Freemasons, Wiswell

Freemasons at Wiswell is the no.1 ranked pub in the Good Food Guide's Top 50 UK pubs 2015. It is also ranked 41st in the Top 50 Good Food Guide. The surrounding area is a haven for good food in the North West with the likes of Northcote and Parkers Arms for company.

The pub is set in the quiet village of Wiswell and parking can be found along the tight roads outside residential houses. The food was presented exquisitely with well matched flavours and excellent cooking. We can see why the venue has amassed such accolades and the pictures below speak for themselves.

Soup - English Asparagus and Lancashire Cheese, Truffled Cheese Hot Dog (£8.95)

 

Jersey Royals - Cooked in Bacon Dashi, Morel Mushrooms, Crispy Hen’s Egg, Iberico Ham (£11.95)

Herdwick Lamb - Roast Loin and Breast, Ewes Milk and Black Olive, Wild Garlic, Roast Cevennes Onion, Haggis Shepherd’s Pie (£24.95)

XL Diver Scallop - Roast and Tartare, Sweet Potato and Granny Smith Apple, Pork Nuggets, Xo Sauce (£24.95)

Michel Cluizel Chocolate - Single Estate, Vanilla and Pedro Ximenez Caramel Poached Pineapple, Rum, Raisin and Passion Fruit, Brown Butter Ice Cream (£9.95)

Souffle - Passion Fruit with its own Ice Cream, Hot Chocolate Sauce (£11.95)

The Pony & Trap, Chew Magna

The Pony & Trap is a Michelin starred country pub run by Josh and Holly Eggleton in Chew Magna, around 7 miles south of Bristol. The pub places emphasise on a field to fork ethos and source food as locally as possible from suppliers around the Chew Valley and the South West.

Chef Josh Eggleton was recently on the Great British Menu and has an impressive pedigree, having worked at the likes of The French Laundry and Chanterelle. During our visit last month we ordered the tasting menu at £60 per head along with the very competitively priced wine flight at £25.

A selection of canapes were delivered including pork crackling quavers with apple purée, scallipops, pan fried scallops wrapped with pancetta and a celeriac soup with cheddar foam. The latter came with a delightful Parmeasan mustard palmier.

The first course was squash, Stilton and chicory with pumpkin seeds. Nice and fresh with different textures including deep fried squash.

HEC – Chefs take on ham, egg and chips with home cured bresaola, hens egg and watercress.

Brill, artichoke and girolles with burnt onion purée. The brill was cooked on the bone and was an extremely generous portion for a taster dish, it could have passed for a main course!

Rabbit, smoked pear and cabbage. Rabbit loin stuffed with offal served with a hodgepodge of black pudding. Again a main sized dish with three huge slabs of rabbit which were moist and well seasoned. The cooking was superb as the offal remained pink yet cooked through.

Spiced posset, a tea smoked prune lemon granite

Stout cake, walnut and caramel, paired with a glass of Triana Pedro Ximenez which was like Christmas in a glass.

The Pony & Trap is well worth a visit if around the Bistrol area. Good hearty well cooked food befitting of a country pub.

The Coach, Marlow

The Coach is Tom Kerridges second restaurant in Marlow which has been open a little less than two weeks. Needing no introduction as chef is regularly on TV promoting British produce and refined pub grub which is accessible to all. The Coach first peaked our interest during an appearance by chef at the Liverpool Food and Drink Festival in September, where he spoke passionately about his ethos and understanding the difficulties in getting into his acclaimed 2 Michelin starred restaurant, The Hand & Flowers. Therefore wanting to spread his food and seeming genuinely humble and appreciative of the public support, The Coach operates a no bookings policy.

Marlow is a bustling little town and it was surprising how busy it was full of cars and high street shops, somehow in my mind I thought it was similar to the peaceful and calm Bray. The interior of the pub is plush with seats for diners across the bar along with tables around the sides.

Having two restaurants in Marlow makes for easier management and it was nice to see Tom Kerridge overseeing the operation from the bar and chatting to customers. Marlow is probably a good location for other reasons as well, namely for the affluent population. We were aghast when in when a lady walked into the waiting area and promptly declared it to be a horrible little room and that they should go for a stroll instead! It was a narrow small waiting room to be fair with staff walking through constantly but it was clean and certainly better than being out in the cold. Other customers would stroll in and nonchalantly ask for glasses of champagne as if it was the norm for a Saturday afternoon.

