The Woodspeen
Woodspeen, Berkshire
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The Woodspeen is a testament to what can emerge when you have what the estate agents call 'vision'. Less than a decade ago, it was a run-down Victorian village pub. Now look. There is a cookery school, a cheery, airy dining room with a picture window looking out onto west Berkshire, and gardens teeming with produce for the kitchen – and for a house gin called 25 Yards. There are also menus of slickly turned-out modern British food, with equal emphasis laid on freshness and revitalised classicism. That gin is the curing medium for a salmon starter, also dressed in buttermilk, dill and pickled cucumber. Virtually everything on-trend turns up in another opener of roast scallops with pressed chicken, chicken skin, curried cauliflower, and caper/raisin purée, but a main course of lamb rump is more traditionally equipped with a rosemary-flecked rösti, salsa verde with wild garlic, and garden mint gel. Mains for sharing might take in beef Wellington, or a hefty tronçon of Cornish turbot with prawn crackers, potted shrimp dressing and white wine sauce. Desserts come into their own during the summer months, when soft fruits flow forth in strawberry and lime Alaska with balsamic strawberries, Black Forest fondant with sour cherry purée, or a summer pudding with hazelnuts and mint. The wine list, meanwhile, wouldn't let the side down in a grand metropolitan hotel. There are plenty of half-bottles and imaginative selections by the small glass, but mark-ups are pretty unyielding.
