| hotels | restaurants | recipes | wines | travel | small print | latest news | malessere | feedback | products | ordering |
| blog | about us | privacy | sitemap | home | © Bacchus and Comus, and Croque-en-Bouche Site problem? Tell us please |
| blog | about us | privacy | sitemap | home | © Bacchus and Comus, and Croque-en-Bouche Site problem? Tell us please |
THE HARROW AT LITTLE BEDWYN
We always heartily applaud an enterprising restaurant, especially when it is tucked away down a single track country road and especially when the food is good and the wine list outstanding. Being practically in the middle of nowhere, you need a USP. Roger and Sue Jones at The Harrow certainly have shown enough craft over the last seven years to make people beat a path to the door of this once undistinguished pub.
Roger is a good cook - well above any comparison with pub food, having cooked in some of the best places during his career. Apart from a fairly extensive à la carte menu, which changes regularly with the seasons, there is a Gourmet Tasting Menu (£75, including a glass of recommended wines with each course) and a set lunch for £25 including two glasses of wine. And the recommended glasses of wine are certainly not your average "House" wines - you might find (as we did on our two visits there) Moss Wood Chardonnay 2003, Grosset Watervale Riesling 2005, Tamar Ridge Pinot Noir 2003, Glaetzer's "The Wallace" 2003 and even some white Rioja of a mature vintage from Tondonia.
The precision in handling fish is notable, with delicately seared scallops, crab and langoustine cooked absolutely á point, retaining all their succulence without being overcooked. The scallops are sometimes accompanied with a combination of foie gras and black pudding with a Pedro Ximenez sauce, which really works. Line-caught turbot with wild mushrooms, again, was cooked to perfection, whilst spring lamb with rösti, baby vegetables and mint sauce was tasty, with the lamb being cooked just past pink - as it ought, although we found the mint sauce to be a bit superfluous, but maybe that's just a bit of pandering to the masses. Desserts are sound including a lime and ginger brûlée and a good selection of home-made ice creams and sorbets. Three courses without wine will set you back around £40. Each dish has its recommended wine on the à la carte menu, which you can choose with confidence, if you want to save time looking through the rather extensive wine list.
There is a real enthusiasm for quality ingredients, with the emphasis on quality, free-range products rather than gimmicky so-called organic products, which is a highly commendable philosophy. In the front of their menu they list the sources of their food which makes impressive reading.
We always heartily applaud an enterprising restaurant, especially when it is tucked away down a single track country road and especially when the food is good and the wine list outstanding. Being practically in the middle of nowhere, you need a USP. Roger and Sue Jones at The Harrow certainly have shown enough craft over the last seven years to make people beat a path to the door of this once undistinguished pub.
Roger is a good cook - well above any comparison with pub food, having cooked in some of the best places during his career. Apart from a fairly extensive à la carte menu, which changes regularly with the seasons, there is a Gourmet Tasting Menu (£75, including a glass of recommended wines with each course) and a set lunch for £25 including two glasses of wine. And the recommended glasses of wine are certainly not your average "House" wines - you might find (as we did on our two visits there) Moss Wood Chardonnay 2003, Grosset Watervale Riesling 2005, Tamar Ridge Pinot Noir 2003, Glaetzer's "The Wallace" 2003 and even some white Rioja of a mature vintage from Tondonia.
The precision in handling fish is notable, with delicately seared scallops, crab and langoustine cooked absolutely á point, retaining all their succulence without being overcooked. The scallops are sometimes accompanied with a combination of foie gras and black pudding with a Pedro Ximenez sauce, which really works. Line-caught turbot with wild mushrooms, again, was cooked to perfection, whilst spring lamb with rösti, baby vegetables and mint sauce was tasty, with the lamb being cooked just past pink - as it ought, although we found the mint sauce to be a bit superfluous, but maybe that's just a bit of pandering to the masses. Desserts are sound including a lime and ginger brûlée and a good selection of home-made ice creams and sorbets. Three courses without wine will set you back around £40. Each dish has its recommended wine on the à la carte menu, which you can choose with confidence, if you want to save time looking through the rather extensive wine list.
