The Goose at Britwell Salome

[MobyP]

Roux Scholarship winner Matthew Tomkinson has started off well in his new venture at The Goose in Britwell Salome in Oxfordshire.

Went yesterday for a nice lunch. Dishes included pigs trotter, lemon sole, guinnea fowl and boudin blanc.

Worth keeping an eye on, especially if you're in the area.

Pictures here.

Edited April 26, 2007 by MobyP (log)

[Andy Lynes]

Some lovely looking plates of food.

The restaurant got its first review recently in the Oxford Times. A positive write up, despite the reviewer spending the first six paragraphs demonstrating how dead clever he is.

[Matthew Tomkinson]

Thankyou to Moby for coming to lunch, taking some great photographs and posting a link here. We are really pleased with how they came out.

We dont have a website up and running yet, it is in construction as we speak and shouldnt be too long.

Edited April 27, 2007 by Matthew Tomkinson (log)

[JudyB]

There is also a short write-up in the Guardian Guide this morning here.

Moby's pictures do look good so we'll probably be on our way to visit soon.

[Gary Marshall]

had a cracking lunch at the goose yesterday, with the help of Mr Tom Tom it's not that far from the motorway and certainly made a good diversion from our trip back from cheltenham and le champignon sauvage.

Sunday at the goose is a more along the lines of traditional roasts and given we'd had a 12 hour session the day before we were more than in mood for some comfort food.

A tempting menu of around six starters/mains/desserts came and from it we had a parmesan risotto and a ham hock terrine followed by two roast beef.

Matt kindly sent out a little taster of his deep fried pigs trotter, like a cromesquis with an excellent caper quenelle and a nicely dressed little tomato salad, a good palette livener.

my risotto starter hit the spot with a nice ring of reduced balsamic under the risotto and rocket leaves and parmesan shavings on top. Sarah was very contented with her ham terrine. I almost forgot the bread! three choices, nice and hot white, wholemeal and fennel i think from memory.

the beef was very good served with some nice seasonal sprouting brocolli and cabbage with good roasties and yorkshires .

although the previous days exertions were catching up on me at this point, and aided and abetted by a NZ Pinot noir i manfully forced down an apple crumble and sarah a glazed rice pudding.

Fresh mint tea for sarah and a large expresso & calva rounded off a very pleasant couple of hours.

It was very pleasing to see the place full as we left and it has certainly been very well renovated with an excellent eye for detail which i always like to see, sarah was as interested in where the paint came from as her lunch! (farrow & ball btw)

well worth the trip and would certainly like to return for dinner at some point for a full work -out

[Andy Lynes]

we'd had a 12 hour session the day before

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And I thought David at Le Champignon had scaled down on the amount of food he was giving his customers.

[Gary Marshall]

we'd had a 12 hour session the day before

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And I thought David at Le Champignon had scaled down on the amount of food he was giving his customers.

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left LCS at four-ish from memory, down the road into the retreat, then montpellier wine bar ....then... there was certainly pizza express & a taxi and i woke up in my hotel in the right room. Result!

[BertieWooster]

left LCS at four-ish from memory, down the road into the retreat, then montpellier wine bar ....then... there was certainly pizza express & a taxi and i woke up in my hotel in the right room. Result!

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but did you still have your liver with you?

[Gary Marshall]

left LCS at four-ish from memory, down the road into the retreat, then montpellier wine bar ....then... there was certainly pizza express & a taxi and i woke up in my hotel in the right room. Result!

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but did you still have your liver with you?

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he stormed off long ago. long hours, poor pay, i think.

[Duncan]

We had an excellent meal at The Goose on 20th July (it was just as well we'd decided to go there rather than elsewhere that evening, as it was possibly one of the few places we could have reached without getting wet).

We had a couple of courses in common with MobyP's menu: the unctuous pig's trotter, and the raspberry cake, but other highlights included leek and potato soup with a poached egg in the middle, salmon rolled in herbs, halibut steak with herb gnocchi, and some very nice Cornish lamb.

Are we the first people from eGullet to visit in the evening for the 'full workout'? Matthew did us proud.

I put the full menu and some photos here.

[Matthew Tomkinson]

Thankyou to Moby for coming to lunch, taking some great photographs and posting a link here. We are really pleased with how they came out.

We dont have a website up and running yet, it is in construction as we speak and shouldnt be too long.

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Well it did take long and has just gone live, better late than never i guess?