After a short wait and a quick gander at the menu we were seated and were told that the dishes were all starter/tapas sized with prices from a reasonable £2.50 - £14.50 . Like a kid in a sweet shop we wanted to order everything but restrained ourselves incase we were too greedy for our own good. 

The dishes arrived thick and fast and we started with salmon tartare on rye bread cracker and moules marinière with warm stout & brown bread. The salmon tartare resembled a larger version of the typical amuse in many restaurants these days. The salmon was fresh if a little drowned in the cream dressing. The mussels were served without shells and were large and cooked just right with an exquisite white wine sauce.

 

Mrs Noms favourite dish was the mushroom “risotto” Claude Bosi, a dish with a nod to the Michelin starred chef of Hisbicus in London. A risotto without rice but with indulgent cheese binding together the wild mushrooms. I only got one spoonful in as Mrs Nom enjoyed it so much she forgot about leaving me any!

The next dishes were certainly large than the average starter, more like small mains. A whole stuffed rotisserie quail and roast pork belly with crackling, mash and pickled cabbage, finished with a side of Coach chips with béarnaise.

The quail was moist and succulent, stuffed with fig and sausage meat. The skin could have been crisper though however. The roast pork belly had a delightful crunchy crackling, the mash was one of the smoothest I have experienced. A larger serving would have made a great roast dinner. The chips were good as expected although a touch too crispy on the outside.

As an introduction to the food of Tom Kerridge, this is good refined British pub grub and Hand & Flowers is definitely on the agenda next… if we can get a table that is!

The Hinds Head, Bray

The Hinds Head is a 1 Michelin star picturesque gastropub set in the heart of the Village of Bray near Maidenhead.  Owned by Heston Blumenthal whose flagship restaurant, The Fat Duck is only a hundred yards away.  We parked in the village car park and walked past at half seven to see lots of empty tables, we were tempted to pop in to chance our luck.  However we decided against it and went on towards The Hinds Head where we had a booking. On our return to the car we noted that every table was occupied so we stopped ourselves looking foolish!

The decor of the pub retains its traditional interior and has a 'ye olde' feel with a mixture of timbers and whitewash walls. Having decided on the Hereford Prime ribeye for main I knew it would be filling so we settled on sharing a selection of starters. We couldn't look past the famous scotch egg made with soft boiled quail egg wrapped in sausage meat and fried in panko breadcrumbs. The egg oozed magnificently when cut in half. This was without doubt the best scotch egg I have ever tasted.

Together with the scotch egg we also had devils on horseback, prune and chutney wrapped in smokey bacon. These would make for some seriously good party food. Hash of snails completed the starters.  The quantity of plump snails was generous, cooked beautifully in garlic butter and topped with fennel and parsley cress. The hash consisted of a grilled slice of sour dough bread which I am glad was not too crispy and was easily eaten with cutlery.

The main event was the Hereford Prime ribeye with bone marrow sauce and triple cooked chips. The choice was decided by the inclusion of the chips which I heard were unmissable. It's very rare that the sides dictate what I choose. We shared everything but the chips and ordered another portion, a bit greedy of us but the right decision when we sunk our teeth into them. A crispy dream on the outside with a fluffy centre, they were the ideal accompaniment for the steak. Cooked to medium as suggested by the team to allow the fat to render down was simply quality. Just above pink in the middle yet being perfectly moist with the marbled fat bringing the whole thing together and adding flavour. The chips needed the rich bone marrow sauce than the steak which I would of eating by itself no problem.

As we were sharing we also ordered the roast turkey dish as it was December after all. Served with chestnut and prune stuffing, roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables it was not a patch on the ribeye and chips. Although it would of been fine as a main course by itself if we were not sharing. The quality of the turkey was undeniable as you would expect but the dish just lacked the wow factor.

We were stuffed after the mains due to having a portion of chips each but found room to share treacle tart with milk ice cream. The star of which for me was the ice cream, although the tart was surprisingly light which is what we needed but not sweet enough. Petit fours included a red wine jelly in chocolate cups which sent us on our way very happy indeed. Next stop in 2014 when returning to Bray has to be The Fat Duck with fellow 3 starred Bray restaurant, The Waterside Inn close behind.