sea buckthorn tart, with wild flower yoghurt, wild camomile elderflower syrup, & Barberry.  Although small, this was an absolutely lovely bite. So delicate and sweet, soft at the same time and well controlled that the buckthorn was not too sharp as it very often is and can be without proper preparation.

A series of dessert bites and petit fours were served in the cosy lounge area after the meal on request.  These consisted of a few treats starting with rhubarb, steamed buttermilk custard, kombucha & fig leaf oil came with a brown butter and apple marigold Madeleine.  A Jerusalem artichoke cone with brown butter & parsley root was absolutely superb.  A salted parsnip skin, goats cheese & honey from the restaurant’s own bees came with iced caramel and honey comb.  This had good texture, a lightness and although not my favourite combination with the goats cheese this was again toned down well. Others included a blackcurrant & elderflower bon bon with white chocolate; caramelised whey biscuit which had natural sourness and black apple candy which had been three month sealed in containers for Maillard reaction, then dehydrated whole and then again pierced and dipped in caramel.  After a huge effort, this turned out to be a pleasant little bite.

Overall, Pine provided a very enjoyable dining experience all round with very good dishes, serious attention to detail, unique flavour combinations and attentive service. Highly recommended for anyone looking for an unique dining experience in comparison to most and I am glad they have gained a rightful Michelin star.

Food Grade: 83%

First up was a blackcurrant meringue with chicken liver parfait and crispy duck ham. The parfait was sharp, but absolutely beautiful, and the dish as a whole was a great start to the meal. Next came the Whitby crab with crab apple gel and apple tartlet. This bite was superb.  The flavors were perfectly balanced and the tartlet was especially noteworthy. Home made bread and butter came with beff dripping, and a lovely beef tea as another, enjoyable addition.

The first course was kohlrabi with lovage, kohlrabi purée, yeast flakes, and nasturtium leaves. The earthiness of the kohlrabi and yeast worked well together, and the emulsion added just the right amount of fat to liven up the juicy crunch of the kohlrabi. Next, came the the English Truffle Cruffin (a cross between a croissant and muffin) with a Yorkshire Pecorino veloute soup. While the soup was a bit too heavy and the truffle lacked real aroma, the cheese veloute was rich and silky – certainly not a chore to enjoy.

This was followed by Turbot with the commonplace Exmoor Caviar, cabbage, dill, and lemon verbena. The fish was quite salty but very succulent and overall this was enjoyable to have.  The main itself was a Venison loin coated in Madeira sauce with blackcurrant gel, bbq celeriac, and venison ragout. The dish was perfectly cooked and the flavours worked very well together; no complaints on this and was a genuine pleasure.

Pre-dessert was a hen of the woods (mushroom) ice cream with meadowsweet gel, cep powder, and a Magnum bar. The ice cream resembled an old lion bar and thankfully the mushroom flavour was not too pungent. An unusual dish, but a good crossover as a pre-dessert encapsulating sweet and savoury well.  (There are many crossovers that do not work).  We then tried the Yorkshire Rhubarb soufflé with custard.  This was a rose champagne mousse, rhubarb, and frozen custard. This was a novel idea and while it was a bit like frozen cream on top, it was still skilfully done as a soufflé and a refined dessert.

Lastly, I had the Sinodun Hill cheese with pine honey, pines Herbert (pine and honey from the estate), candied beetroot, bilberry flapjack, and bilberry gel. I felt the sweet and heavy flapjack and soft goat’s cheese didn’t quite work together, but the pine honey and pines Herbert were a nice touch.

Overall, this was a good meal which included lots of carefully prepared dishes, skilfully done with most of then creating genuine pleasure.  I would absolutely recommend Restaurant Shaun Ranklin at Grantley Hall, but if you are mentally prepared to part with just under £1,000 for staying over for the night and enjoying the Michelin starred option with wines for two, this will help as well.  There are a number of quality, other facilities to enjoy in the hotel and breakfast served in the room in the morning (which is also included in the room price which is a very good aspect) was very done as well.  A very stylish and good option to enjoy for a romantic treat and short get away.

