The Blackbird * | Bagnor (UK)
Classical French techniques kept simple with finesse.
This vintage-styled hostelry serves pristine comforting dishes focused on harmonising flavours!
The Blackbird is a family owned restaurant & pub located in the beautiful hamlet of Bagnor, just 5 minutes from Newbury in west Berkshire (UK), just around the corner from The Woodspeen*.
The outside of this country pub restaurant looks typical. The interior is anything but. Many of the original features are still there, including wood and tile flooring, antique furniture and two fireplaces. But a huge injection of quirkiness is there too. Artwork as diverse as possible hangs on the walls, together with a collecting of plates and a broad selection of glassware on the windowsill. Exposed bricks and modern filament bulb light fittings add to the weird juxtaposition of the very old and very new.
Head Chef and owner Dom Robinson’ pedigree is impressive. Having worked the Michelin-starred restaurants of Anthony Demetre and Adam Byatt and being the Head Chef of the former Tom Aikens restaurant in Chelsea for three years. After that, Dom had a complete change and worked in gastro pubs before moving to Dubai.
Coming back from Dubai after some years, as many of his London friends had moved to the Home Counties, Dom began looking for a village pub where he could settle with wife Marliz and their two young daughters. He bought The Blackbird in August 2017. which opened in it’s current form in October 2017. Just one year later the restaurant was awarded with a Michelin Star.
The Blackbird is open 5 days a week for lunch and dinner and is closed on Sunday and Monday. The à la carte menu offers 5 Starters (at £12-£16), 5 Mains (at £25-£32), 3 Desserts (at £9-£10) and a Cheeseboard (at £14). Tuesday to Friday they also offer a set menu for lunch, Menu du Jour (2 courses at £24 and 3 courses at £29). The have a special children menu and finally a 5-course Menu Degustation (at £70).
We had dinner two weeks ago on a Friday night and had the 5-course Menu Degustation.
A good slice of wheaten bread, made with treacle, which you could also smell and taste. The bread was unusually good, with excellent texture. Quite dense, but ever so tasty with a touch of sweetness.
A small cup of cauliflower soup, with grated Parmesan, summer truffle and almonds. Creamy, comforting and full of cauliflower flavour, uplifted by the summer truffle and crunchy almonds. Lovely, but a bit surprising this time of year. Maybe better suited during winter or autumn, but nevertheless delicious!
A perfect soufflé with the powerful Comte cheese dictating the flavour. Excellent with the apple and pungy Calvados sauce. Bold flavours that don’t overpower each other. A pleasing and very clever dish.
Featuring a poaching liquid produced from chicken consommé, Sauternes and cream alongside confit onions, Alsace bacon, balsamic vinegar, parsley and haricot beans. Ventrèche is made from the part of the pork belly where the muscles are separated by strips of fat. A bit like bacon, which is cured.
What a great dish! A perfect harmony of sweet, sour, salty and fat, all flavours and tastes complementing each other. Rich and very comforting. But is it a Spring dish? Actually, I don’t care. This is just delicious!
Succulent plaice with lovely green herbs on top, which added great flavour to the fish. Leeks and grapes underneath complementing the plaice perfectly. Nothing wrong with the Jersey royals, but I would leave them out. They wouldn’t be missed and the portion would still be generous without them. The dish looks a bit pale and you kind of want a golden crust on that fish, but honestly, that is just appearances as it was utterly enjoyable as is.
The lamb was nicely pink and perfectly seasoned. A bit chewy though. Sweetbread kept plain to get the original taste. Potato gratin was good, but standard. As were the vegetables. I really miss a rich jus. Especially after all the comforting dishes we had before. This dish let’s the other dishes down.
Full bodied sweet strawberries and vanilla ice cream in a sugar snap cup with sweet strawberry sauce. A pleasing end of this great menu.
Truly enjoyed this dinner and the diversity of the dishes. I struggle a bit with the ambience and the atmosphere though. They want to be a local country pub and a fine dining restaurant. The pub part works, but to me the restaurant part suffers to much from it. That goes for the interior and decorations, as to me it is too cluttered and distracting in the dining room, but it also goes for the waiting staff. I appreciate the male waiter was new, but he didn’t explain the dishes when he served them, actually didn’t speak much at all and he felt a bit uncomfortable in his role. This was a total contrast with the female waiter, who was very knowledgeable and explained everything very well. At this level of fine dining, the service is important and staff need to be trained properly.
And I won’t even talk about the appearance of the bar maid in her cropped vest-top, which to me was far below par, even for a country pub. If you offer fine dining at this level and charge prices to match, then the service, the environment and appearance of the staff matter, and currently it let’s the food down, which is a shame.
This vintage-styled hostelry serves pristine comforting dishes focused on harmonising flavours.. The absolute highlight of the dinner was the roast and poached foie gras. What a delightful dish! Not to forget the, just perfect, cheese soufflé!. Dom Robinson’s menu is a pared-back affair. Classical French techniques kept simple with finesse, showcasing seasonal, locally sourced produce.
