What the experts recommend
The Purefoy Arms Preston Candover, Hampshire (01256-389514) This nicely done-over pub – “buffed to a shine, with a big beer garden out the back” – in a pretty Hampshire village makes such a virtue of being dog-friendly, they even serve honey-and-banana “doggy ice cream”, says Michael Deacon in The Daily Telegraph. I hadn’t realised dogs had such sophisticated palates – do the canine punters like it? “Well,” said the barmaid, “we haven’t had any complaints.” Turns out they know how to feed humans, too. The Purefoy is run by Gordon Stott, last year’s winner of UK Pub Chef of the Year, and his new place takes food “very seriously, while still managing to be unpretentious, relaxed and friendly”. There are two six-course tasting menus (one meat, one veggie) if you want to push the boat out. We settled for a lovely kedgeree of “tangy curried rice, slippery poached cod, mussels and juicy capers”; a mushroom and truffle soup that my wife reckoned was so light it was “like drinking a cloud”; a decent pork chop with peppers, fennel and bubble and squeak; and two great chocolate puds. Three courses for two, about £55, plus drinks.
The Kitchen Old Brewery Yard, Falmouth, Cornwall (07543-703973) The Kitchen is “one of the most fantastic, albeit wonky, boho and flawed restaurants” I’ll visit this year, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. There’s a bold disregard for convention in the air: no sides of spuds; no bread basket; no salt shaker, even. Instead, chef Ben Coxhead offers “small portions of exemplary local produce served with unabashed weirdness” and a “genuine, heartfelt attempt to wow the palates of those dropping by”. Rare venison comes flecked with vivid cerise beet mousse – “part dinner, part crime scene”. Rabbit is served on scurvy grass, a vitamin C-rich, mustardy cress that was apparently once given to sailors and is an acquired taste I can’t see myself acquiring. Golden-skinned gurnard comes on a perfectly balanced warm pear compote. And there’s a fabulous asparagus dish: three varieties sitting in a buttery onion-apple broth. “You’ll either love The Kitchen or you’ll hate it.” For me, finding a small, passionate, offbeat restaurant such as this in a British seaside resort “makes my heart burst with happiness”. About £30 a head, plus drinks and service.
Cora Pearl 30 Henrietta Street, London WC2 (020-7324 7722) How do you follow a universally acclaimed Mayfair restaurant named after a courtesan? If you’re the people behind Kitty Fisher’s, says Giles Coren in The Times, you open a bigger restaurant, also named after a courtesan, a few miles away in Covent Garden. The aim is clearly to retain the original’s sense of agreeable loucheness, while offering a more “approachable menu (not that Kitty’s is especially forbidding)” that will appeal to tourists and walk-ins as much as foodies. On both fronts, Cora Pearl scores. Following a starter of “perfect, firm little agnolotti”, I enjoyed an “excellent rhombus of cod, properly cooked – none of your sous-vide s***” – and topped with a “lush blob” of devilled crab. Fillet of veal came with a delicious bordelaise sauce, whose extra helping, jugged on the side, contained wobbling pearls of bone marrow. And truly sensational chips – sliced potatoes baked with thyme, then pressed overnight, cut into chips and deep-fried – were the “dish of the effing century”. £65 a head “if you’re sensible. But why would you be sensible?”