Cuisine: British village pub food
Location: Bray, UK
Date: March 2014
Occasion: Lunch out
For reasons that are still a little unclear to me, the small village of Bray in rural Berkshire is favoured by the celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal. His first restaurant there, opened in 1995, is The Fat Duck - a 3-Michelin starred restaurant, internationally renowned as being one of the best in the world. I was lucky enough to go there for my 30th birthday, and it was truly amazing - more theatre than dining, and an incredibly memorable experience.
However, Heston also owns 2 other restaurants in Bray: one is The Hinds Head, a gastropub located in a 15th-century former tavern, and the other is The Crown, a traditional British village pub in what used to be a 16th-century inn.
I make no apology for being a fan of Heston Blumenthal, and have avidly followed his programs, bought all his books and have tried to recreate (with varying degrees of success) many of his recipes. So, an obvious mission was to visit all of his restaurants. Given that Bray is not far from me, one sunny (and remarkably warm) Sunday lunchtime we decided to go.
To my surprise, booking a table was no issue. This was in stark contrast to The Fat Duck which, no doubt partly because of Heston's celebrity status, required booking months in advance. For The Crown, however, a couple of days beforehand was perfectly adequate.
We caught the train to Maidenhead, and then had a very pleasant 30 minute walk to the village of Bray. We found the pub which, as described, was indeed a traditional old English pub just on the outskirts of the village. As I said, it was remarkably warm and sunny considering it was March, easily warm enough to sit outside, so we did - sitting in a small, partly covered rear garden, with roughly 4 tables and quaint little flowers everywhere.
We ordered a glass of wine each - a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc for my friend and a French Viognier for me - and settled down to enjoy the menu. This was as you might expect in a gastropub - impressive, nicely but not overly extensive (roughly 6-7 starter choices, and 7-8 mains), but well described and all sounding very nice. The waiters were polite and attentive, but not overly friendly - not like some other restaurants I have recently visited, where the waiters have been eager to talk, recommend dishes, etc.
We decided to share a starter, and went for the potted mackerel paté - partly because it is a popular starter for us at another favourite restaurant of ours, so thought it would be interesting to compare. I have to say, without wishing to sound disloyal to our favourite place, the paté at The Crown was far superior. Nicely moist, and mixed perfectly with chives - served with crusty char-grilled bread and cornichons. Excellent.
For a main course, my friend went for the chicken - from memory, I think it was a roasted chicken breast and a confit chicken leg, served with traditional vegetables and a truly amazing jus. I decided to go even more traditional, and try the place's Fish and Chips - served with crushed peas and home-made tartar sauce. Somebody once said you can tell a place's quality by its simplest and most traditional dishes, so this seemed the perfect choice. I have had an awful lot of fish and chips in the past, and I have to say that this was by far the best I have ever had. It was served on a wooden plate, with the fish perfectly soft and encased by a delicate and nicely salty batter, accompanied by a half lemon wrapped in muslin. The peas were just slightly crushed - certainly not mushy - and the chips were perfectly crisp on the outside while fluffy on the inside. The tartar sauce was creamy, going excellently with the fish. Really, really good.
Although it would have been nice to have tried a desert - and they certainly all looked very appealing, including Earl Grey Panacotta or Bread and Butter Pudding with White Chocolate and Vanilla - on this occasion we were both too full. Instead, we had an espresso each, which in any case came with a tiny mouthful of amazing fudge.
So, in summary, a thoroughly excellent lunch. Would be interesting to go back in the evening, to explore inside in more depth and to see how much busier it can get. However, before that, the 3rd Heston restaurant in Bray awaits…
