The front-of-house welcome is excellent (how many places take your coats these days?), solicitous, friendly and welcoming. The bar is very well stocked, the menu reassuringly limited to three options per course (too much choice is always a bad sign of food quality). The three...dinner courses turned out to be seven, if you count the amuse-bouches served in between. These included three kinds of bread (white, sourdough, tomato) and three butters (standard, parsley and garlic, and one blended with an olive tapenade), the bread freshly baked on the premises.
The first course - sea trout - was a bit of a surprise as the accompanying vegetables included a tiny meringue (a cheffy fad these days which I account as silliness, since the young vegetables were sweet enough), the second - pan-fried cod in a brown shrimp sauce with asparagus and baby broad beans - was perfect (never had a better), but the last - coming after the pre-dessert, a tiny but perfect tiamisu - was strawberries, mascarpone and ice cream - a disappointment as they were chilled, semi hard and almost devoid of taste despite being locally grown and not from a supermarket, though I'll admit the choice of varieties is very limited at the end of the season.
The wine list was comprehensive - we had a Sancerre to accompany the first two courses, and a glass of Tokaji Aszu which improved the strawberry experience, and when the coffee (accompanied by macaroons, fudge and chocolates) was served we were delighted to be offered a choice of two Armagnac brandies (they will warm the balloon glass for you at the table on request).
Not cheap but well worth it. wonderful place to go to celebrate a special occasion with the very best of everything, but to do it every week would probably kill me.More