Address:  31 West Street, Marlow, SL7 2LS

Telephone: 01628 898101

Website: www.thevanillapod.co.uk

Date of visit: 4 October 2011

Costs: Tasting menu £55, a la carte £45 for 3 courses. Set lunch 2 courses £17.50.

Wines and beer:  Short but interesting wine list at normal mark up. Expect to pay over £30 for a reasonable wine. Wine by the glass under £10

Likes and dislikes: Wonderful bread rolls, pristine table cloth. Prices slightly on the high side

Cuisine: Modern European – haute cuisine

Summary:

Marlow is becoming a “little” Ludlow with several good restaurants. The cook shop there is very good but unlike Ludlow, the butchers, fish monger and green grocers had made way for other shop. The Compleat Angler is a wonderful hotel – rooms. About three years ago, it acquired a new chef. I last went 20 years ago and never returned as they served me tinned oysters on toast as a first course.

The Vanilla Pod is sited in a town house just to the west of the town centre. There is a paid for car park about 30 meters from the restaurant. This restaurant is rated as 5 in The Good Food Guide and was a regional winner last year – readers’choice.

The restaurant is quite small with 7 tables in a cream coloured room. There is a private dining room upstairs that could take a dozen tables.

This is a proper restaurant with all right ingredients: attentive staff, pristine table cloths and napkins, homemade warm rolls – bacon and onions, cheese, wholemeal etc. You also get proper cutlery with each course including the defunct (in the UK) sauce spoon.

I went for the a la carte which is really a set meal with choices. You get three freebies with the meal – a creamy soup served in a coffee cup, ginger sorbet and petit fours even if you didn’t order coffee.

I found a half bottle of Montage St Emilion 2000 for £21 so I went for it. It was surprisingly bland for a 2000 which was a good year. But then it was from a “nothing” chateau. I used to advise that the year is the most important as when the grapes are right, nothing can go wrong. I need to revise this.

The creamy soup was excellent, very intense and rich. It was celeriac. Next came a wild mushroom risotto. The rice was slightly on the hard side – not quite cook through. I know that a lot of restaurants serve risotto like this but I would have preferred the rice cooked through but not mushy. Bar the rice, it was executed well and full of chanterelles, horns of plenty, ceps etc.

I then had the grouse which attracted £5 supplement. It was a rolled up breast, flash fried and cut into chunks – medium rare. With it came all sorts of well cut/shaped  vegetables – cylindrical, round etc – and a heavily reduced sauce. Highly typical of haute cuisine.

For dessert – yes, I had the dessert as I paid for 3 courses – I had the almond frangipane. It was a penna cotta type of intense almond dollop served with ginger snaps. Words do not do it justice as it came like everything else wonderfully presented.

The overall bill came to £71 excluding service. Not cheap but about right for this type of food.

Address: 128 West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BP

Telephone number: 01628 482277

Website: www.thehandandflowers.co.uk

Date of last visits:  26 January 2010, 10 February 2010, 8 May 2010

Date of this visit: 29 June 2011

Approximate cost per head: Set lunch £12.50 for 2 courses. Most starters around £9+ and main courses around £20+. Be prepared to spend £50 a head including drinks.

Comments on wine list/beer:  Greene King IPA, Abbotts (£3.80 a pint) , and Morlandson tap. Wine list very comprehensive. Massive mark-ups on some wines. Very good  French Country wines at a decent price

Cusine: Innovative cooking – British and French

Likes and dislikers: For the price you charge, can we please have a table cloth?

Summary:

It has been a year since my last visit. The food is as good as ever, the prices have gone up, the freebies of whitebait and breads are still there.  There is now no choice for the set lunch. The place is still full for a Wednesday lunch time.

This time I went with ex-colleagues from work.

One of us had the set lunch and the rest of us ordered from the a la carte.

We started off with a Becks (£4 a bottle) and Abbot ale. Abbot is probably the best ale that Greene King brews at present. Morlands was also on tap but this is the Greene King version from Bury St Edmonds and not Abingdon. I last had a pint of Morlands at the Elephant and Castle in Hurst and it was all right.

Three of my friends had the Cesar’s salad from the set lunch. They all enjoyed it. I had the calf sweet bread ($9.95)served with barley and sweet corn in some form of brown gravy. The sweetbread was bread crumbed and fried – absolutely brilliant.  The suce with the bits were all right but the barley was hard – unsoaked. Was this a mistake?

For main course, R had the ballotine of chicken from the set lunch whilst the rest of us had the fish and chips (£13.90) from the a la carte menu – I gathered that fish and chips are only served at lunch time.

Lets start with the chicken. It was a full leg served in a small cast iron frying pan with puy lentils in it. R thought very highly of it but I noticed that the chicken still had the bone in it. I know this place has a Michelin star but ballotine is definitely off the bone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballotine

The rest of us had the fish and chips with the chef’s version of triple cooked chip (£4 for a side order) , pea puree and very chunky tartare sauce. This was as good as ever and it was served on a wooden board.  I rate the fish and chips here as one of the best in the world. I also had a good one in Hong Kong – it was with tempura battered and deep fried in clarified butter.

