THE PUREFOY ARMS, HAMPSHIRE

Set in the Hampshire heartlands, in the pretty village of Preston Candover, The Purefoy Arms is a pub with ambition. There’s a good-value tasting menu (just £40), including a veggie edition, from young chef Gordon Stott, as well as traditional pub food with modern flourishes such as burger with Old Winchester cheese Welsh rarebit, and triple-cooked chips.

We go for the tasting menu, which starts with hunks of fresh-from-the-oven sourdough with creamy, nutty beurre noisette smeared onto the wedges. Bijou starters then arrive on huge white plates. ‘Cheese and onion’ is a winner with more Old Winchester cheese, dense and intense, in breadcrumbs, and sweet-as-sweet onion. The pork pie, a seriously delicious (if teeny) sliver, with adeptly made piccalilli and crackling, leaves us desperate for more. Kedgeree is another small portion but big with flavour thanks to poached cod, rich quail’s egg, creamy rice and salty capers.

Two more greats come and go, and then, to finish, ‘The Chocolate Bar’ arrives with orange sorbet, little cubes of chocolate ganache and white chocolate fudge. A comfortingly familiar combo, revitalised with this young chef’s stamp. It’s hard not to like this pub and its unpretentious, lovely staff. The basic drinks list could do with expanding but, otherwise, Stott has the right idea – he wants diners to enjoy themselves and return, and he’s succeeding.