Aclèaf
Plympton, Devon
CONTINUE READING
Already a member? Log in here
Subscribe to our newsletter to gain access to limited free articles, reviews, news and our weekly newsletter.
The Good Food Guide Membership: Save £100s at Britain's best restaurants - try for free for 30 days
‘Incredible food and wine pairing in an unbeatable historic setting,’ commented one fan of this impressively proportioned, Grade I-listed Elizabethan manor house. Aclèaf – oak leaf in Anglo Saxon – is the small, intimate premier dining room, an elegant space occupying a former minstrel’s gallery overlooking the majestic great hall. Here well-spaced, linen-covered tables seem to mandate a sense of occasion, which is amply supplied by ‘very knowledgeable’ staff and by Scott Paton’s contemporary cooking. His seasonally inspired, compact dinner menus are inventive yet simple, cooked with assurance and technical know-how. From the moment the snacks and freshly baked breads arrive, it is clear that concentrated thought has gone into everything. The fixed-price, four-course table d’hôte is the obvious way to take in the whole experience, with tip-top supplies and bright, upstanding flavours evident in an updated version of sole véronique (with Champagne and fermented grape), and in a dish of white crabmeat with curry and mango. Elsewhere, thoroughbred meats such as lamb with hazelnut and white asparagus, or succulent rabbit with prune and Armagnac, or even a delicate confection of duck egg, apricot and lemon verbena exemplify the style perfectly. Wine matches offer pure class by the glass (‘a must in our opinion’) from an authoritative list with better-than-fair mark-ups.
