Talbooth
Dedham, Essex
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In 2022 this much-loved family-run riverside restaurant totted up 70 years of service. Well-heeled guests come for a picture-perfect setting by the Stour, and to mark all manner of occasions in a centuries-old building of beams, mullioned windows and white-clothed tables. The menu bows to classical French style. A summer meal might start with chilled lobster consommé, or ham hock and duck liver terrine, or slices of delicate tuna doused tableside in a light dashi broth and served with snappy sesame crisps. Vegetarian diners (there’s a separate menu for vegan guests too) might begin with truffle and Manchego cheese ravioli, but with takes on pasta and suchlike dominating the main-course options, cauliflower velouté might be preferable. Meat is expertly cooked. A Suffolk pork chop, laced with paprika, is beautifully juicy under its blanket of mustard cream sauce, the acidic counterpart delivered by a sharp cider vinegar gel and punchy bacon jam. Saddle of lamb is blush pink and tucked up tenderly next to the smoothest pomme purée and shiniest Madeira jus. Desserts are a triumph. A lemon soufflé towers fluffily above sweet-sharp blueberry ice cream and hint-of-lavender Chantilly, while a frangipane tartlet comes with a pretty tumble of strawberries; true tradition-seekers will also applaud the inclusion of peach Melba and a Welsh rarebit savoury. The wine list rewards the deep of pocket, although a Coravin system means that gems such as a 2012 Les Forts de Latour, Pauillac, can be poured by the glass.
