Review: The Woodspeen

After such an excellent visit to The Star at Sparsholt in February for their Wednesday steak night, the dining scene in south Oxfordshire definitely needs further exploration if the quality is going to be that good! With great anticipation, we therefore decided to venture further south to check out the fixed menu at The Star’s sister eatery The Woodspeen – just on the edge of Newbury and five minutes from the A34. It is both the food and dining space that sets The Woodspeen apart from many other country restaurants. It also has three AA rosettes and its own cookery school next door.

The Woodspeen oozes quality from the second you push open the big glass door from the beautifully landscaped car park.

With the customary cloakroom, a calm bar area for preprandial drinks and smartly dressed staff, this is about attentive but relaxed service – seamless and non intrusive – all set in a modern unfussy atmosphere.

Head Chef Sam Brennan offers an excellent value set menu with two courses for £35 and three courses for £40 if you’re just going to go for it but you’ll need a snooze afterwards! Interestingly the menu is available both lunchtimes Tue- Fri from 12pm-2:30pm AND supper Tue-Thu from 6pm to 9pm. It’s worth every penny and there are 26 wines available by 125ml glass to pair your food choices with – in the finest Riedel glassware I might add! At c. £50/head with one glass of wine, water and coffee all in, you’ll feel this is affordable and unadulterated culinary heaven. Jacopo from Lake Como is the enthusiastic young sommelier and he’s not at all stuffy about his recommendations from the broad and unusual selection of wines. Jacopo paired perfectly & innovatively with the fish based starters and the mains we chose – a delicious Tuscan Vermentino with the crab starter and a Portuguese Alentejo white for the halibut.

The young wait staff are self assured and professional, knowing their dishes well and answering questions effortlessly. Alice and the team are here because they really want to develop a career in top end hospitality. This is not a stop gap or holiday job for them.

Head chef Sam has an established pedigree, working closely with the group Executive Chef Peter and he’s been at the Woodspeen before as its Sous Chef. He’s had stints away at nearby Michelin 1* French restaurant L’Ortolan, at the sister restaurant The Clockspire and he was a key member of the team that successfully opened the Star at Sparsholt.

The dining space is something to behold. It was created from the rundown 19th century Five Bells pub and reopened in its new guise in 2014. The front space is now the welcome area and cocktail bar with velvet banquette seating but the big surprise is at the back where a huge garden room with vaulted larch ceiling awaits, complete with the open kitchen pass and bifold glass doors looking into the garden. The ceiling has been constructed with the larch slats to create the perfect audio dampening environment so that you feel you’re in your very own individual dining space with tables separated by multiple freestanding plants.

Glass spheres lightly float above the dining space, along with concealed incandescent strip wall lights that glow softly from behind the timber cladding and within the open shelving. Simple wool curtains hang along the windows, creating intimacy and warmth to complement the uncovered wooden tables and Scandi type chairs. You get a modern fresh vibe and a dramatic restaurant space that seats over 70 people. No starchy white table cloths here!

Dogs are not permitted inside but when the sun finally shows its head this year, your hound can sit outside with you on the terrace. The large garden is something to behold. A rusted sculpture of an old school Aston Martin classic racing car takes pride of place.

Portions are a good size – particularly the mains – and are stunningly presented on stoneware crockery to maximise that fresh artisanal feel. There’s a sizeable kitchen garden onsite supplying the freshest of ingredients.

We took dishes from the set menu and few from the à la carte but the set menu really does deliver enough choice. We’d have been more than happy to stick to that. To start, my partner chose salt cod scotch egg with a confit of bell peppers with guacomole and a coriander salad. As innovative as it gets with such intriguing and out of context tastes and the runniest of eggs.

I tried the finest of pasta starters – one large crab ravioli in the shape of a crown with pickled and roasted fennel, crab bisque, caviar and white balsamic dressing. This was some creation! Not at all what I was expecting but the most delicate of flavours and textures complemented by the crab bisque. The fine crab meat and the fresh ravioli formed a crown of intrigue and deliciousness, offset by the crunchy fennel.

For mains, my dining companion enjoyed the roasted rump of lamb, and crispy lamb belly with New Forest asparagus, a chunky rosemary hash brown with a white anchovy emulsion and wild garlic salsa verde in a red wine sauce. This was a big portion and did not disappoint – as exciting as its very constituents – and perfectly paired with a light drinking red from Northern Italy.

Personally I plumped for the roasted halibut, with a crispy chicken skin crumb, caramelised cauliflower chou farci, duchess potato and a Bollinger and apple puree. A style of fish dish you’ll never have encountered before but it was not trying to be too worthy. The chicken skin crumb lifted the savoury flavour of the dish, contrasting well with the chunky halibut’s mild, sweet flavour. The halibut’s firm texture worked well with the creamy potato and the French-inspired sautéed cauliflower-stuffed cabbage leaf.

Well now to the sweet stuff. Desserts don’t get much more beautiful or indulgent as the Banoffee choux bun, banana jam, caramelized banana ice cream with warm runny caramel sauce.

The crunchiest of buns with a filling combination that is an absolute ‘maxed out’ banoffee banana treat.

“Rhubarb pavlova” is one of the house favourites – an intriguing combination of rhubarb compote, poached rhubarb, blood orange mousse and blood orange sorbet. The sharpness of the orange contrasts perfectly with the tartness of the rhubarb notes, all presented perfectly atop the freshly baked meringue.

This is a truly holistic dining experience and it’s much much more than outstanding gastro food and seamless service. The fixed price menu and the dining space are definitely worth the trip down the A34. Hats off to Sam and the whole team at The Woodspeen. I really can’t recommend this place highly enough.