RESTAURANT REVIEW
The Westleton Crown
We switched tacks when it came to our main meals with the fish dishes competing for my vote while Mr R was in meatloving heaven. I’d seen an impressive plate of fish and chips, complete with jalapeno tartare sauce and pease pudding, pass us en route to another table, and was certainly tempted but decided instead on a rich and flavoursome combination of pan fried sea bass fillet, herb potato cake and wild mushroom fricassée. The crisply seared skin of the fish was a perfect From our initial look at the menu, as we sipped our textural contrast from its buttery river set high on an island of Adnams Spindrift, it was apparent that the good reputation fluffy potato, neatly bringing the dish together. and character of The Crown are safe in his hands. With an Across the table it was the battle of the heavy weights – impressive pedigree and extensive local knowledge, Robert braised Blythburgh pork belly, ham hock and mustard croquette has developed a menu that continues to hold true to the values with braised greens all in an Aspall cyder sauce, (sure to deliver we’ve grown to expect, with every element created from all it promised), or the seasonal game choice of roast Bunwell scratch, using only the very best locally sourced and ethically Wood partridge. Said bird duly arrived with a quite wondrous sound ingredients. root vegetable gratin that looked as though WARMING WINTER WEDNESDAYS His ethos, and in fact the ethos of the you’d need an art degree to recreate it and, In addition to the main menu, every whole Crown team, is that they want to build alongside the red cabbage, some sweet pieces Wednesday until the end of March, on the hotel’s reputation, making sure that of quince. Declared a winning combination, enjoy the delicious Winter Warming each visit is not just as good as your last but you really can’t beat seasonal local produce. Wednesdays set menu, for lunch or hopefully even better. It was clear from our At this stage I should add that The Crown dinner, from £14.95 (two courses) conversation with Robert that ‘local’ is key is one of the few pubs or restaurants I’ve or £18.95 (three courses). (Excludes Christmas and New Year period) and that shone through immediately. visited offering a separate vegetarian menu. Visiting, as we were, in a month ending in With at least three starters and three main ‘er’ (and supposedly the best for shellfish), steamed Simpers courses the curse of the ever present mushroom risotto, which Deben mussels leapt straight from the menu and I could have seems to have become the vegetarian staple, is banished and saved my husband the bother of reading through the other a collection of well thought out choices, again using Suffolk’s rather enticing choices – it was clear he wouldn’t be able to best, supersede it. resist. Cooked in a leek and cream sauce, finished with Aspall I know, it was lunch time – and we’d already indulged in two cyder, the aroma from the dish alone gave me a pang of the courses – but frankly it would have been rude not to sample dreaded food envy. Mopping up the juices from his bowl with the desserts. The steamed Bramley apple sponge pudding light and fluffy rosemary and sea salt focaccia he certainly with blackberry compote and crumble and custard ice cream resembled the cat who’d got the cream! was an obvious front runner and my husband described the I found the remaining starter choices equally inviting and pudding as ‘surprisingly light’, infused with sweet apple after much deliberation it came down to oak smoked chicken flavour throughout and offset perfectly by the sharp berry breast with sage and onion slaw (what a clever idea!), seared accompaniment. scallops with cauliflower purée and onion bhaji or the eventual My classic English dessert plate; treacle tart with clotted winner – soy and chilli braised pork cheek, wasabi mash, cream, trifle and a baked rice pudding (all in miniature of sesame, ginger and coriander. This zingy concoction truly course) were a revelation. I wouldn’t have chosen a whole demonstrated Robert’s belief that respect for using as much of portion of any one of them after such a substantial meal but the any butchered animal as possible is paramount with the slowly idea of a little of each was too good to miss and rounded off the cooked cheek meat melting in the mouth. entire experience beautifully.
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