For desserts, R had the banana fool from the set lunch, I (Ian not me) had the treacle tart and P had the hot chocolate wille – yes he did!

With coffee, tea and a bottle of white Bergerac (Tour de Gendres £30.55) , the bill came to £151 excluding tips for 4.

Looking around, most people had the steak, trotter or lamb bun from the a la carte. The other places good for trotters are: Forburary Restaurant and China Palace – both at Reading. You can get Zampone (trotter sausage) from the Italian Continental Store in Maidenhead

This place is on my “A” list!

If you are a foodie flying in or out of  Heathrow, this and The Royal Oak (Paley Street) are the place to stop for lunch. You will never get into The Fat Duck with less than 3 months notice. The Water Side Inn is a possibility if you fancy paying £100 a head!

E

Address: Terville, Oxon RG9 6QU

Telephone number: 01491 638283

Website: http://www.thebullandbutcher.com

Date of visit: 20 September 2010

Price Guide (2 courses): approx £20

Comments on wine and beer: short wine list with several bottles under £20.Brakspear is on tap but they also have Hooky Dark

Summary:

The village is in the Chiltern countryside. There are no shops – just this pub and several streets of old cottages. In fact, the village is a regular feature in TV dramas – The Vicar of Dibley, Midsomer Murders etc.

One immediate caveat is that this is not an easy place to get to. It’s in the middle of the countryside surrounded on the four sides by Watlington, M40, Marlow and Henley-on Thames. Whichever way you come from, you will have to go through winding single lane unlit country roads.

Being a 17 century building, it has the traditional two bars, but there is no distinction between the 2 bars anymore. Outside, there is a large garden with plenty of tables and chairs.

The first thing I noticed was that the dining tables have been scrubbed till the exposed wood is white.

I started out with a pint of hooky dark (£3) which soon became two.

The menu is old fashion traditional pub grub and is quite short. For example, you can have a ploughman with cheeses and a pork pie for £7.95. Most starters are priced at £6.95 and most main courses priced at £12.95. The most expensive item is the rib eye steak priced at over £23. There are blackboards with specials of the day on it.

I had the “husband” cod and chips (£12.95). The “wife” version is smaller (£9.95). I was served a huge piece of cod on a pile of chips with a tub of mushy peas and a tub of homemade tartar sauce. The dish was expertly cooked and the fish tasted very fresh despite the fact that it is Monday.

I noticed that the 3 dishes with the pub’s endorsement as special were: steak and kidney pudding, fish and chips and burger.

This is a place for walkers as one of the recommended Chiltern Walks passes within 10 yards of the pub. It’s also a good place for a Sunday Lunch.

The Bull and Butcher in in the Michelin as well as Sawday’s guides and I add my support.

E

Address: Freith Road, Bovingdon Green, Near Marlow SL7 2JF

Telephone number: 01628 488611

Website: www.royaloakmarlow.co.uk

Date of visit: 19 August 2010

Approximate cost per head: Around £20 for 2 courses.

Comments on wine list/beer: Pretty extensive wine list with top red at £45 – Amarone. No upmarket wines on the list. Lots of halves and wine by the glasses (different sizes). Rebellion on tap (IPA @ £3.10 a pint)

Summary:

The pub is managed by the Sailsbury Family. They also manage The Swan Inn and The Old Queens Head in Buckinghamshire.

This pub appears in the Michelin Guide as well as Sawday’s. I usually take that as a pretty good recommendation.

The inside of the pub consists of a large room with most of the tables laid out for dining. There is also a large outside area for dining. Paper napkins and no table clothes.

In the Michelin guide, the cuisine is described as modern British with an oriental influence. On the day I went, I can only describe the menu as modern British/European.

I had my two starters as usual. My guests simply had the main course.

We were not offered any bread – you pay extra for that.

I had the salt beef (£6.75) followed by bubble and squeak (£6.25). The salt beef was not too salty but it was served with a strange salad dressing – it tasted like Heinz Salad Cream enriched with extra egg yolk. Overall, it was very good. The bubble and squeak was a large rissole of mash potato, cabbage and carrot julienne, bread crumbed and fried. This sat in a large pool of hollandaise sauce. On top of this was a poached egg (soft yolk) and a slice of smoked bacon on the side of the rissole. It was very visual and tasted as good as it looked.

One of my guests had the bubble and squeak as a main course (£11.75) and it was exactly the same but with 2 rissoles, 2 poached eggs and 2 slices of bacon – this turned out to be too much for her.

The other guest had the grilled cod fillet (£14.50) with a pea risotto and a soft boiled egg. The cod was perfectly cooked, came as a thick chunk with crispy skin. The pea risotto was too wet for my liking, but then most risottos served in this country have too much liquid – it tasted fine. The soft boiled egg turned out to be hard boiled – the only blemish of the meal.

The service was very good and efficient. With 2 pints of Rebellion and 3 Persi, the total bill came to £49.65 without service charge.

