A week’s eating in Paris

Spending a whole week in Paris is any foodie’s idea of heaven but how do you choose from the vast amount of restaurants on offer without breaking the bank? If you’ve read about how we planned our recent Paris trip I thought you might like to know where we ended up eating . . .

As I said in my previous post we try to balance things out and combine old favourites with new discoveries and lighter meals with more substantial ones. We were lucky enough to be there for a week so could afford to take it relatively easy though reading this through I can see that most people would regard it as a massive pig-out.

We were staying in the Marais on the border of the 3rd and 4th arrondissements so there’s a weighting of restaurants from that neighbourhood. Your choices might well be different if you’re staying in a different part of Paris. Or if you have a sweeter tooth. You'll spot that patisseries are notably absent from our schedule.

The tricky days are Sunday and Monday when many restaurants are shut though it’s less of a problem than it used to be.

More restaurants than previously accept walk-ins but for most you do need to book a few days ahead

Day 1

First dinner in Paris. Always a tricky one. Do you go for something quintessentially Parisian or something new and exciting? Last year we went to Le Gaigne a really lovely small neighbourhood restaurant which has since closed but has apparently found a new site. This year it was the cutting edge Le Mary Celeste, a wine bar with delicious Asian-inspired small plates just a 10 minute walk from the flat. Note you can only book up to 7.30pm and it gets rammed. It is open on Sunday though. Review here

Day 2

Lunch at Bistrot Paul Bert - a great Parisian bistrot and one of our all-time favourites. Fantastic value: 19€ for a brilliant 3 course lunch. (See review) Couldn’t eat for the rest of the day. Except for a few ‘gariguette’ strawberries.

Day 3

Our heaviest day’s eating: A glass of wine and a couple of croquettes at L’Avant Comptoir, the tiny stand-up wine bar next to Yves Cambdeborde’s more famous Le Comptoir - and much easier to get into - then lunch with our friend cookery writer Trish Deseine at Semilla, a chic little restaurant on the left bank.

It has a great lunchtime ‘formule’ - three small starters and a main for 24€. Liked the frugality of it: the starters were clever riffs on two ingredients - carrots and sweet potato - a crisp beignet of carrot with coriander dressing, a salad of carrots and sweet potatoes and a rich sweet potato soup with turmeric oil. The mains light on fish and meat. I was so busy chatting I didn’t manage to focus on what the others were eating (veal and something squiddy I seem to remember but loved my main of blond lentils with artichokes and a gorgeous mushroom froth (above) - and I’m not a great one for foam. Nice wine list. Smart, good for vegetarians.

Dinner at Les Enfants Rouges back in the Marais. A Japanese chef - very on-trend in Paris. Cooking is slightly uneven. Some very good dishes including perfect andouille and squid stuffed with small pasta and mediterranean veg alongside some slightly over-ambitious ones (a soft-yolked egg with lime-leaf flavoured foam. Am coming to loathe slow cooked runny eggs). Paid the price for greed though and couldn’t finish the very rich creamy dish of sweetbreads and morilles for which I’d paid a supplement. If that sounds a bit half-hearted don’t be put off. It’s a charming place with sweet service and at 38€ for its fixed price menu is not expensive for an evening meal. David Lebovitz has a similar take on it here.

Day 4

Morning spent in recovery after the previous day’s blowout. Though not to the extent of skipping lunch - in a rather cute cafe called Le Bal attached to a photographic gallery up in the 9th (I think). The chef used to work at the Rose Bakery - so it has a similar vibe. Soup (Beetroot. Excellent) and lovely wobbly quiche for 15€. Just what the doctor ordered.

Evening at our other favourite restaurant Le Baratin, a Paris institution. Review here. Note there is another Baratin - make sure you don't book the wrong one. This is in Belleville.

Day 5

We walked a couple of miles to a street food festival on the quai d’Austerlitz then found it was so rammed you couldn’t move (You should have seen the queue for fish and chips - the French are mad for street food these days.) So we hoofed it back to the 11th to Clamato a small ‘tapas’ bar we’d heard good things about that’s been set up by the owner of Septime (which we hadn’t been too taken with last year)

Clamato is great, not least because it’s open on a Saturday and Sunday (though only in the evenings from Wednesday to Friday). As the name suggests it specialises in fish. We skipped the oysters in favour of some fantastic rillettes of mackerel and sweet herring, black mullet sashimi and a very pretty dish of asparagus with trout eggs. In fact all the food was pretty. Interesting wines too. You can’t book btw.

