Location
It’s getting to that time of year again where a visit to Daylesford Organic for their annual Lambing day (review to appear soon). Being so close we lunched at The Wild Rabbit in Kingham. Set in the heart of the Cotswolds they serve locally sourced, seasonal food in a relaxed atmosphere under the executive chef Sam Bowser. The previous executive chef Tim Allen left in August 2017 and the Michelin Star was retracted in the 2018 Michelin guide. As is usual the star goes with the chStyle. Andef. Kingham is a little like Bray (in terms of quality of food per person who lives there!). The tiny village has two very high quality pubs, including The Kingham Plough (no stars at yet!), is down for a future visit.
Style and Character
The Wild Rabbit is part of the Dayleford Organic Farms empire, owned by Lady Bamford. This is a traditional, English pub with restaurant and rooms — although one of the poshest pubs you are likely to visit! The pub was acquired by Lady Bamford early in 2013 (when it was called The Tollgate Inn), and reopened it later that year, after an extensive, top-to-toe £1 million plus refurbishment, as The Wild Rabbit. Initially at the helm of the kitchen was Adam Caisly, former senior sous-chef at Le Gavroche and private chef of Lady Bamford. The pub managed to put itself quickly on the food map of Britain, with Michelin naming The Wild Rabbit “Pub of the Year” in their 2015 “Eating Out in Pubs” guide. Adam Caisly left the pub early 2015, and was shortly after succeeded by the talented Tim Allen, former executive chef at Michelin starred Launceston Place in London. Tim Allen started at The Wild Rabbit in October 2015 and a year later the pub was awarded a Michelin star (2017 guide). As mentioned above Tim Allen left as did the Michelin star shortly after.
We booked for a Saturday lunch in April and I didn’t exactly expect the restaurant to be busy. There was a clue about how busy it would be as it was difficult to get a table until 2pm. The car park was full upon arrival and I had to go to the overspill car park across the road. It was a warm, sunny spring day and the front court yard was heaving with not a space to be found. On arrival at the pub we were blown away with just how beautiful it looks. The original building at the front has been meticulously restored and a large open plan restaurant, complete with open plan kitchen has been built into the rear.
On walking through the front door we were greeted by a wonderful open fire. We walked through the cosy, comfortable bar area and were led into the restaurant at the rear. The restaurant is loveFed bread as well as dressers, and of course, numerous rabbits (none alive), after which the pub is named.
Near the kitchen area there was a round glass panel in the floor and when looking down I was an old well lit up as a feature.
Food and Drink
The menu is fairly limited , but I don’t think I’ve been to many places where most things I saw on the menu appealed so much. I started with the scallop, served like a work of art. Sue had asparagus, served with Daylesford chedder with lardo on one of the spears. All the food we ate was dressed to perfection but also tasted great. They say that you eat with your eyes and I love coming to places where the food looks so great when it arrives at your table.
I love the sound of the meeting of sea and orchard, which can be described as a winter version of ceviche.
With the recent storms it’s actually been a challenge to source the scallops but they are working with some great suppliers on Orkney and the west coast of Scotland. They start with a gentle confit in beef fat before grilling the scallop on a BBQ to unlock its taste along with a charcoal flavour and hints of beef. Raw apple compressed in apple juice gives us acidic pickle notes, and there is turnip from the market garden at Daylesford to give that bitterness and notes of horseradish. Between them the ingredients create really interesting layers of flavour and texture. They grow the marigold onsite and snip the flowers to order for a final decorative touch. But also used is apple marigold oil which has a herbaceous Granny Smith apple skin flavour that really makes the dish. The dish was a great marriage of flavours but the 8 minute confit did make the scallop a little tough. I am used to a more succulent texture as I normally fry in butter.
I ordered the Wootton Estate Venison for main. Smoked Wootton estate venison, game sausage, Jerusalem artichoke, coffee. It is great to see venison making a reappearance following the autumn game menus.
The organic venison is sourced from their sister estate at Wootton in Staffordshire. Alongside the prime loin cut there was a braised venison neck ragu. This is similar to a bourguignon, a thick red wine sauce with mushrooms, shallots and parsley. The sausages utilise the venison trim and are barbecued with a smoked onions. Alongside the game there is Jerusalem artichoke from Daylesford to add a lovely earthy vegetable flavour.
It’s common to find bitter chocolate paired with venison. With this is the more complex bitter of coffee as a sauce to offer something a bit different; whole beans are toasted to unlock the aroma that is then infused into the sauce and finished with a shot of espresso. The coffee itself is an organic blend from Honduras and Peru which has a rich, dark chocolate and caramel flavour:
Sue ordered the rib-eye steak. This was due to come with mash but we changed this to yellow, chunky chips. Why mash with steak I do not know! Everything was cooked to perfection and the venison dish really stood out aesthetically again. The triple-cooked chips were up to the standards of any I’d had before! The steak was served on the traditional wooden board and was well cooked over charcoal and as good as any steakhouse we’ve eaten in before.
Service throughout the meal was really friendly as you’d expect from a country pub. Although the restaurant was quite full the bar area had more people coming in for a quick lunch and looking at the menu I can see why people would come here for a quick bite. It was Grand National day so that attracted more people to the bar area. What the restaurant has in friendliness it didn’t lack in professionalism. Service covered everything you would expect but was so slow. We were 2 hours in and had just had the main course cleared away. I really felt relaxed and welcomed throughout and would thoroughly recommend to anyone wanting to try out a good country inn.
While we didn’t order any wine while we were there, there were plenty of options, including many reasonably priced options by the glass. Coming from our normal London restaurants, the prices here were much more reasonable.
Verdict
Overall we’d had a great, relaxed lunch at The Wild Rabbit. I’d really been impressed by the combination of looks and taste presented to us through all the dishes. I would definitely return, and even with the limited selection on offer, could easily visit 3–4 more times and eat something different each time. If you’re in the area, don’t drive past without visiting!
