The Black Pig Restaurant

[Basildog]

This restaurant opens next Tuesday.Chef/owner is Nathan Outlaw.Website is under construction,Click

Will post more when i hear more , or even manage to try it out, but it's one worth watching

[Lord Michael Lewis]

Nathan Outlaw was John Campbell's sous chef at the Vinyards at Stockcross, so expect yet more Fat Quackery.

[AdamLawrence]

Do you suppose any of the dishes will have a Pugwash theme?

Adam

[Charlene Leonard]

isn't Rock where are the posh kids go during the summer holidays? I hope the place doesn't become overrun by twats in O'Neil sunglasses and Fat Face clothes.

[Bapi]

It already has Charlene, I believe. Volvo Estates everywhere! I remember Rick Stein talking about the place on one of his programmes.

Similar to a place called Burnham Market In Norfolk near where Rosie and I stay regularly.

[the greek]

LML, shame on you. This lad hasn`t even opened his restaurant and you are type casting his cooking style. It is his first post as Chef patron, This will allow him to embrace his own style, in his own direction.

I for one eagerly await the opening of his restaurant, a future star I think. Whose to say he will copy!!!!!

Try to not be so close minded.

[Lord Michael Lewis]

LML, shame on you. This lad hasn`t even opened his restaurant and you are type casting his cooking style. It is his first post as Chef patron, This will allow him to embrace his own style, in his own direction.

I for one eagerly await the opening of his restaurant, a future star I think. Whose to say he will copy!!!!!

Try to not be so close minded.

You're absolutely correct.

[Andy Lynes]

Yes, please LML, at least give the guy a chance to line up his foam, jelly and ice creams before sticking the boot in.

[Lord Michael Lewis]

Yes, please LML, at least give the guy a chance to line up his foam, jelly and ice creams before sticking the boot in.

Tee Hee!

(shouldn't that be savoury ice creams?)

[ginger chef]

i have known the chef at the black pig for quite a few years now and he quite literally was the driving force in the kitchens at lords and the vineyard, john campbell is very interested in the fat duck philosophy but i know nathan has his own style and his food will reflect what he has learnt but he has also worked at the seafood restaurant before jc and he knows what sort of food will sell, yes it will have twists but this is his first venture and he will soon learn what people want in the quieter months of the season down in cornwall. i for one wish him goodluck and we will hear a lot about him

gc

[Andy Lynes]

Did he also work for Nigel Haworth at Northcote Manor, or have I mixed him up with someone else?

I of course wish him all the best and now feel bad for taking the "P" before the guy hasn't even had a chance to open his doors. I will be interested to have a look at the place when I am down that way in the summer and maybe even eat there (depending if we have any money left after we get fleeced in Basildogs restaurant of course ).

[Basildog]

Yes you should feel guilty Andy....your a very bad man.Prepared to be fleeced or you can take me to the Black Pig for dinner and you can clean Nathan's oven as punishment

[Andy Lynes]

OK, deal.

Nathan Outlaw is a fantastic name isn't it? Sounds like he could be a baddy in a Zane Gray novel or something.

[Basildog]

Phone number for Bookings or apologies(andy ) is 01208 862622

Edited May 17, 2003 by Basildog (log)

[Tonyfinch]

Will be there for dinner this coming Monday- and at Margot's the night before after Basildog kindly agreed to squeeze us in to his fully booked restaurant.

Will report back

[Basildog]

Please don't think i was doing him a favour, i was just trying to make him feel important

Tony, the diary was such a mess with cancelled bookings,etc etc , it just took awhile to get it straight in my head. Could you tell?

[Charlene Leonard]

oh, to be a fly on the wall as Basildog tries to "squeeze" Tony into his restaurant.

[Tonyfinch]

Please don't think i was doing him a favour, i was just trying to make him feel important

That's fine. I prefer being made to feel important to receiving favours. One might have to return favours

[Basildog]

Heard on the grapevine that the opening went very well, no hitches, not like a normal "first night" Trying to get hold of a menu

[Basildog]

Here's the menu.....

