What the experts recommend
Castle Farm Café, Midford Road, Midford, Bath (07564-783307)
This delightful restaurant is housed in a “ramshackle” metal shed on an organic farm just outside Bath, says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. There are worn concrete floors, corrugatediron walls and a charming Good Life vibe. But if the surroundings are on the rustic side, the “cooking is anything but”. A peach and mozzarella salad to start is “utterly fresh and joyously simple”: the fruit charred to luscious softness; hazelnuts and sunflower seeds to add crunch; nasturtiums lending a flash of colour. This is River Café-level quality “at about a quarter of the price”. Next, a superb pizza: the crust thin, crisp and chewy, with molten cheese spread thick over a sharp tomato sauce. Then “things get better still”, with “two of the finest curries I’ve eaten for years”: a “very serious” Malay pork belly curry, and a fish curry with a “winsomely light” citrus bite – and a “golden, flaky paratha” that is “a masterpiece of the form”. Beautiful setting, great food: “I’d eat in this barn until the cows come home”. About £20
a head. Friday night is curry night. Visit castlefarmmidford.co.uk.
Myrtle 1A Langton Street, London SW10 (020-7352 2411)
Myrtle is a “posh Irish” place in Chelsea that is named in honour of Myrtle Allen, the chef who pioneered modern Irish cooking and laid the groundwork for the renowned Ballymaloe Cookery School, says William Sitwell in The Daily Telegraph. I am happy to say that the restaurant, and its chef-patron Anna Haugh, have done her proud. It is comfortable and welcoming (try to get a seat downstairs; the upstairs “has less soul”) and serves very fine food. A thin length of black pudding wrapped in crisped potato is a “fabulous juxtaposition of rustic flavour and fine-dining presentation”. Roasted salmon with creamy sauce is wonderfully simple and delicate, and almost melts into the crushed potatoes, with watercress adding a peppery note. Myrtle reminds me of the best of Ireland: “hospitable, cheery, upbeat and forgiving”. Dinner for two, £75 plus drinks.