I visited this restaurant with a friend known in the facebook comments as Miss S yesterday. The original review of this restaurant was largely written as a group of facebook comments so rather than rewriting I will post it in this way. In brief though, the food was good and definitely above average. The staff were really helpful and service was genrally of a very high quality. The menu is similar to that of a gastro pub but it is a bit on the expensive side. We paid £47 a head for 3 courses each, a bottle of wine between us and a liqueur coffee each. We also got mince pies and chrackers as it was the Christmas season when we visited. To be fair, a full meal and wine in the evening there would be more like £38 if you had the 3 course set menu but that’s still quite a bit.
Before our starters arrived we were given a bread roll and a slice of brown bread. the butter at the Magic Mushroom was oddly shaped.it was ribbed like a sheet of pasta and cut into strips. it was then rolled into a sort of snale shape.
my starter was probably my favourite bit of the meal. I had Smoked Wood Pigeon
with Cinnamon & Pear Chutney and Toasted Pine Nuts
it was a fairly small starter I suppose but the meat was really rich and gamy. the sweet anchutney set off the flavours nicely. the pine nuts were inoffensive
but really didn't add that much to the dish I didn't think.
Miss S had Mignons of Beef in Blue Cheese & Cashew Nut Cream Sauce with Tossed Watercress. She said it was very tasty and the beef was tender which is good.
For main I had Pot Roast Pheasant
with Braised Chicory, Wild Mushroom & Tarragon Jus. this was quite nice though parts of the meat were perhaps a little dry. the vegetables with the meal (wild mushrooms and braised Chicory) were unusual.
the mushrooms have a different texture to those you have with a fry up. they are a bit more chewy and they have more flavour. Miss s and me had the
same vegetables that came with the meal but she did not have sprouts so she had just the potatoes and green beans. they were meant to be potatoes cooked
in their skins but while they were soft enough they were not in any way fluffy like roast potatoes so I would guess they were boiled in their skins.
Miss s had Crispy Pork Belly, on Creamed Savoy Cabbage with Apricot & Thyme Jus. She commented that the pork was tasty and it had crackling with it. Belly pork is really nice but it can have a lot of fat with it.
Vegetables were served in separate dishes with the food. there were sprouts, green beans and the potatoes I mentioned above.
For pudding I had a portion of Christmas pudding and brandy sauce which also came with Chantilly Cream which is nearly as thick as the devon clotted cream but it added quite nicely to the texture. Miss S had a fierce dessert which really needs more explanation. the menu does not describe the chocolate Marquis. it turned out to be a really rich
chocolate mousse that was so thick it was on the verge of being solid. it was made with dark chocolate and cocoa. it was beautifully rich. I have looked
on google and the pudding seems to be actually called Chocolate Marquise and it should be actually solid. I only tried the last couple of spoonfuls of
miss s's Marquis and then it was like very thick melted chocolate.
We had a bottle of house red Merlot to share and I had a quantro coffee and miss s had a hot chocolate with rum
In general I thought the food was very good. The slightly dry pheasant and the texture of the potatoes are small complaints and I would not mention them at all if the food were not slightly expensive. Generally I give this restaurant an 8. I would say it may be worth going there for a set meal on Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday when you will a bit more money.
Graham Page
Mobile: 07753 607980
Fax: 0870 706 2773
Email: gpage@useit.plus.com
MSN: gabriel_mcbird@hotmail.com
Skype: gabriel_mcbird
