The Hinds Head (Bray)
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Bray has two three-starred Michelin restaurants. London has one. So let it be no surprise that the town is adorable, and it's got a great gastropub that's perfect for an easy meal following a day in the country (or at Bicester Village).
The 15th century Tudor establishment has had an illustrious past, from its possible origins as a royal hunting lodge, to the destination of Prince Philip's stag night in 1947. Now it's owned by Heston Blumenthal and his business partner, and serves the most traditional of British dishes.
We reserved almost a month before going on a Saturday night, but were still only able to get a 6:30pm table. As that's the time the restaurant opens, 15 tables were seated at once, which brought our only complaint from the night: after being given menus, no one came to our table for 25 minutes. We had drinks from the bar, so this wasn't too painful, but we did watch with envy as the other tables began their evening.
But after that glitch, the rest of our evening (which went until 9pm, despite the two-hour booking policy) was great.
My friend and I shared mussels to start, and my husband had ox tongue. The starter portion of the mussels was enormous and the ox tongue was a bit smaller. But both were delicious, and well accompanied by granary bread.
Our mains were also a success, although one of us should have ordered the Lancashire Hotpot (which has received rave reviews). But instead we opted for whole sea bream (which our friend was glad to be able to request and enjoy sans head, tail and bones), pork chop with mustard mash (which my husband loved despite his dislike for capers), and sausages and mash with carmelized onion gravy (which I enjoyed despite a limited capacity for sausages).
And despite the fact there were no chocolate desserts on the menu, the three we ordered were great puddings, which we ranked in order of most delicious to still-pretty-incredibly-delicious: Eton mess with bananas, quaking pudding and treacle tart with milk ice cream. Perhaps the treacle tart would have been more of a success if served with an ice cream that had more of a flavour. And I must elaborate on the quaking pudding, which none of us had eaten before, and by which we were all very pleasantly surprised.
With a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, the bill came to £120 for three.
Not a bad deal for a country dining destination with delicious food to boot.
We reserved almost a month before going on a Saturday night, but were still only able to get a 6:30pm table. As that's the time the restaurant opens, 15 tables were seated at once, which brought our only complaint from the night: after being given menus, no one came to our table for 25 minutes. We had drinks from the bar, so this wasn't too painful, but we did watch with envy as the other tables began their evening.
But after that glitch, the rest of our evening (which went until 9pm, despite the two-hour booking policy) was great.
My friend and I shared mussels to start, and my husband had ox tongue. The starter portion of the mussels was enormous and the ox tongue was a bit smaller. But both were delicious, and well accompanied by granary bread.
Our mains were also a success, although one of us should have ordered the Lancashire Hotpot (which has received rave reviews). But instead we opted for whole sea bream (which our friend was glad to be able to request and enjoy sans head, tail and bones), pork chop with mustard mash (which my husband loved despite his dislike for capers), and sausages and mash with carmelized onion gravy (which I enjoyed despite a limited capacity for sausages).
And despite the fact there were no chocolate desserts on the menu, the three we ordered were great puddings, which we ranked in order of most delicious to still-pretty-incredibly-delicious: Eton mess with bananas, quaking pudding and treacle tart with milk ice cream. Perhaps the treacle tart would have been more of a success if served with an ice cream that had more of a flavour. And I must elaborate on the quaking pudding, which none of us had eaten before, and by which we were all very pleasantly surprised.
With a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, the bill came to £120 for three.
Not a bad deal for a country dining destination with delicious food to boot.
Here Is The Writer : Madame B
Foreign-born Madame B thinks she's a City girl, but mostly just walks our streets checking things out and searching for the best wi-fi hotspots offered by The Cloud. You can spot her typing furiously on her shiny white MacBook, wearing dark sunglasses and drinking a glass of champagne. She's one half of the Shopaholics, which might explain things...
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