In the evening we had the one dud meal we had in Paris at the much-hyped Chatomat. Goodness knows what’s happened there - the chef seems to have totally lost the plot or got far too excited by his new sous-vide. Among the disasters - tough-as-boots bulots with a bland sludgy green sauce (bulots are served with aioli for a reason), virtually blue - sous-vided?- onglet with a slow cooked egg yolk (bleugh) and rare pork and just-cured sardines, as nasty a combination as it sounds. We left before dessert. A car crash of a meal and one of the most expensive ones we had in Paris.

Day 6

In recovery again. As it was Sunday we decided we’d eat in for a change and bought some rotisserie chicken, salad and strawberries in Les Enfants Rouge market. Oh, and some gorgeous cheese.

I’d also discovered a new Israeli restaurant had opened round the corner called Miznon so we thought we’d see if we could get to try one of their pittas. Although it was rammed we were lucky enough to land a table though had to clear it ourselves. Good pittas though (one lamb, one chicken salad) with a fantastic fresh green chilli dip and spectacular ‘roast’ (though it tasted deep-fried) cauliflower the remains of which we demolished with the chicken. In and out in 45 minutes. It looked quieter and less manic during the week (it's closed Friday evening and Saturday) Vive le fast food!

Day 7

Another favourite Abri in the 10th, this time for their fabled sandwich (served only on Saturdays and Mondays) If that doesn’t sound too riveting think a stack of finely sliced pickled cabbage, Japanese omelette, crisp fried pork in breadcrumbs and melted cheese sandwiched between two slices of light as air pain de mie. Oooof! Not cheap, I admit, at 15€ but you do get an organic drink (juice or wine) and a madeleine thrown in. We had lunch there in March 2013 which was also great. Note it's quite hard to find. underneath a sign that says City Café.

Then our last night in Paris. A Monday which made it tricky. We decided to stick to the Marais and give a natural wine bar called Au Passage a whirl. No recent reviews because its chef had decamped to Bones* but the food - the ubiquitous small plates - was simple and delicious. (A great plate of anchovies, butter and sliced shallots, a terrific terrine and smoked egg with salt cod which I didn’t think I was going to like but worked really well. A slightly dull plate of asparagus by comparison but you can’t have everything. And the place was heaving. Would definitely be on our list for next time

Day 8

We’d booked a late train back so had time for one last lunch - again in the Marais so we didn’t have to lug our suitcases along. A totally unreconstructed bistro called Chez Nénesse (top picture) which serves old fashioned hors d’oeuvres like oeufs mayonnaise, leeks vinaigrette and harengs a l’huile (herring and potato salad) and whopping great stews (on the day we went chicken marengo). Not remotely refined but cheap (about 55€ for the two of us with carafe wine). If you yearn for the Paris of the ’70’s before bistros got smart you’ll love it. If you don't give it a miss.

So, a ridiculous amount of eating but thankfully a fair amount of walking too which meant we didn’t put on any weight. And, as I say, we skipped the patisseries ...

Note: most of these places we booked in advance. If you haven’t booked go early (before 12.30 or late - after 1.30 - for lunch or before 7.30 or after 9.30 for supper though the trendier places will still be busy then

* one of a number of restaurants we missed this time.

Magnum and Le Tire Bouchon: two wine bars to discover in Toulouse

When I knew I was going to spend 24 hours in Toulouse recently I asked my followers on Twitter - as you do - what restaurants and wine bars they would recommend. Unusually they all suggested different places which didn’t help that much so I ended up trawling around online.

The problem with Toulouse is that everything seems to focus round its big - and rather beautiful - squares which can get pretty crowded on a Saturday night, even in January but we were after something a bit more off the beaten track - and found it in two small family-run wine bars: Magnum and Le Tire Bouchon.

Le Tire Bouchon in Place Dupuy, which was recommended by French restaurant critic François Simon, was the first port of call. You honestly wouldn’t know anyone was eating there. It looks just like a wine shop then you peer in and see they’ve managed to cram 3 tables in among the jumble of boxes (and another three downstairs)

They only serve food at lunchtime which is cooked by the owner Philippe Lagarde's wife Laurence. Nothing is chalked up on a board - not even the prices but it’s 16€ for two courses, 21€ for three. A big plus is that it's easy to eat veggie without really trying (rare in France). I had an excellent butternut squash and coconut milk soup with coriander crème fraiche and homemade cheese ravioli while my husband stuck to the more conventionally south-west French options of piquillo peppers stuffed with confit duck and a homely veal stew. Puds were a classic chocolate mousse and a rather delicious fluffy cheesecake

They don’t do much in the way of wines by the glass - you’d be better off buying one of the bottles from the huge selection on display which unusually features wines that are not French - though they will be at the very least organic and biodynamic. We tried a white grenache blend called Cool Moon from Les Enfants Sauvages which was a bit wild and funky for me (though better after decanting) and a lovely Gipskeuper German riesling (2009) from a biodynamic Wurttemberg producer called Beurer.

