After complaining by habit about The Good Food Guide a companion and myself followed its recommendations and headed for Stratford-upon-Avon to have lunch at The Woodsman, the fairly recently opened restaurant in the expensively refurbished Falcon Hotel, now known as the Hotel Indigo, in Chapel Street. The Executive Chef of The Woodsman is Mike Robinson who is the co-owner of the Michelin-starred Harwood Arms in Fulham and the Head Chef is Jon Coates. The focus of the restaurant is the cooking of a range of meats - British game, beef, Hebridean lamb - as well as fish from Cornwall with the large wood-fired oven and charcoal grill at the heart of the kitchen. The restaurant opened in April 2019 in this 16th century building and its decor is pleasant and comfortable, aptly both rustic and modern.
The waiting staff were perfectly satisfactory though an occasional smile might have been pleasing. Food was placed on our table without explanation which in some ways was a relief as I can’t bear waiting staff giving long explanations of what is on my plate often with an inaudible voice and frequently with an indecipherable accent rendering the whole business completely unrewarding. On the other hand when special dishes such as those served at The Woodsman are put in place a few words introducing the occupants of the plate set before one can be helpful.
The starter lived up to my expectations of what The Good Food Guide’s ‘Best New Entry, UK’ should be serving up. Both my companion and I chose the miraculous, gloriously rustic, shockingly delicious Pressed terrine of pork and duck and pistachios with scintillating pickled chestnut, an unctuous chutney and a shock of a slice of pickled gherkin along with a good-sized slice of sourdough. This was a dish to dream about in years to come - on the surface simple but with some wonderful flavours with the terrine which was of perfect consistency and the mild stings of the delightful accompanying pickles. If only I could have a stock of the terrine and its accompaniments in my fridge at home to savour whenever I wish to do so. The most delicious terrine I’ve had in a long time.
For our main courses I chose dry-aged côte de porc with endive and caramelised apple and my companion chose partridge with which he was very satisfied. My pork chop was notable for its size and its gorgeous tenderness and how lovely it was to find apple accompanying it (chefs so often fiddle about with some other fruit to accompany pork and fail to realise that apple and pork are a long and happily married couple and no other innovative interloper can be replace the apple in that perfectly companionable relationship). The endive did not really thrill me and I initially felt resentful at being asked to pay £5.50 for a really rather small dish of ‘dirty mash’ and £5 for an equally small dish of creamed spinach but the mash was exquisite and the spinach unimpeachable and added to the sublime pleasure of this beautifully delicious British main course sans foam and all the other tiresome prerequisites of ‘modern British’ cuisine.
For the curious, ‘dirty mash’ is a lust-inducing combination of heavily buttery mashed potato with braised oxtail, lardons, crispy onions and English truffle. For this sidedish alone, I suspect The Woodsman was admitted to The Good Food Guide. I sit here as I write telling myself that I must have more of The Woodsman’s dirty mash and the sooner the better.
For dessert I chose a fine pumpkin cheesecake enhanced by cinnamon ice cream and salted pumpkin. It did not leave me ecstatic but comfortably pleasured and there is no reason to complain about that.
No comments:
Post a Comment