Food Grade: 81%

We opted for the a la carte such were the lovely choices and reasonable prices and which turned out to be filling with all add ons.  Snacks of malt wheat cured trout, chalk stream trout roe and seaweed were offered with a selection of charcuterie comprising of garlic and fennel salami and copper pork cheek. Cured meats are taken seriously at Moor Hall, so much so, that their larders take up the majority of the ground floor of the Barn and are also served as snacks in their 2 Michelin starred flagship restaurant on site as well.

An amuse bouche of chilled wild garlic veloute from locally foraged garlic was fresh and superb.  One starter was had which was the organic celeriac with coolea cheese, hazelnut,  and smoked celeriac tea in a hazelnut celeriac broth.  This was very good and an inventive take to enjoy this versatile and underused vegetable.

For the mains, by myself and father enjoyed the fish courses.  Cornish turbot came from a 5kg fish and was poached in brown butter, served with warm roe tartare sauce, charred gem, Devon crab and a crispy potato basket.  This was beautifully seasoned, creamy and light at the same time.  The cod main was also Cornish, saved with smoked onion, charred leek and bacon crumb.  Perfectly succulent and fresh cod had all other components working very well and some (ok only) Jersey Royals came with a somewhat viscous seaweed butter which wouldn’t have been my personal choice; I would prefer to have the beauty of the Jerseys just glazed with butter (or minted butter as had in former Ormer, Jersey).  However, both mains were very good regardless.

As the dishes were so pleasingly filling we didn’t actually need dessert and the petit fours of vanilla macarons and chocolate and hazelnut chocolate truffles were actually a lovely sweet to finish on regardless and completed a very satisfying visit.

For all the plus points of casualty, yet looking very smart and homely, the down to earth nature of the food and reasonability of the menu prices, it’s actually a little tricky to say which I would rather go to at Moor Hall, here or the 2 Michelin starred restaurant.  I think it’s actually the perfect example of the difference between best and favourite – the 2 star restaurants is clearly the finer and better quality food, but Barn is actually my favourite for all the above reasons.  I would like to go to the main restaurant again, but actually more looking forward to the Barn for greater number of visits.

Food Grade: 73%

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%

The head chef is Will Lockwood formerly of L’enclume and Noma.  First up was shiitake and cep Mushroom & Lemon Verbena served with Lardo.  This had a delightful aroma, was more salty than mushroom, but tempered  by the sweet verbena.  Next came a tartlet of salt-aged beef in marigold oil, artichoke mousse, yeast, fermented turnip, marigold, dried ox heart on top with dried marigold petals.  This was undeniably delectable, with soft notes of ox and a gentle mousse -it was in fact an absolute triumph of a canapé.

The next course was pear, spruce salt, Cote Hill Blue granita and a black apple purée aged over 2 months at 60 degrees.  This was a pleasant take on cheese, called blue sense with an iced, snow effect which was complemented by the apple.  Next came a crab custard, with parsley sauce with parsley oil, pickled parsley and wild Caviar from the supplier Petrossian.  Along side was a crab toast brioche dipped in custard and fried in clarified butter, served with pink crab parsley gel, dill and dried chilli.  The brioche was actually a tad soggy here, but the flavour was good with the faintest kick of chilli and a crab custard that was utterly smooth with good seasoning.  Such was the occasion I tried a glass of Classic Cuvee, Charles Palmer 2015 (Sussex, England) which was fine as a refreshing glass of fizz.

Home made Sour Bread from pastry chef Martin came with cultured butters, the sour sough holding a brittle crust. Chive butter and cultured butter using yoghurt were served with the well done bread.  Next up came Senshyu onion, whey, chanterelles, brined over night, then pan fried served with pickled brown beach mushroom, yogurt whey sauce with chive oil mushroom buerre noisette drizzle.  The sweet onion and pickled onions were a treat here here and this was a good dish of complimentary elements.

The fish course was Monkfish (sourced from Hogsons of Hartlepool in a change from the Flying Fish company), served with brassicas, slightly steamed, garden kale, tender stem broccoli cooked on barbecue, lightly aerated hollandaise sauce with fermented celeriac and horseradish.  This held a lovely and gentle kick of horseradish on the hollandaise however the monkfish was sadly a little cold.  The barbecued effect on the vegetables had a good finish to the dish as the garnish.