It was actually Philippe who suggested Magnum which is one of Toulouse’s oldest streets, rue Perchpinte - about 5 minutes walk from the Carmes metro stop. It’s more obviously a wine bar with a smaller selection of wines but a bigger menu of which the charcuterie served at almost fat-meltingly warm room temperature is a stand-out feature. (One customer went over just to sniff it) We also had a great umami-bomb of a carpaccio with slow-roasted tomatoes

But the two stand-out dishes were again made by the owner Jérome Rey’s wife who comes from Réunion. Some local Toulouse sausage and prawn dumplings served with a spicy sweet chilli sauce (sounds dire, but it was brilliant with the 11% Thierry Puzelat gamay we were drinking as you can see from my match of the week) and some potato pancakes with lumpfish roe and a creamy lemon dressing I could have eaten twice over. (My Guardian colleague Marina O'Loughlin went a few days later on my recommendation and was raving about a cheese and ham brioche toastie with truffles. The menu obviously varies.) We spent about 70€ but could have spent a lot less.

These places won’t be for everyone. If you want more of a theatrical Toulouse scene and don’t like natural wines you may want to go for one of the better known names like Christian Constant’s Le Bibent. But if you want somewhere where you actually get served by the owner and experience a less touristy side of Toulouse they’re perfect.

PS judging by how full they were you’d do well to book - at Magnum you probably stand a better chance of getting a table if you eat early as the locals start to pour in from 8.30 onwards.

Where else to drink in Toulouse . . .

Le Nez Rouge, in rue des Couteliers - another natural wine bar recommended by Philippe

No. 5, 5 rue de la Bourse - 700 different wines, 30 of which are available by the glass at any one time.

. . . and where to stay

Hotel Albert 1er - we stayed in this solidly bourgeois French 3 star hotel in rue Rivals just off the main shopping street rue d'Alsace-Lorraine. Providing, somewhat surprisingly, an organic breakfast. Our very large double room cost 113€. Not flashy but well-run and welcoming - a hotel of character, not a boring modern chain.

 

Wine lovers' New York: Where to drink well in the Big Apple

So where are the best places in New York for a wine lover to hang out? And what should you drink there? Blogger and winelover Zeren Wilson of Bitten & Written sets out a game plan.

Going to New York for a dedicated restaurant visit is a high octane thrill that I don't think I'll ever tire of. A recent visit saw us rack up a bewildering (some would say indecent) number of venues and while on this occasion it was the food driving our agenda, finding anywhere which also has a wine list to quicken the pulse, adds another frisson of pleasure to lunch/dinner/third dinner.

On this visit I was trying to keep my wine instincts tamed (mainly due to a potentially devastating dent to the budget, which was already going to take a battering from food), yet when I glimpsed a list with interesting domaines and producers, the spirit of Bacchus came snarling and snapping out, and suddenly I was channelling the vinous gods. It would be the height of bad manners to ignore their call, right?

Managing to snag a seat at the bar at Gramercy Tavern on a busy Saturday lunchtime, the list of wines by the glass hooked me in. Seeing Oregon winery Cristom by the glass set the tone, their 'Mt. Jefferson Cuvée 2011' a great example of elegant, restrained American Pinot Noir, with more than a whiff of Burgundian style about it.

It's a tour de force of a list, put together by beverage director Juliette Pope, and they're also banging the drum for maligned wines such as Lambrusco, with Lambrusco 2009 'La Luna', from Cantine Ceci, currently being poured by the glass. Good baked Long Island clams here and Beausoleil oysters, on ice or roasted. A fantastic list for wine lovers.

Another restaurant in Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group, Maialino, just around the corner from Gramercy Tavern, has a 100% Italian list of some note, showcasing the great breadth and sometimes bewildering number of Italian varietals.

