reviews

We have been delighted to receive favourable reviews since opening and we are growing year on year.
Listed in the Good Food Guide, awarded Two Rosettes by the AA, two couverts in the Michelin Guide and an excellent review in the Hardens Guide. Laurie Gear’s ‘’superb” Gallic cuisine is winning ever wider renown for this small and intimate restaurant– in a 16th Century building on the market square
Harden’s London & Uk Restaurants 2006
Even the quietly shaded interiors of this restaurant are easy on the eye but the reason to remember this establishment is Gear’s mightily pleasing food. One can go from treats such as clean flavoured amuse bouche of chilled cucumber soup with mascarpone to a terrine of quail, beautifully studded with spring vegetables accompanied by cubes of quail jelly and pinot noir sauce..
Mains like Steamed fillet of turbot on a confirt of fennel, partnered with asparagus, saffron potatoes, sorrel and morel sauce along withothers such as roast best end of lamb with herb creamed lentils, offer superb fully rounded flavouring.

Humayun Hussain the Guardian Guide, September 2005

This is the sort of fine, unfussy restaurant that has a personality all its own & deserves to be replicated in every town in the land. Why? Because the dainty cottage-style establishment offers modern French food – courtesy of chef-patron Laurie Gear – that’s well judged & damn near faultless. A refreshing amuse-bouche of chilled cucumber soup with mascarpone may be followed by a strikingly good terrine of quail studded with jewel-like spring vegetables partnered by cubes of quail jelly & Pinot Noir sauce. Mains such as roast best end of lamb with herb creamed lentils, or steamed fillet of turbot on a confit of fennel, teamed with asparagus, saffron potatoes & sorrel & morel sauce, offer fully rounded flavours to great effect, while an assiette of coffee & dark chocolate tart with fragrant lavender ice-cream is a brilliant finish. Price levels aren’t exactly cheap, but for confident & highly diverting cooking, they certainly aren't rip-off.

www.squaremeal.co.uk

Dorset-born Gear is mainly self-taught.. His energy and industry are remarkable. There is a set lunch menu with three choices in each course, an extensive a la carte menu and a seven course tasting menu. Our meal starts with an amuse-bouche of pigeon breast wrapped inn slightly sweet pastry, the synthesis of a Moroccan b’stilla and very good.
To follow foie gras, chicken steamed en papillote sounded pure and simple arrived with burnished skin as if roasted or sautéed …. It was delicious and made more so by the gratings of the Perigord truffle and a mixture of lightly cooked vegetables swimming in the juices. Cannon of roast lamb from the set menu was slices of defiantly rare meat surrounded by a clock face of Provencale vegetables aubergine peppers tomatoes and accompanied by intensely good puy lentils and another beignet flavoured with sage. Then with coffee came tall liquorice sticks shaped like shepherd’s crooks, balls of chocolate-covered mint ice cream and delectable cassis jujubes.
Fay Maschler, Evening Standard (excerpt), 5th April 2006

The room is a smart renovation of an ancient beamed house, with some lovely glass panels and tasteful paintings. The wine list is short and intelligent. And the food, which is what counts is stylishly French with some butch touches. What we did buy was impressive, Amanda's starter of 'ravioli of goats cheese sun dried tomato fresh basil sauce beurre blanc' brought two fatly filled parcels of light pasta with a stuffing that managed to be assertive without any of that claggy-mouth feel that goat's cheese can deliver. I began with dainty caramelised scallops accompanied by a precise chicory tarte tatin, which was as intriguing in texture as flavour.
A main course of roast partridge brought the legs, confited, dressed with a little of the liver, on top of the roast breast. Beneath was a layer of bread sauce which, in turn, lay upon a little braised red cabbage. This was serious game cookery, which showed a light touch with hefty ingredients, so that careful spicing - a little clove and nutmeg - were allowed their moment on the plate. The Artichoke is a smart outfit, the kind of restaurant you'd hope any fair-sized British town with a modicum of taste could support.

Jay Rayner, Sunday 7 March 2004
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