What the experts recommend
Bouchon Racine 66 Cowcross Street, London EC1 (020-7253 3368)
The chef Henry Harris used to run a “beautiful bistro in Knightsbridge called Racine”, which closed in 2015, says William Sitwell in The Daily Telegraph. After a break from full-time cheffing, he is back with this fabulous new venture, housed in a “panelled room of tantalising hospitality” above the Three Compasses Pub in Farringdon. Bouchons are restaurants typically found in Lyon, which serve “good honest food to good honest workers”; and the menu here – chalked on a “vast blackboard” – is a “roll-call of Lyonnaise beauties”. I start with Bayonne ham and celeriac remoulade, and move on to “pure and wholesome” rabbit in mustard sauce. My son, meanwhile, has immaculately spiced steak tartare, which comes in a “generous dollop”. A side dish of spinach – look away now – is “creamed and spun with foie gras”. To finish, I have a “nifty” pot au chocolat. With a great value wine list and good honest service, Bouchon Racine is simply wonderful: “if you don’t like it, you don’t like food”. Dinner for two: £129.50, excluding drinks and service.
The Sportsman Club 13 High Street, West Bromwich (01215-531353)
Britain’s “Desi pubs” date back to the 1950s, when they opened in places such as Leicester and the West Midlands to cater to men from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh who’d come to the UK after partition, often without their families, says Jay Rayner in The Observer. Today, they “sit right at the heart” of those same communities, and bring a “beautifully precise extra dimension to British pub culture”. I decide to try the Sportsman Club, in West Bromwich, after reading a glowing review on the “ever insightful Meat and One Veg blog”. Although the place is far from pretty – it’s a “modern pub built for maximum capacity” – this is more than made up for by the food. My friend and I start with the “huge mixed grill for three”, of which the star is the “tender and juicy” chicken tikka. We follow that with bakra lamb curry on the bone (a “wonder of thick, spiced ghee-rich gravy and bone marrow suckage”), chilli fish from the menu’s Indo-Chinese section, and a “soothing, ferrous” saag aloo. Unable to manage it all, we “make our loved ones love us even more by carting home the leftovers”. Starters £3-£10.50, mains £4.50-£10.50, desserts £2.
The Woolpack Slad Road, Stroud, Gloucestershire (01452-813429)
This 300-year-old watering hole in the Cotswolds village of Slad used to be the local of Cider with Rosie author Laurie Lee, says Grace Dent in The Guardian. It “still has about it a literary feel” – as evidenced by the fact that it has its own minuscule bookshop – but these days the “main event” is the cooking of Adam Glover, formerly of the celebrated Ubiquitous Chip in Glasgow. The daily changing menu is full of sophisticated but “hearty” dishes. Starters include “plump, earthy chicken livers” with persillade on toasted sourdough, and “fearsome slabs of duck pâté served with brandied prunes”. For mains, there’s a “large, luscious pork chop” with creamy polenta, and onglet with fries and pickled walnuts. “This is confident, swaggering cooking that almost doesn’t care whether you like it.” But I certainly did. From about £45 a head, plus drinks and service.