They are currently highlighting vintage Nebbiolo, pouring thirteen by the glass, with some 'big dog' names featuring. Francesco Rinaldi's Barolo 2007 'Brunate', Bartolo's Mascarello 2000, Borgogno's Barbaresco Riserva 1978, and Barbaresco 1988 from the ever reliable co-operative Produttori del Barbaresco — Italophiles will be delighted to explore the list here.

Champagne represents the only foray outside of Italy, and there are good growers listed here, including the 'Special Club' 2005 from Blanc de Blancs winemaking wizard Didier Gimonnet, of Pierre Gimonnet. Get me away from this list, it's dangerous to linger...

'I need a dollar, dollar, dollar is what I need...', and so we veer off into somewhere less 'spenny', a fantastic craft beer temple Merchants & Advocates of Great Beer, owned by beer geek Ted Kenny, tucked away on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side. A huge array of beer taps greets us, an obsessive list of craft beers chalked up on a huge board behind the bar. Lagunitas 'Brown Shugga' from Petaluma, Sonoma, kicks things off with deceptive, sneakily potent 9.9% ABV, and the list of over 600 bottled and canned beers from around the world is dizzying. You can fill up empty bottles and take these home with you too. A great spot if you're feeling the pull of the grain over the grape.

Hot spot of the moment Betony, with Executive Chef Bryce Shuman (formerly at three Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park) at the helm, delivered a great wine experience, ably assisted by sommelier Cristina Lemos. I had noticed Muscadet playing a prominent role on a couple of lists, testament to the much improved wines of the region, and the opening wine by the glass was Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2011, from Domaine de la Louvetrie, which made a fine palate-wakening first drop. It went well with a bar snack of 'lobster roll' too, a cheffy interpretation of this classic, sweet lobster meat encased in the most impossibly crisp and fine cigar shaped tubes: probably made out of brioche, but reimagined in a very Michelin way.

Riesling whizz kid Klaus-Peter Keller, making some of the best dry wines in Rheinhessen, features by the glass, as does iconic Rioja from La Rioja Alta and their Viña Ardanza Reserva 2004. Come here and sit at the bar, have the posh bar snacks, drink good wine and excellent cocktails — our negronis were pitch perfect.

More Muscadet and a very savvy, snappy list was waiting for us in the West Village at Chez Sardine, a real highlight of the trip that saw the most pristine nigiri served to us at the bar by a chap wearing a baseball bat emblazoned with You Mad, Bro'?'

It's a thrillingly tiny, modern take on a Japanese izakaya of just seven tables, a bar, and sushi counter. Sommelier and wine director Jen Sgobbo (ten years at Gramercy Tavern) has put together a list leaning more towards whites and lighter reds, complementing the fish-heavy menu. We start with an excellent sparkling Vouvray Brut from Domaine Bernard Fouquet.

Miso-maple salmon head is the most startling dish, proudly occupying top billing on the list: try this with the dry Rheingau Riesling 'Rudesheimer' from Leitz, or the Beaujolais from Martine and Pierre Chermette - both coped well with the salmon.

Inventive nigiri and sushi such as salmon with pretzels and lime cream, unagi with tobiko and tempura, and scallop with jalapeño and lemon, ask tough questions for just one wine to sail through, but our Muscadet 'Côtes de Grandlieu' 2012, from Domaine Les Hautes Noëlles performed admirably. A very carefully considered list which will reward further visits.

Fatty 'Cue, the deliriously playful Malaysian/BBQ mash-up from the team behind Fatty Crab (gearing up to arrive in London next year), have a small, but well thought through list, while cocktails feature heavily too. We were enamoured with the cocktail 'Landing Strip', a potent combination of Campari, amaro nonino, bourbon, lemon and yuzu. Fatty Manhattan was a mixture of rye whiskey, vermouths, smoked cherry Coke, angostura bitters and lemon zest: heady, boozy, great fun.

Whites by the glass feature aromatic varietals largely, Sauvignon Blanc/Riesling/Grüner Veltliner, alongside another Muscadet: Muscadet having something of an NYC 'moment', it seems.

One of the savviest shorter lists is at Locanda Verde in TriBeCa, Andrew Carmellini's bustling all-day Italian inspired dining spot, and a seat at the bar for their lamb meatball sliders is a favourite NYC moment. On this occasion a broad shouldered, fleshy Vietti Barbera by the glass was the sparring partner for the meatballs. The 100 bottle all-Italian list is put together by Josh Nadel, although they are quite happy to accommodate BYO for $35. With a list as good as this, it seems churlish to indulge the urge.

