The Harrow at Little Bedwyn

[MaLO]

The final place we visited on our little October break was the Michelin 1* and recently crowned AA restaurant of the year The Harrow at Little Bedwyn.

Little Bedwyn is a small village in Wiltshire, a few miles from Marlborough. Looking at their website a direct train from London to Great Bedwyn takes an hour. It is a bit in the middle of nowhere though.

We ordered the lunch Menu and also ordered a roast grouse to share from the full menu. The lunch menu is three no choice courses with an amuse, pre dessert and two 100ml glasses of wine included.

We ate

Amuse: Beetroot gazpacho with some smoked eel. I like beetroot and this was quite nice. Thickish and glossy with a little rich fish. A little too much vinegar sharpness after a few scoops but not bad.

Starter: Red mullet fillets Nicoise style garnish. I don’t take notes as I go so don’t remember exactly what was on the plate but the little fillets were cooked nicely, hot and crisp skinned and the olives, anchovies and beans were all tasty good things.

Mains: Roast Label Anglaise chicken. A smalish breast sliced in two with some mashed potato, a scattering of peas and some sautéed wild mushrooms and truffles. Quite a simple preparation with well established flavour combinations. Overall it was quite enjoyable. English truffle is something of a speciality of the restaurant. I was going to buy some but forgot. I think they do post them though.

The extra course of grouse was one bird, one portion, split and plated for two, very good. It came roasted and skinless with a breast and leg with some game chips, sprouts, a little roasting jus and frothy bread sauce. The breast was quite nice, although a little of some remarkably tangy and nasty tasting offal had managed to find its way onto the plate. Once I got over the bitterness, which did take a moment, the rest of the breast disappeared quickly. The leg was a bit harder work and was quite tough. For me, it would have benefited from longer cooking – confit or a tiny pie perhaps. A little chewy but it was a wild bird. £26 on the alc menu so not bad pricewise but a bit of a mixed bag.

Pre dessert I don’t recall totally but I think was a pannacotta with some honeycomb. (it was a month ago)

Dessert was Bread and butter pudding with rum ice cream. One portion was scoffed happily but I didn’t like this much. It was all well made and looked nice on the plate, just not my thing.

The starter and main each came with a selected glass of wine; I was driving so I only had a taste of each. The wine was fine. Interestingly the rose that came with the chicken was from Wales. Ancre hill estate if you are interested.

Lunch costs £30. It is not bad value but would be much better if there was at least one choice per course. Other menu options include tasting at £50 + £20 for matched wines. Gourmet at £70 + £30 or £50 depending on the wine pairing. ALC £40 -£50 for three courses.

Service was good, everyone was friendly confident. There were about ten or so people lunching on this particular Wednesday and the restaurant is small so there was a little gentle atmosphere. Worth a look if you are in the area.

[Pam Brunning]

Interesting report Martin. We went there for lunch a few days after they received their *. The restaurant was full of their local friends celebrating their new *. As you say the set menu comes with a glass of wine but on this particular day everyone was getting a top up, except us. We were put it the corner and ignored by madam.

I remember I had duck with an oriental sauce - the little drizzel of sauce was good but not sufficient for the dish so I asked for a little more, when a jug eventualy arrived they had just sent out some soy sauce!

We too had the bread and butter pudding - it was dry and very uninteresting. We said at the time that they needed a good pastry chef - they obviously still haven't got one.

The whole experiance was very disappointing - we haven't been back.

The Label Anglaise chicken makes me laugh - they had it on the menu at Hibiscus with a £10 supplement. Take a non intensively reared chicken, give it a fancy name and charge twice as much for it - nice business. Did it come with a Little Red Tractor on it?