Review: Nut Tree Inn, Murcott

I like my DSLR camera. I’m a keen (if decidedly amateur) photographer when travelling the world, but I could never bring myself to pull it out in a restaurant. It surely just screams “food blogger!” and I never want staff to guess I’m a blogger. I’d love to say that this is a highly principled position, that I don’t want to receive special attention or free treats and have my unbiased review in any way compromised. It’s not that at all, I just feel too embarrassed by the whole thing. They might ask me difficult questions about food! They might smirk into their aprons if I can’t recognise an ingredient! They might assume I am read by thousands rather than… er… dozens? Maybe a dozen?

This is an introvert thing, by the way. We think far too long and hard about how other people perceive us, and often end up missing out on some really interesting interactions because we don’t want to put ourselves forward and end up saying something daft. Better to say nothing. On the other hand, this does mean I’ve only been picked out as a blogger on one or two occasions and my reviews are otherwise 100% unbiased. High principles achieved through social awkwardness – ta-da!

The Nut Tree Inn is a few miles out of Oxford, and although a pub it has given most of its rambling rooms over to dining, along with the white tablecloths and decent cutlery required for the tasting menu.

Beautifully firm tablet of smoked salmon to begin, with whipped horseradish cream. Good stuff. This followed by a piece of good chicken liver parfait and a dense but perfectly acceptable brioche. The apple chutney wasn’t strong enough company. Nice piece of hake for the fish course, the strong fish paired well with bourguignon onions and panchetta.

Our main course was Charolais beef: roast fillet and slow-braised shin. Mmmm… good beef. The fillet was a very flavour-packed specimen, roast to perfect pink. The shin gave a good contrast, all meaty grey fibres of umami. This was a plate of meat, the swipe of potato puree and sprig of watercress nothing more than incidental garnish. Good gravy.

The pre-dessert was an eggshell full of gooey salt caramel topped with milk chocolate mousse and popping candy. I really loved it, a proper grown-up easter egg (and this from someone who hates milk chocolate). It was followed by a passionfruit souffle with matching sorbet. The souffle was a cracker, perfectly risen with the flavour running right through it. The sorbet was good too, but I’m not sure that what I needed with my passionfruit was more passionfruit!

So, good meal. Everything very well cooked. It’s £55 for the tasting menu, which I’d count good value. But for me the style of cooking wasn’t ambitious enough for a tasting menu: three courses of these classic dishes would be a perfect posh pub lunch, but when I sit down to a tasting menu I’m looking for some kind of culinary journey. Still, a good place to know just a stone’s throw off the M40 near Oxford.