The Fig Tree
Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex
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Pretty Hurstpierpoint on the edge of the South Downs National Park has been home to James and Jodie Dearden's restaurant since 2016, and if all looks charmingly traditional from the outside, rest assured, James' cooking brings things right up to date. It's a tasting menu format in the evening, six courses (seven if you add a plate of British cheeses), with choice offered only at lunch (from a fixed-price carte). Regional produce plays its part across the board, and things get going with some genuinely contemporary amuse-bouches – tandoori monkfish taco, salt-beef cracker. There's classical good sense in combinations such as fresh crab with lemon and dill or the scent of truffle cutting through a quail dish with celeriac. Seafood is a strength – sea bass, say, with parsnip and tarragon, or turbot with more of that crab. A vegetarian tasting menu is packed with flavour too, perhaps fiery horseradish with beetroot and celeriac or tender leeks in crispy puff pastry, while rhubarb and custard makes a comforting finale. English sparkling wine gets its due on the drinks list, where the Coravin preservation system ensures plenty of cut-above offerings by the glass. Bottle prices open at £23.
