After a few years ensconced inside boutique fashion store Browns in Bond Street, Native has run away to the country, becoming the newest incumbent of the barn at Pensons on the Netherwood Estate. This gorgeous barn with rooms in the middle of rural Herefordshire seems a much better fit for Native co-owners Imogen Davis and Ivan Tisdall-Downes, who’s cooking revolves around wild food and hyper-seasonal produce.
Native was underappreciated in its previous guise, and Pensons is the perfect platform to springboard the pair to the national acclaim they deserve. Even though Native at Pensons is still in its infancy, the sprouts of something wonderful are clear to see. The setting is beautiful - a bright, double-height barn, with large windows and huge wicker lamp shades hanging from the ceiling. Outside you’ll find a courtyard, with neat, cosy overnight lodges surrounding, and there’s also a neat little mezzanine snug which is a lovely place to enjoy a pre-dinner Native Negroni. Take a wander through the kitchen garden whilst you’re here and you’ll see just how much work goes into the whole operation.
That garden work is vital to the menu - everything you eat has been picked the same day, and Native manages to present those ingredients in new and interesting ways that don’t lose sight of the produce itself. First off, an elite selection of snacks that includes an exceptionally delicious har gau steamed inside half a morel, and a fidget pie of bacon, apple and potato inside a shatteringly-thin pastry casing. A lively bowl of chalk stream trout in rhubarb leche de tigre is an excellent, and there’s room for some big, classic flavours too, like a perfectly cooked piece of Herdwick lamb wrapped in lamb fat, with the sort of glossy lamb jus you can see your face in.
Desserts are excellent though perhaps not quite at the same high benchmark as the rest of the meal. Tiny margins aside, this is still highly accomplished cooking, made all the better by a wonderful front-of-house team and uniquely beautiful setting.