The Daily Telegraph
William Sitwell lost his heart to the “ugly food” served at an old pub in Clifton “with the kitchen in the centre, more pubby at the front and diney at the back”.
Service was dour – “an occasional smile would have been welcome” – and the decor simple, while “most of the dishes are of the type that make one forget the idea of a knife and fork, appealing directly to one’s primal instincts”. Most notable (and perhaps ugliest) was the “dauphinoise potatoes that might have been cooking since about the 14th century. They were medieval – dangerously hot to touch, charred on top and, beneath, an endlessly warm and spirited deep-dive of creamy, buttery potato”.
The food may have been “simple and hearty”, “but there are real brains and thought in the kitchen… this lunch was a tonic in an age of vain self-love.”
Daily Mail
Tom Parker Bowles heaped praise on another pub conversion with a kitchen run by former St John chef Tom Watts-Jones, whom we have already seen this week at the Hare & Hounds across the border in Wales.
True to form, it boasts a “daily changing, seasonal menu, and a nose-to-tail ethos, using artisan local suppliers, mostly cooked over a custom-made Parrilla charcoal grill… When it comes to modern British cooking bingo, The Clifton has a full house.”
Tom Parker-Bowles - 2024-05-12