Summer Menu

Starters

South Coast Lemon Sole - Soused Vegetables Potato cooked in Duck Fat

Marinated Pigeon – Slow Cooked Leg – Cherries Watercress – Bitter Chocolate

Terrine of Confit Rabbit, Roast Chicken and Foie Gras

Fig Pickle – Cress Salad

Summer Vegetable Salad – Poached Hen’s Egg

Main Course

Braised Lamb Shoulder – Rosemary Juices – Baby Onions

Asparagus – Oyster Mushrooms – Garlic Mash

Line Caught Cod – Cockle and Clam Stew

Crisp Pork Belly – Scallop – Cauliflower Puree

Red Onion Marmalade - Swiss Chard

Marinated John Dory – Tomato Cous Cous - Baby Carrots

Pink Grapefruit

Desserts

Frozen Rhubarb and Custard – Ginger Sponge – Lemon Syrup

Bitter Chocolate Tart – Earl Grey Ice Cream

Elderflower Cream – Apple Sherbet – English Toffee Jelly

British Farm House Cheeses

Harbourne Blue – Montgomery Cheddar – Ramhall Ewe

Goats Milk – Cows Milk – Ewes Milk

Coffee and Truffles - £3.00

Teas and Infusions - £3.00

2 c o u r s e s - £27.50

3 c o u r s e s - £32.50

This is a non smoking restaurant

Service left at your own discretion

[Tonyfinch]

Baz, do us a favour. Pop round and tell 'em I'll have the sole and the pork belly, there's a love

LML-very un Fat Quackery type menu no?

[Basildog]

Pop round? its the other side of the estuary man.

Tony, are you staying in Padstow? If you are, it may be worth asking the Black Pig how far from the water they are, because the Water Taxi is THE way to go for dinner in Rock.Plus it saves you a 30 min drive

[Tonyfinch]

Basil, I phoned them and they were very helpful, ringing me back with taxi fares and times etc. They're a 20 minute walk from the ferry point. Think we'll see what the weather's like before making a decision.

We're staying in a B&B at the top of the town-Roselyn? Hotels were all booked up except the Metropole which I remember Macrosan saying was hideously overpriced

Really looking forward to seeing you and yours on Sunday

[Tonyfinch]

Judging by the name I thought it was going to be a restaurant attached to a pub or something but it turned out to be a newish, squat conservatory like building next to an unprepossessing shopping parade about 20 mins. walk from the ferry point.

They've been open less than a week and things are still clearly bedding down. The servers were very pleasant if a little tentative but the food, apart from one fanttastic dish was disappointing overall. The crispy belly pork main was chewy rather than crunchy with little of the unctious fat which gives belly pork its point. It was dry. The red onion marmalade and was pleasant but the scallop seemed redundant to me. The braised lamb's shoulder main had tasty meat but the amount of thin dark gravy gave the whole dish a schooldinnerish quality. A dessert of frozen rhubarb/ginger sponge/lemon syrup was just too restrained, as if the chef was holding everything back.

Good was an amuse of -wait for it Andy-veloute of summer vegetables. with (another) scallop, fresh peas and truffle oil.

However - a starter of Marinated Pigeon-Slow Cooked Leg-Cherries-Watercress-Bitter Chocolate was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC and one of the best dishes I've eaten anywhere this year, including the pigeon dish at RHR. Beautiful, meltingly tender, gamey pigeon and a wonderful combination of cherry and chocolate which highlited every nuance of flavour in the pigeon. I've never had chocolate used better in a savoury dish. You could tell it was there but its assertiveness was just at that correct point of use. Anymore and it would have been overpowering but it was just perfect, rich and bitter- it made me want to start using chocolate in my cooking.

It was such a bold dish that it only showed up the hesitancy I sensed in some of the other dishes, although paprika in a Lemon Sole starter was also assertively used.

The wine list is refreshingly short. I knew the wines because they were from a local wine merchant whose shop I'd been in only hours earlier. It was an interesting selection and not at all greedily marked up (120%?)

At the end I suggested to Nathan Outlaw (great name) that he makes that pigeon dish a main course and he said he'd consider it by adding a raviolo or something to it. Just more of the same would do for me.

I'd go back but I'd like to see the man really expressing himself with some of the other dishes. Maybe he'll do so more confidently as the place beds down.

[Andy Lynes]

Good was an amuse of -wait for it Andy-veloute of summer vegetables

This is very good to hear. Having read the menu above I was concerned about a possible infringement, but it would seem the news of the rule has spread to Rock.