It is 5 years since I last visited and I thought it best not to go with high expectations. Not feeling like cooking we thought we'd give it a whirl on Monday evening. The menu sounds good, but perhaps it is too long for everything to be done really well. At £100 for 2 main courses, 1 dessert and a bottle of wine, a return evening visit can't really be justified especially as the quality ingredients used are not quite allowed to shine. Breads were homemade, fresh and the one with caraway seed was superb. My main of smoked haddock was cooked properly as were the partnering two scallops. Flavours were good overall, but the potato beneath tasted better than it looked – nevertheless with potato being the dominant component on the plate, I left quite a lot. The root vegetable dauphinoise side dish was soggy and very disappointing and shouldn't have been served in that state. My partner had Moroccan style lamb and was warned about the spicy heat. It was under-spiced with little heat, however, it was importantly all quite edible. At an adjacent table slight disappointment was expressed about a partridge and foie gras main course, plus a less than positive comment to be relayed to the chef about one dessert; in contrast, my partner's dessert slipped down very well. Very agreeable report on a starter came from one of the four occupied tables. (With low level music in such a small space, hearing others is inevitable – perhaps one of their live music events would help.)
As I had stated in 2009 lunch was the better option and probably still is now. Service was correct, relaxed and very pleasant and we had good wine aptly recommended. Country pub charm has obviously not warn off for many, although freshening up stained cushions wouldn't go amiss.
This place could offer fantastic food given the standard of sourcing… I so wanted it to be better as it is my closest neighbourhood restaurant.