The meat main was wild Scottish red deer venison (from R and J butchers Rippon), infused with juniper,  supplier Damson jus, Flowering Currant vinegar, beetroot, hen of woods mushroom, black garlic emulsion, beetroot purée and hen of woods mushroom.  On the side was a freshly fried dodoughnut with shoulder of venison ragout inside.  The venison itself was absolutely loaded with sweet, smokey sauces coating melt in mouth venison and was a pleasure. The doughnut was ok, but I was less convinced on the combination; the sweetness of the dough and the currant inside almost made it a slightly confused normal sweet donut with meat inside and was probably the low part of the meal for me.

However, on to the actual sweets, which started with rhubarb (a favourite of Tommy Banks and an apt vegetable for the restaurants with its thick roots), hay, lemon verbena, chantilly cream whipped with hay, rhubarb compote oxalis leaves sweet broth with rhubarb shnapps, meringue and sherbet disc. Potato custard dusted with ground chicory root & Chicory Root ice cream crumble. This was gorgeous all round especially the hay-flavoured Chantilly cream which was superb.

The petit fours were also good.  These consisted of three pieces: a brown butter and chicory root ice cream sandwich with caramel which was delicious; a rhubarb tart with meadowsweet & white chocolate which was fine and a lovage & chicory root tasting of fudge and was pleasant enough.  All these came with the coffee from the local Lonton coffee company which was likewise fine.

Overall, this was a serious food affair and the dishes were obviously carefully constructed.  To my surprise I actively didn’t gel with a couple of the courses, but the skill level in general is not in question, more the choice of certain combinations.  These were intertwined in some elements that were absolutely fantastic so it was a varied meal overall, but all served via hospitable hands and in a very pleasant and well designed environment. I would recommend dining here absolutely and if I was invited by a friend to come here, I would instinctively look forward to it based on this visit.

The meal started with Black pudding “bon bons” with Cumberland sauce and pickled apple which had a very good tang from the pickled apple. Oyster macarons with cucumber and sorrel were so well done – sweet, light and a wonderful crunch of meringue and lovely oyster aroma and taste.  This was quality control speaking.  Another bite of wild rabbit with carrot, coriander and piccalilli had a lovely crisp and was just what a canape should be – in the mouth in one and sumptuous. 

Last Wolf beer bread with Winter Tarn butter was a delight and was followed by one of the nicest crab dishes I have ever had.  The crab was fabulous, the delightful light tapioca crisp was light and complimentary, the amazing avocado ice cream was a dream to balance and it was heaven in a bite.  This one dish was single-handedly responsible for making the whole trip worth it. Cauliflower with potted shrimps had spiced mead veloute and raisins. This had a lovely soft curry flavour running through and was hoovered up quite quickly. 

A Herdwick hogget (from Yew Tree Farm) was a total delight. The mushrooms, picked in the woods around Ambleside gave a great combination all round along with the peas puréed.  It also included a loin tartare with garlic emulsion (good) and wonderful, simple potatoes cooked in lamb fat – perfect. 

“Queen of the Meadow” mille-feuille dessert was the only slightly low point in that the pastry a little thick and heavy and in spite of the pleasant raspberries and caramelised white chocolate, the deliberate more burnt effect of the pastry didn’t do it for me.  Petit fours of Woodruff macaron and Buckthorn truffle however, were a step back in the right direction.

The two brothers were simply charming and this is a delightful far cry from egotistical teams or head chefs that you can easily find yourself surrounded by in London and this represented the best of British, in a basement in Ambleside, Cumbria.  I would strongly recommend anyone to take a journey far afield for food, because this is exactly what you can stumble upon when you do.  Absolute repeat worthy and a total gem experience.  Thank you and well done the Blackburns.

Food Grade: 77%

This restaurant with rooms is nestled in the huge Whinlatter Forest which is in the north of the Lake District.  It is quite a journey from virtually anywhere and you will need to make sure your map reading / route is prepared as you will lose signal from most devices following GPS to get to the spot.  Full COVID measure were in place including controlling the seating, staggered timings, hand gel available everywhere, lounge sealed off, all menus within each room and staff all wearing masks – credit to them, all seemed very well done.