The Goose

Matt

Edited February 3, 2008 by Matthew Tomkinson (log)

[Duncan]

Thankyou to Moby for coming to lunch, taking some great photographs and posting a link here. We are really pleased with how they came out.

We dont have a website up and running yet, it is in construction as we speak and shouldnt be too long.

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Well it did take long and has just gone live, better late than never i guess?

The Goose

Matt

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It's been live for a few weeks, Judy found it sometime in mid January.

[Matthew Tomkinson]

The first I heard was when i saw your comment on Silverbrow on Food!

We have changed a couple of photos since it first went up and are i the process of sorting out some of the copy.

Edited February 3, 2008 by Matthew Tomkinson (log)

[spanielking]

That place looks ace!! Michelin star, and those prices?? Brilliant! Is it really that good value?? I am loving these more informal smart pubs cropping up. I had a very good lunch at The Sparling today. Chef is Warrick Dodds, former Northcote Manor/Stanley House.

http://www.wyrevalleyinns.co.uk/

No where near each other geographical, but hey, thought I'd let you know. I feel the home counties are getting a bit spoilt! But I guess thats where the money is.

[thom]

Matthew, you were quoted on the Diary pages of the Manchester Evening News today!

They have tied in a quote where you said you would love to "bring Michelin starred cooking to Manchester" (lord knows how old that might be) with the fact that you started your career in Altrincham, and the additional though unrelated fact that Paul Kitching at Juniper is selling up.

Well if the fact-lite bastion of piss-poor reporting says it's true then I shall expect you in the city anon!

Cheers

Thom

[Matthew Tomkinson]

"fact-lite bastion of piss-poor reporting"

haha

Actually, we issued a press release upon winning the star. The version that went to the Manchester press included a quote about how i would eventually like to return to the North West. A reporter called me and asked me to comment on Paul leaving and my position in light of the statement i had made. This was the first that I had heard about about him going and didnt feel that it would be appropriate to speculate. After all we have only just just bloody got our star!!

Matt

[thom]

"fact-lite bastion of piss-poor reporting"

haha

Actually, we issued a press release upon winning the star. The version that went to the Manchester press included a quote about how i would eventually like to return to the North West. A reporter called me and asked me to comment on Paul leaving and my position in light of the statement i had made. This was the first that I had heard about about him going and didnt feel that it would be appropriate to speculate. After all we have only just just bloody got our star!!

Matt

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Ah fair do's to them then. That may have conjured a story out of coincidence, conjecture, imagination/fabrication, old bottle tops and a bent paper clip but at least they didn't serve up reheated quotes from many years ago.

For that I salute them.

And seriously, come to Manchester and be our gastronomic messiah, strewing Michelin stars in your wake...

Cheers

Thom

[Bapi]

And seriously, come to Manchester and be our gastronomic messiah, strewing Michelin stars in your wake...

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I have tried this before with Matt to no avail. But I think he is doing rather well were he is. I have said this elsewhere- but congrats to again to you and your team Matt.

And how was Le Gavroche btw? Celebratory meal was it?

[Matthew Tomkinson]

And seriously, come to Manchester and be our gastronomic messiah, strewing Michelin stars in your wake...

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I have tried this before with Matt to no avail. But I think he is doing rather well were he is. I have said this elsewhere- but congrats to again to you and your team Matt.

And how was Le Gavroche btw? Celebratory meal was it?

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Thankyou Bapi, eventually i want to as it is the long term plan.

It was very good, I went with my old head chef, Steve Crane, Martin Hadden and Jerome Poussin from Bragard. Tim from Apicius was meant to come too but couldnt make it. It was a celebratory meal and celebrate we did!! We had a great day/afternoon/night/early morning and were looked after so well at the restauraunt.

Edited February 5, 2008 by Matthew Tomkinson (log)

[Matthew Grant]

I had a lovely lunch here yesterday. It’s a really lovely spot and the restaurant has a lovely feel to it.

I started with Bacon, black pudding and pigs ears, the belly was excellent (how had it been cured?) the ears lovely and crisp the black pudding not a bit stodgy – very good indeed. The other three all ordered the Parmesan risotto, two of them are new acquaintances so I didn’t feeol able to nab any from their plates but I would have thought that Rachel might have shared some with me. As it was she apologised briefly and without much conviction before finishing the last mouthful.

A freebie from the kitchen of the pigs trotter croquette was, for me, an absolute star dish, the acidity of the caper and raisin puree was lovely against the rich trotter and hock meat. Not so sure about the tomatoes but a minor issue. In both my dishes the pork itself was excellent quality.