Finally a shout out to the finest barman we encountered, the brilliant Troy at Daniel Boulud's DBGB on Bowery, on the fringes of the Lower East Side. A hectic day of restaurant hits meant eating was nigh-on a physical impossibility, so we thought we'd drop in for a drink at the bar. One drink. Four hours later, a combination of Troy's drinks mixing skills, entrancing charisma, love of English football, and infectious love of the hospitality business, kept us there until appetites were miraculously revived again. He also had impeccable wine knowledge and gave us a taste of a Margaux which happened to be open. Superstar barman!

What to drink - and eat - where

Gramercy Tavern

Drink: Cristom Pinot Noir.

Eat: Duck liver mousse/Pork chop, Jerusalem artichoke, apple and hazelnuts

Maialino

Drink: Rinaldi's Barolo 'Brunate'

Eat: Fettuccine alla Carbonara, with guanciale

Merchants and Advocates of Great Beer

Drink: Lagunitas Brown Shugga'

Eat: Excellent jerky from small producers. Or Mission Chinese on the same street.

Betony

Drink: Muscadet, Domaine de la Louvetrie

Eat: "Lobster Roll", Crème Fraîche, Salt & Pepper

Chez Sardine

Eat: All the nigiri. Miso-maple salmon head.

Drink: Sparkling Vouvray, Muscadet, François Mikulski Meursault, Beaujolais

Fatty Cue

Eat: Fatty 'McRib' Bao, smoked pork rib, kewpie, BBQ sauce, pickles

Drink: Nerello Mascalese, 'Etna Rosso' from Murgo

Locanda Verde

Eat: Lamb meatball sliders

Drink: Vietti Barbera d'Alba 'Tres Vigne'

DBGB

Eat: Pig's head terrine and charcuterie at the bar.

Drink: Anything from the excellent Burgundy and Beaujoloas list. Try Marcel Lapierre's Morgon. Great cocktails.

SOME OTHER WINE DESTINATIONS OF NOTE

Nolita Wine Merchants

Excellent and very smart wine shop on Mulberry Street.

Moore Brothers

Great source of German Riesling, Burgundy and Italy in particular.

September Wines

Lower East Side wine shop with some gems to be discovered.

Terroirs/Hearth

Collection of Riesling obsessive bars (self styled 'acid hounds') and a top restaurant at Hearth.

Zeren Wilson is a food and wine writer with a background in the wine trade. He publishes his own blog Bitten & Written - you can see some of the other places he took in during his NYC trip here.

Top image © outcast85 - Fotolia.com

4 good restaurants in Oxford

Oxford is a place that doesn’t have a great reputation for food but I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the restaurants we ate in last weekend.

Not having been to the city recently I asked my Twitter followers for their views and these are the ones I settled on - Sojo for a Friday night Chinese, Gee’s for brunch, a gastropub The Magdalen Arms for a slap-up Saturday night dinner and an Oxford institution, The Cherwell Boathouse for Sunday lunch. There are other options which I’ve highlighted but I was more than happy with my choices. Note, you’ll need to book as all except Gee’s were busy, though maybe they get booked in the evening too.

Sojo

6/9 Hythe Bridge Street, OX12EW
01865 202888

With its wood-panelled walls Sojo looks much more like a cool East End restaurant than a typical Chinese. When we arrived at 7.15 it was already rammed. The menu is ridiculously long so I was glad I’d consulted my Twitter followers who had recommended it about what to eat and checked out this review from the Telegraph's Matthew Norman.

Dim sum were a little gluey - and for purists it was the wrong time of day to eat them - so I’d skip those and concentrate on the home-cooked dishes which are their speciality. That said a super-crunchy salt and pepper squid is terrific, possibly the best I’ve had. But the star of the show was a massive sticky Shanghai braised sweet soy pork hock, easily enough for three, which is pulled apart like crispy duck at the table.

We ordered sides of jasmine rice and Chinese cabbage and mushrooms (particularly delicious) with it but could also have gone for the much praised green beans.

The only disappointing dishes were the lettuce cups (underseasoned, unusually for this joint with too many veg and not enough chicken) and a rather drab spicy chicken salad which arrived - presumably having been forgotten earlier - with the pork. Read Matthew’s review for other recommendations. The next table was having (I think) Ma Po Tofu which looked really good.

What I drank: I’d forgotten how tasteless Tsingtao beer is (don’t bother) but the house rosé is fine and you might even pitch into a red with the pork.