The 7-course tasting menu started with nibbles of light and fluffy cheese gougers and breadsticks with yeast powder.  The canapes that followed were duck fritters with an apple-vinegar and mustard emulsion; duck liver parfait on rye crackers (which were super) and fermented turnip inside beef tartar in rye bread.  A pleasant way to start any meal.

Because we arrived much later than wished, we hardly had any time to look at all the menus in the room on checking in.  When perusing the winelist for the first time in the restaurant I was quite amazed at the reasonably priced selections.  We opted to have a bottle of Pol Roger Brut to enjoy through our meal and even though this was non-vintage, its price at £65 was hard to miss as this is very pleasant champagne and this is barely 0.25 of the mark up.  In London you can expect to pay at least double this for this bottle and in many places such as Mayfair, three times as much easily.  The wine list changes frequently and reminds me of the same magnificent value you get for this at The Sportsman.  It is rather incredible what happens when you venture out of London.

First course up, this was tomatoes in tomato dressing with prawn tartare.  The herb oil and tomato consommé were beautifully done and didn’t detract the sweetness of the fish – if you are going to have raw prawn, this is a very good way of doing it and a delightfully fresh start.  Homemade Black treacle bread and sourdough were good to have as well.

Cured chalk stream trout with oyster cream, dill oil, compressed cucumber & seaweed came with very thin breadsticks to add a crunch that it needed and this was another very pleasing dish to have.  The additions to the trout were classic and with a very well-judged flavour of the oyster running through and the acidity of the compressed cucumber balanced the cream nicely.

Next up was seared venison served in thin slices almost resembling carpaccio.  These slices of almost raw venison came with sour fennel, cabbage, caper jam, pine nuts and glorious smoked emulsion.  This was a star dish if ever there was one and was not a surprise to be me to discover that it had evolved as a signature dish over many years.  The venison had great flavour and married beautifully with its smoked emulsion.  You really could have two or three of this course alone.

My other half had hand-dived scallop, celeriac, truffle and lovage oil and I had the same but with wild turbot from a 4.5kg fish owing to avoiding scallops at the moment.  The sauce to go with both was not my favourite in its yeast-like flavour from the lovage oil, but it was executed as well as one can and the cut of turbot was warmly received.

Herdwick Hogget is a prized Cumbrian lamb that has a distinct grey coat and white face. This course was the loin served with peas, fermented turnip and a side or braised shoulder of the lamb with red cabbage.  The main loin was succulent and delicately presented – not too much of anything else and its quantity of bed of mash and reduction was judged perfectly as was the cooking.  I actually thought that the shoulder was in danger of out-shining the loin however, and this had an intense flavour and marriage of the pickled cabbage with the reduction and mash again.

Being in the forest that we were, Douglas Fir is abundant all around and the chef has used as much of the locality as possible.  A sorbet of Douglas Fir with panna cotta, lemon & yoghurt was an absolutely cracking dessert – the fragrance of the Fir, complemented by the freshness of the lemon, the rich crumbs and panna cotta came together brilliantly.  It was hard to say whether this was a pre-dessert or just one of two small desserts, but this was knock out regardless.  The final dessert of dark chocolate mousse & almond frangipane with cherries was agreeable with a luxurious feel to the mousse and a pleasant way to finish off the meal.

Service in the restaurant was absolutely delightful – warm hospitality and genuine care for the experience.  Chef Ben Wilkinson afforded his time to us at the end of the meal which had been superbly delivered by the floor manager Monique and her sommelier as very good hosts all round.  Staying at the venue allowed me to enjoy glasses of champagne throughout the evening and I would say if you do not live locally, then this is clearly the no brainer way forward to enjoy it properly.

I am still pinching myself slightly at the outstanding value of this night’s stay to include the accommodation, Michelin starred tasting menu and a fully cooked breakfast of several choices for two people for circa £265 (prior to any supplements).  This is rock solid 1 Michelin starred cooking and was a genuine pleasure to experience.   Well done the Cottage in the Wood.