"This is a lovely venue in the beautiful countryside of Wiltshire. We were warmly greeted by the staff, as we came in, and the great service carried on throughout the evening. We were seated at a slightly odd table in a corner, perfectly adequate, I just felt a bit in the way. Menus were handed out, although I'd looked online and set my heart on delights already, and we had a couple of drinks to get started. We went for a sharing arrangement for our starters and had the crispy pickled root veg, the bread and pistachio butter alongside the trout rillettes. The bread and butter were lovely, different combination that worked well. The pickled veg were nice, but some you needed your good teeth for whilst others were very soft. I'm told, as I'm not a fishy person, that the trout rillette was divine. Main course arrived and as usual I went for haddock and chips. I know this contradicts my previous paragraph but everything is better deep fried in batter! The Mr went for the spicy bean burger, which looked fabulous. A couple of niggles would be that the burger was very squishy for a bean burger, it kept trying to escape from the bun. I usually order fish and chips as it's a great way to compare how different chefs manage with batter. The chips were thick, chunky and crispy as anything. The tartare sauce was really good, as were the crushed peas sounds daft but they tasted of peas, not making them like other places where they add god knows what to them! My niggle was that halfway through the fish which was beautifully cooked and moist the batter went a bit stodgy and lost its crispiness. It's a small thing, not really worth mentioning on the night as everything else was top notch. Dessert arrived, as it always seems too... I had the pumpkin spiced set custard which was a delight to look at, as well as eat. The custard was smooth and not over spiced, and it came with filo shards and the lightest meringue I've ever eaten. The Mr had the cheescake which was a concoction of blond chocolate and mascarpone. It also comes with Horlicks ice cream which I tried and can safely say it was yummy. It wasn't a cheap night out, but overall it was worth the money. Next time I'd like to sit by the fire in the little dining room, not in a hallway. Please take yourself there and enjoy."