Mains were more traditional roasts, beef for three of us and pork for the other. Good quality beef served medium rare, slightly yellowing fat which I love. My only criticism would be the Yorkshire puddings which were too bready for me.

A pre dessert of Vanilla Pannacotta and Granny Smith apple granita was another successful dish, presumably form the ALC? Lemon tart with blackcurrant sorbet was very good, great pasty, nicely balanced filling. Rhubarb and apple crumble with vanilla custard finished off my meal in a very satisfactory manner.

Great food, we hope to be able to return for the ALC? Mention should be made of the charming service, relaxed and professional, perfectly suited to the restaurant, my apologies if we kept them longer then they wanted to be there!

[YKL]

Well, it’s taken me a whole year to get to the Goose but finally managed it for Sunday lunch at Easter and had a very nice time indeed.

There were 3 of us, which gave us an good opportunity to fully road test the menu, although we did order an extra starter we couldn't possibly pass up the black pudding starter .... All in all, it was very good - the meat and poultry in particular seems to be of very high quality, and the smiley and accomplished service made for a very relaxed afternoon.

My pics are rather shabby compared to efforts above, so scroll quickly if needs be(!), but from memory, we had:

Starters

• Parmesan and chive risotto - good pronounced chive flavour to provide excellent balance. Much enjoyed by San
  
• Pigeon salad, kale and salardaise potato - excellent pigeon, and nicely rare too - worked beautifully with the kale although sadly the salardaise potato was a touch too salty for me. Unless it was meant to be like that.
  
• Country terrine with piccalilli - it was the home made piccalilli that particularly appealed and it was very good. The country terrine itself was nice enough, although to be honest, it was completely outshone by the terrine of cotswold chicken, ham, shitake mushrooms and home dried raisins which the kitchen kindly sent as a taster / gift. Fabulous meat, and lovely fruitiness from the raisins - would be an excellent choice from the ALC
  
• Black pudding with smoked belly pork and celeriac puree - it’s rare that I don’t opt for a black pudding dish from a menu, and this was a first rate example - surprisingly light in texture, but still rich and flavoursome. I may have got the description of the pork wrong, but it was delicious
  

Mains - were much more traditional - and wasn’t taking notes so have already forgotten the provenance of the meat but the roast beef and roast lamb were both excellent. The smoked haddock, poached egg and chive veloute (think that’s right) was hoovered up in record time, which was not surprising based on the forkful I snaffled. The aforementioned Yorkshires were impressively billowy, but come to think of it, neither of us finished ours - can’t remember why …

Anyway, the plates were cleared and I unpacked a spare stomach to prepare for desserts …. which were:

• Pre-dessert of apple granita and apple pannacotta - bloody marvellous. Crisp, refreshing and neither too sweet nor too creamy. We almost scoffed our sister’s whilst she was away from the table but she came back just in time.
  
• Caramelised lemon tart and blackcurrant sorbet - excellent - the pastry was incredibly fine, and the lemon cream itself was wonderfully zingy. Lemon tart is probably one of my favourite desserts and based on this, I can’t see that changing. San said she would have preferred more sharpness, but I had no problems with the loveliness. The sorbet was also v v good.
  
• Brownie and vanilla icecream - adored by chocoholic sister …. I thought it was good, but chocolate desserts rarely make me as gurgly as lemon tart.
  
• Rice pudding with apricot (?) - rich, creamy and comforting. Mmmmm.
  

Coffee and mint tea and petit fours followed, and it rounded off a lovely afternoon. Pretty good value too - the bill for all the above with a very drinkable Montepulciano d’Abruzzo and before service was £120.

So - delighted to have finally made it … sorry to have missed Matt … but saw and ate enough to confirm my view that it’s the ALC where the real excitement and fun is to be had … and with such lovely service (worth mentioning again) - if I can sort my diary out, hope to be back to do just that!

[Andy Lynes]

Matthew has left the building click.

[erica graham]

Good luck Mathew, hope it works out for you!

[adey73]

Congrats, but surely you could have picked somewhere a little closer to Blackpool!?

[JudyB]

From a purely selfish viewpoint I have to admit to being disappointed: it has been very nice being forced to choose between visiting Matthew at The Goose and Erica at Fairford when we wanted a reasonably local meal!

However, good luck Matthew in the New Forest.

Now we just have to work out whether or not a 1.5 hour drive each way is too far for a nice meal...