I like the place and the food.

E

PS  if you use the postal code supplied in this article on your tomtom, you will be taken to a place 300 meters south of the pub – same road. 

Address: 126 West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BP

Telephone number: 01628 482277

Website: www.thehandandflowers.co.uk

Date of visit: 18 February 2010

Approximate cost per head: £10 plus. A la Carte around £20 for a main course.

Comments on wine list/beer: Very extensive and expensive. House wine OK

Summary:

This is the second visit within a month  to verify the cooking as it’s a michelin star pub.

Last time I had a carafe of basic Rioja at £12 for 250ml which I thought was over priced. This time, we had the red (£17) suggested on the fixed price menu. It was a 2007 Grenache Shiraz. I have had this “new mix” before from Octavia and was surprised that it worked. This time, the wine had a higher percentage of Grenache than Shiraz. On the menu it was described as fruity with a hint of animal……….I had never come across a wine with the word animal in it – I had to have it. It was quite drinkable and they were right, there was a hint of “game” in it.

We stuck to the fixed price menu – £10 for 2 courses (weekday lunch only). The place was full on a Thursday lunch time and nearly everyone had the fixed price menu.

On offer as starters was parsnip soup or pork pie with piccalilli. For second course, comfits of ling with lentils or venison stew with mash potato.

The pork pie was home made and came as a thick slice. It was full of prime meat – not off cuts – and there were blocks of ham within it. It was very good and the home made piccalilli was very mild not sharp. Prior to this, we were given a basket of home made bread and some deep fried whitebait. The bread was warm and the whitebait crisp and moist. Both excellent as was last time.

For main course, we had the venison and ling. I did nit taste the ling but my friends said it was very good. The venison was served in a mini frying pan and had prime cuts – possibly fillet – in it with no visible fat. It came with a sauce which was not over reduced.

We ordered sides with the meal (all at £4): cauliflower cheese, spring green and the famous chips. The cauli was fine but nothing special. The greens were cut into large leaves and were cooked perfectly – still with a bite. The chips which I raved on last time were not as good this time. They were more like tripe cooked chips and they were over salted – why do they do this? Nothing else tasted over seasoned.

The service was a bit slow between courses – as we had the set lunch and nearly everyone else also had the set lunch, I wonder if the kitchen staffs are over stretched when they are at capacity?

On the whole, it was a very good meal and this is possibly the best value lunch around but then AWT also offers £10 for 2 courses at his pub and there are two other very good (untested by me) restaurants in Marlow – Vanilla Pod and The Lost Soul.

Eddie

Address: 128 West Street, Marlow, SL7 2BP. ( Its on the edge of Marlow, on the Henley side)

Telephone number: 01628 482277

Website: www.thehandandflowers.co.uk

Date of visit:  26 January 2010

Approximate cost per head: From £10, a la carte £30

Comments on wine list/beer: Its Green King IPA on tap. Wine list very comprehensive but mostly “youngish wines” – massive mark up.

Summary:
This is a “pub/restaurant” with one Michelin star.

On entry, you are in several connecting rooms with exposed beam and stone floor. However, all the tables are laid and there are no bar stools so it is really a restaurant that served draft beer.

All the tables were bare (no table cloth) but proper napkins were provided. A few years ago, if you do not have a table cloth, you will not get a Michelin star, but those days are long gone!

They offer a set lunch during week days. On offer today was parsnip soup or pork pie followed by confit of ling with puy lentils or lasagne. Desert was the usual crème brulee etc £10 for 2 courses or £13.50 for three courses.

On checking out the a la carte, which has the usual combination of slow cooked meat, fish and steak, I arrived at the last page which had only one item on it – award winning fish and chips at £13.50! I had to go for it.

Additional sides which included their famous chips, swede with black pepper, brussels sprouts tops etc… all priced at £4.

When it arrived, the fish and chips were two pieces of medium size fillets deep fried in batter – it tasted and looked like hake. Then you had a copper sauce pot filled with chips, a ramekin of home made tartar sauce and a ramekin of pea puree.

Lets talk about the chips – they were cylindrical in shape and is a cross between triple cooked chips and pommes soufflé. I really don’t know how they do it. It was truly amazing! A guess is that they treat it like triple cooked chips – par boil, then deep fry at 130C and then  finally deep fry at 190C, allowing it to cool and dry  in-between – then blow air into it after the 130C treatment before deep frying again at 190C. The chips were only slightly seasoned. The pea puree had sugar added.

I had a carafe of house red (rioja crianza) which was around 350ml at £12. At this rate, its £24 for a bottle of house red which was probably around £3.50 a bottle – very steep! It was just drinkable.

The freebies on offer were 2 kinds of bread (warm) and some deep fried whitebaits. The bread was very good, the brown had a chilli kick to it. The whitebait were as good as they come – moist and crispy.

On the whole a very good experience even though they – like most Michelin starred restaurants – put in a massive mark up on wine.

Car park is by the side of the pub and the loos have individual towels.

Eddie