After a rather larger-than-I-expected Ploughman’s lunch at the the Old Thatch Tavern (see Blog 75) I used my afternoon in Stratford upon Avon walking Lucy The Labrador up to Holy Trinity Church, last resting place of possibly the West Midland’s greatest historical figure, William Shakespeare, and in the evening walked the 100 or so yards from the wonderfully atmospheric and ancient Shakespeare Hotel which is one of the few Stratford hotels to welcome dogs and their humans, to The Woodsman restaurant situated in the also ancient Falcon (now the Hotel Indigo Falcon) to see what dinner there would be like having previously visited there for lunch (see Blog 67) back at the end of September 2019.
It too was very atmospheric as one stepped out of the dark late January evening Chapel Street with the vague feel of drizzle in the air into the lively, warm, brightness of the Woodsman’s dining room with its open kitchen giving full view to the two chefs toiling over the large wood fire ovens stirring their little sauce pans and arranging the fruits of their work on plates and summoning the bustling waiters to deliver the service.
There really did seem to be a veritable ant colony of waiting staff walking around in all directions like a scene from an Eisenstein film. I noticed an unfortunate stuffed weasel in one corner of the room. When I say stuffed I do not mean that it was content and overfed rather that it was dead, discontented and had experienced the attentions of a taxidermist with whom it would probably have preferred not to have had any contact. I thought it was a rather strange item to have in a dining room but perhaps people like to have stuffed weasels around them when they’re eating an expensive meal. And anyway he did look like quite a nice weasel with a pleasant little smile on his face - not at all like the nasty stoats and weasels you read about in Toad Of Toad Hall.
The theatre of the drinks trolley took place - apparently the negroni is something to experience but I settled for a less thrilling Elderwood g and t - and then a young woman plopped a couple of slices of bread with some butter on the table with none of the usual detailed explanation - which actually I would quite liked to have been given - of the nature of the bread or the special peculiarity of the butter. The delivery of the bread, conducted in silence, contrasted with the dramatic monologue, RSC-style, delivered when the drinks trolley was doing its rounds.
I chose as starter a very fine terrine of local game birds and root vegetables served with Yorkshire rhubarb and granola. I shan’t go on about textures and flavours save to say in all such quarters this was a splendid starter and, as can be seen, a pretty dish too.
I knew I should have had some of the local game for my main course as that is The Woodsman’s true raison d’etre and one probably isn’t doing justice to the place if one opts for the fish but I did and that’s that. I chose the Grilled halibut tranch. ‘Tranch’ was the giveaway. Dishes at The Woodsman are relatively expensive but the diner can not complain about ungenerous helpings.
The halibut was well-cooked but the size of the portion was so great that I began to tire of it and the last few forkfuls were hard to accomplish. The fish was accompanied by a smidgeon of red wine sauce and more of the sauce would have helped and there was also some salsify which is a vegetable about which I have my reservations when it comes to the flavour department and black trompette mushrooms and some sea herbs. I congratulated myself on forgetting to order a side-dish of the Woodsman’s excruciatingly delicious ‘dirty mash’ which, although it is a wondrous creation, would have thrown me over the edge of excessive consumption. When I first saw the dish the word ‘magnificent’ came to my mind but, I learned, you can have just a little too much magnificence in your life. It was a very satisfactory main course but I shall be careful not to have something which calls itself a ‘tranch’ in the future.
For dessert I had a fine fool with slices of blood orange lurking delightfully in its depths. Again it was quite a generously sized dessert but I battled my way to an emptied dish nonetheless.
I think the Woodsman has its faults though a true trencherman would find it difficult to agree with me. But I do like The Woodsman. I think it’s delivering the sort of food to diners’ tables which an English restaurant should be delivering at the beginning of the 2020s. The atmosphere, particularly on a dark winter’s evening, is absolutely spot on. All the tables in the area of the kitchen were occupied and all my fellow diners looked rather pleased about things.
The following evening, having decided to eschew the professional critics’ darling, Salt, on the grounds that I went a couple of times soon after it was opened and, while having been impressed with the food, was less so with the service whereby the young people waiting there didn’t really seem to get it. I won’t elaborate but merely state that instead I dined at the doyen of Stratford’s fine food, ten years old this year, Wayne Thomson’s petite but perfectly formed No 9 Church Street, next door to which Paul Foster chose to open Salt. It must be a challenge being the fine dining restaurant situated immediately next door to a Michelin-starred Restaurant even if you do have a Michelin plate yourself especially when you’ve been around a lot longer than the upstart neighbour. Luckily No 9 seems to have a long-established clientele and an accomplished restaurant manager in the form of Magda Maciaszczyk who charmingly makes one feel comfortable and welcome at the restaurant in a way that one does not experience next door at Salt.
With a micro-bar downstairs one climbs an ancient staircase to arrive at the comfortable and pleasant dining room. One feels relieved to be sitting there waiting for one’s food to arrive rather than waiting there delivering the food to the diners’ tables and doubtless running up and downstairs all evening. To wait at No 9 you need to be fit.
I’ve been dining at No 9 now for at least five years on and off. Wayne Thomson’s food is interesting - when it’s good it’s wonderful but not every new dish hits the mark and some ingredient combinations do not always work together even though on paper they probably should do. But it’s nice to have something new and original and to able to draw one’s own conclusions about what’s on the menu. There’s always a couple of slices of bread and some olives to start which see you through to the arrival of the starter. Mine was an excellent example of what to do with pigs cheeks - ‘Thai-glazed with pickled Asian vegetables and spiced pineapple’ which really made the dish. This was a bountiful plate of food, a generously proportioned pigs cheek (I’ve been served smaller pieces of the meat as a main course) with the meat perfectly cooked and the vegetables perfect accompaniments.
The main course sadly, in contrast, did not really work for me - charred salmon, chorizo and red onion compote, crispy new potatoes and broccoli. I couldn’t find the salmon, very nicely cooked as it was, to be a happy companion to the chorizo and onion - it was a combination that really didn’t work for me - and the broccoli seemed to add to the confusion of the mixture. Most straightforward were the sautéed potatoes but the description of them as ‘crispy’ was wholly inaccurate. This was a main course of four parts sitting uncomfortably together on the plate.
I finished off with two happy little scoops of homemade ice cream - a happy pairing of coconut and clotted cream flavours (several other flavours were available). I think the generosity of the size of the pigs cheek had rendered me incapable of having a larger pudding though I gazed longingly at the delightful-looking desserts which were delivered to the happy people sitting at the table next to me.
I do like No 9 Church Street. It has been there for ten years so Wayne Thomson must be doing something right even when a talented culinary newcomer arrives and sets up shop next door on his doorstep. A new spring menu has just been introduced so I look forward to giving that a try soon.
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