Long-awaited after a three year revamp, The Pony Chew Valley has been completely transformed by sibling owners Josh and Holly Eggleton. The interiors still have that cosy, lived-in charm of a good local pub, but now The Pony boasts a spacious double height dining room at the rear, as well as a cook school upstairs, and a sprawling kitchen garden dotted with beehives, orchards, vegetable beds and polytunnels.
So, what of the restaurant? It’s an enormous room, and minimally decorated, which we imagine could feel quite sparse at times. It’s hard to notice though when all you can do is admire the jaw-dropping views over the green fields of the Chew Valley. There are a number of tables outside on the terrace where you can soak up the sun and the views simultaneously when the weather is good. You can even wander around the gardens before, during or after your meal and admire some of the wonderful things being grown on site.
Menus are hyper-seasonal, based around whatever produce is peaking in the kitchen garden - in fact, much of the produce that arrives on the plate has likely been picked just an hour or two before service. Although The Pony is shedding some of the inaccessibility of that old Michelin star, the cooking on show is still top class. There’s a beautiful scallop, given a gentle golden sear and presented in the shell with elderflower, nasturtium and a dollop of creme fraiche. A lovely fillet of red mullet is draped lazily over Josh’s garden caponata made with, you guessed it, vegetables straight from the veg beds just metres away. There’s no fussing over plating or overly complex menu writing, The Pony is exactly what gastropubs should be about - brilliant local produce and outstanding seasonal cookery. A rose and raspberry choux bun, stuffed with ice cream and Japanese wine berries, might just be the perfect summer dessert.
As Josh darts between the kitchen, dining room and teaching a class of school kids how to boil pasta, one feels as though this really is what the Eggleton siblings have always wanted The Pony to be - a place where they can fully realise their social and charitable enterprises as well as retaining the phenomenal reputation of The Pony and Trap.