Winter 2020

The Crown & Garter, Inkpen Leave your worries by the door at the Crown & Garter says HILARY SCOTT RESTAURANT REVIEW

I nkpen is a picture postcard of a village and you can find the Crown and Garter nestled beside an old-fashioned red telephone box. It’s almost like a setting from Midsomer Murders – but there’s certainly nothing suspicious or shady about this charming pub. We visited on a chilly Sunday and settled into the beautifully-decorated interior. The pub is run by the Honesty Group – a small hospitality company dedicated to using only the finest products and trying to make everything in their own kitchens. Manager Chris Underwood said: “We are proud that in our two pubs, cookery school and coffee shop [on the same site as the Crown & Garter] there’s not a microwave to be found.” That honesty shows in the menu. Our starters were the Soused Mackerel (£8.50) and the Chicken and Black Pudding Terrine (£8). The mackerel lay glossy and proud atop a pile of sweet beetroot chutney, the palest pink pickled onions and a horseradish cream – and photographer Dijana loved it. She said the chutney was unctuous and the whole dish had sharp, sweet and salty notes. My Chicken and Black Pudding Terrine was a thick cylinder, which also contained small chunks of soft potato, and to go with it was a home-made piccalilli. The terrine was tasty and married well with the sharp piccalilli – my only gripe was that it came with Melba toast slivers of sourdough and it felt a bit odd to be smearing potato onto toast. It may have been better without or with a green salad. A minor gripe and the only one. Next Dijana had the Mushroom and Thyme Spelt Otto (£17.50) – no not a tall German in lederhosen (Dijana might have liked that too of course) but a rich, nutty risotto-style dish using spelt instead of rice. The creamy sauce covered the spelt and heaps of mushrooms and there was a healthy tangle of spinach leaves on top. In fact, all the dishes we tried at the Crown & Garter had a healthy slant. Even my roast dinner (£18) seemed healthier than the usual with lean roast beef, roast potatoes that weren’t drowned in fat, a puffy and fluffy Yorkshire pudding and a great selection of vegetables – the cauliflower had a light cheese sauce, the braised red cabbage was more sour than sweet and the parsnips and

carrots were gently roasted. It was a healthy portion too, but in this case I mean big! We had a big pause here to sip our Languedoc Sauvignon Blanc (£25) from an extensive and varied wine list which only features Old World varieties. I also took a wander to check out the rooms attached to the pub – very nice too. And then to the puddings! That exclamation mark is to warn you it wasn’t just two. Well they all sounded so good we just had to try more – in your interests, dear reader, of course. A Chocolate Fondant (£9.50 and gluten free) was perfectly

runny in the middle and crisp outside and it is a genius idea to serve it with parsnip ice cream. That is a great combo. The Peach Crumble (£9.50) had a very healthy topping, packed with nuts and again was not too sweet. The almond custard to pour on top was delicious. I am struggling about what to say about the Passion Fruit and Strawberry Sable (£9.50) –

all the dishes we tried... had a healthy slant

marinated soft strawberries with a passion fruit curd and the most meltingly soft sable biscuits – I did get a couple of bites, but Dijana declared it her favourite and before you could say Inkpen it had disappeared. We were also given a small plate of cheese at a nice room temperature with some home-made biscuits – one turmeric and one herbed – to go with it. But we hadn’t finished. The bar staff were very accommodating – like all the staff in fact – at our request for an Irish coffee. In fact, they poured a perfect one with Jamesons whiskey and a touch of Tia Maria – who knew that was a great drink? So good we urged them to call it the Garter and put in on the menu. But who knows, maybe they will keep it a secret just for Out & About readers? Very full, we left and headed home. And we realised we had been so mesmerised by some great cooking that Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby could have been turning the village upside down looking for sinister goings-on and we wouldn’t have interrupted our meal for him…

Crown & Garter, Great Common Road, Inkpen Common, Hungerford, RG17 9QR; 01488 6681325 ; www.crownandgarter.co.uk

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O&A WINTER 2020