There is a real enthusiasm for quality ingredients, with the emphasis on quality, free-range products rather than gimmicky so-called organic products, which is a highly commendable philosophy. In the front of their menu they list the sources of their food which makes impressive reading.
But it is the wine list that is the real tour de force of this restaurant. Roger's enthusiasm for wine is demonstrated by a very extensive wine list with the emphasis on Australia, Champagne and Spain. There are also some great wines from around the world and whilst prices are decidedly Thames Valley, they are not really OTT. Although there are some anomalies in the pricing structure. For example, Domaine de Trevallon wines of the late nineties are listed at £75 (expensive), whilst Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2005 at £21 is as cheap as we have seen anywhere on a quality wine list. Go for it! There are other anomalies, but you will have to wait for the next edition of The Top 100 UK Restaurant Wine Lists for those!
Verticals of Glaetzer-made wines (see our article on Ben Glaetzer), Penfolds Grange, Moss Wood, Cape Mentelle and Tamar Ridge underscore Roger's love of Australian wines. If we have any criticism of the list, it would be that the number of Australian wines that are proportionate to the total are a little bit top heavy to make this a truly classically balanced list.
Attention to detail is evident in all aspects of this operation, from Sue Jones's quiet confidence in handling the customers and making them feel at ease, to the organisation of chauffeur driven services from local railway stations (or even from London) and a listing of local bed and breakfast accommodation for anyone who wants to take full advantage of the wine list. (And why not?) Furthermore, Roger is the purveyor of local black truffles in season and runs a thriving off sales business for his wines, some of which he is the sole UK importer.
Restaurant Ratings...
Food 42
Wine list 18
Service 8
Ambience 4
Value for money 11
Total 83
The Harrow at Little Bedwyn Little Bedwyn,
Nr. Marlborough, Wilts. SN8 3JP. Tel: 01672 870871.
E-mail: dining@harrowinn.co.uk
www.theharrowatlittlebedwyn.co.uk
Open for lunch, Wednesday to Sunday, 12 to 3,
dinner, Wednesday to Saturday, 7 to 11.
Closed, 3 weeks August, 3 weeks Xmas and New Year
Credit cards: Visa, Mastercard.
Fixed price menus: £75 for Gourmet Tasting Menu with wines for each course , £25 for 3 course set lunch with 2 glasses of wine. A la carte around £40 for 3 courses without wine.
Verticals of Glaetzer-made wines (see our article on Ben Glaetzer), Penfolds Grange, Moss Wood, Cape Mentelle and Tamar Ridge underscore Roger's love of Australian wines. If we have any criticism of the list, it would be that the number of Australian wines that are proportionate to the total are a little bit top heavy to make this a truly classically balanced list.
Attention to detail is evident in all aspects of this operation, from Sue Jones's quiet confidence in handling the customers and making them feel at ease, to the organisation of chauffeur driven services from local railway stations (or even from London) and a listing of local bed and breakfast accommodation for anyone who wants to take full advantage of the wine list. (And why not?) Furthermore, Roger is the purveyor of local black truffles in season and runs a thriving off sales business for his wines, some of which he is the sole UK importer.
Restaurant Ratings...
Food 42
Wine list 18
Service 8
Ambience 4
Value for money 11
Total 83
The Harrow at Little Bedwyn Little Bedwyn,
Nr. Marlborough, Wilts. SN8 3JP. Tel: 01672 870871.
E-mail: dining@harrowinn.co.uk
www.theharrowatlittlebedwyn.co.uk
Open for lunch, Wednesday to Sunday, 12 to 3,
dinner, Wednesday to Saturday, 7 to 11.
Closed, 3 weeks August, 3 weeks Xmas and New Year
Credit cards: Visa, Mastercard.
Fixed price menus: £75 for Gourmet Tasting Menu with wines for each course , £25 for 3 course set lunch with 2 glasses of wine. A la carte around £40 for 3 courses without wine.