Cost £80.60 for 2 but we overordered. It could have been 25% less.

Alternatives: My Sichuan or, if you fancy a Thai, Chiang Mai Kitchen or Oli’s Thai

Magdalen Arms (see top photo)

243, Iffley Road, OX4 1SJ
01865 243159

This warm, welcoming gastropub was recommended to me more often than anywhere else and I could see why. It has one of those menus where everything seems tempting - you really need a large group to do it justice.

The table next door was feasting on a slow-cooked lamb shoulder with gratin dauphinoise and picked red cabbage “for four or five to share” Other dishes such as ‘two way mallard with faggots, mashed potato and savoy cabbage” (sold out to the anguish of one customer who arrived later than we did) were for two.

I went for the daily special of rabbit with chorizo, chickpeas and aioli (above), a hearty plateful that would have been welcome on a cold winter’s night while my daughter had a perfectly cooked bavette steak with blue cheese butter that she was wisely discouraged from having medium-rare.

She also had rabbit for a starter in the form of rillettes - a good use of leftovers I suspect - while I had the best twice baked cheese soufflé I’ve ever eaten made from the local Oxford Blue - light as air and served with a nicely contrasting crisp pear and walnut salad.

Only the desserts - an autumn fruit crumble that looked as if it had been topped with cornflakes and a perfectly decent though not wildly exciting pear and almond tart failed to reach the heights of the starters and main courses. The wine list, while not in the Cherwell Boathouse league (below) is interesting with plenty of options by the glass. I had a glass of Marques de Reinosa white rioja and a Vinho de Palestra Douro red, both well priced at £4.35 and £5.20 respectively.

As the evening wore on it got more crowded and noisier and with a young, studenty crowd It wouldn’t be the place for a romantic evening but it’s perfect, as I say, for a group of friends.

NB It's slightly out of the centre. Unless you’re feeling energetic you may need a taxi.

Dinner for 2 with 1 soft drink and 2 glasses of wine and 2 teas £77.79

Other options: Jacob’s Inn, Turl Street Kitchen

Gee’s

61 Banbury Road, OX2 6PE
01865 553540

We could have stayed in our hotel (The Old Bank) for breakfast on Saturday but decided to walk over to its sister restaurant Gee’s for brunch a mile or so away. It’s housed in a pretty conservatory with plenty of squishy banquettes to loll on. And they serve you properly squeezed orange juice ‘with bits’ before you’ve even got round to looking at the menu.

Eggs benedict seemed the order of the day (Oxford seems to have a thing about it) and as it’s my favourite brunch dish I don’t know why I didn’t order it instead of going for a full English breakfast pizzeta which was clever but not nearly as satisfying. (My daughter wisely did, hence the photo.)

We then ordered a banana bread and mascarpone we didn’t really need and didn’t manage to finish. It would have been better served warm as I half expected. Still, a lovely place to have breakfast and you can then walk back to the city centre to work it off which will make you feel virtuous.

£42.19 for 2.

Other brunch options: Oxfork

The Cherwell Boathouse

Bardwell Road, OX2 6ST.
01865 552746

I was a bit hesitant about going to The Cherwell Boathouse as it’s been going for ever but recent reports suggested standards hadn’t slipped. Sunday lunch on a sunny late September day was probably a good plan enabling us to sit in the window watching the punters (people punting, not our fellow customers).

The food isn’t amazing but it’s generous and good enough. In fact my daughter who isn’t half as picky as I am thought it was terrific. We both had roasts - in her case roast lamb, in mine (slightly soggy) pork belly with apple sauce and loads of veg including some decent roast potatoes then shared a sticky toffee pudding which was brilliant - light and not too sweet.

Starters (heritage tomatoes and mozzarella with a crisp-fried slice of pancetta in her case, a rather overworked salade nicoise with seared tuna and soft boiled quails’ eggs in mine) weren’t wonderful but frankly I didn’t mind. For the point of the place is not the food but the view and the wine - one of the best, most reasonably priced lists in the country.

Being the only one drinking I didn’t do it justice having a glass of Gusbourne brut to start with and a glass of authentic old-fashioned Beaujolais from Domaine A. Michaud. I should probably have gone for a half bottle or, even better a full one and taken the rest home.

Cost: £80.26 for 2 but would have been easy to spend a lot more than this on wine.

Note: also out of the centre but taxis are comparatively cheap.

Other options: The Old Parsonage