Review: Fishmore Hall, Ludlow

I think I may have mentioned that we live in Ludlow at the moment. Before our year of travelling around the world we were in London, now we’re in the woolly Welsh marches. Do I need to tell you about Ludlow? I expect everyone likely to be reading a food blog already knows it as a gourmet destination and a distinctly “foodie” town.

In fact it was the stunning medieval town and castle and the wild rural hill country around it that we loved when we first visited Ludlow. It was entirely by accident that we discovered its culinary credentials. “Yes, the town has three Michelin-starred restaurants,” our B&B hosts explained to us, “we can phone for a table, but it’s fairly unlikely there will be anything free tonight.” Followed five minutes later with, “aren’t you lucky, they’ve had a cancellation at Mr Underhills!”

Since then we’ve visited several times, got a second home here, and now have moved here at least for the nonce. And of course we’ve identified the good, the bad and the ugly of places to eat in the area. In fact it’s getting hard to find somewhere new that is likely to be any good. This weekend we took ourselves to Fishmore Hall, a small hotel just outside the town that is building a reputation for fine dining.

The hotel is a fine old manor house, and inside the décor is pleasant without feeling particularly deluxe. It’s contemporary and a little unmemorable, but relaxing. Service was friendly and efficient throughout the evening, although the restaurant was admittedly quiet – the annual Medieval Christmas Fayre in town no doubt attracting all the guests away.

Our amuse bouche was a cauliflower veloute with a rather hefty drizzle of truffle oil. I could probably have stopped proceedings right there and made some fairly astute predictions about the course of the rest of the meal. Although I would have had egg on my face, because there were actually some decent bits of invention in our later courses.

My pave of confit salmon wasn’t novel, but it was good, with nibbles of beetroot and a creamy goat cheese mousse. Maureen’s pigeon breast was presented on a piece of slate (no waaaaay!) but it was presented nicely with carpaccio cauli and curried pinenuts, a tangy little revelation. The other starter among the four of us was scallops, a little undercooked and a tad too salty.

My main was duck breast, great little roasted turnips, a blob of fragrant quince puree and a dribble of mead gravy. I ran out of sauce long before I ran out of duck, which was a pity as I’m always more interested in the accompaniments than the core ingredient of a main. Okay, not always. But I must have eaten well-cooked slices of decent quality duck breast a score of times before so it’s hardly what I’m focussed on at the twenty-first outing. Maureen’s venison was jolly good, its Jerusalem artichoke puree astoundingly tasty, and the addition of three slighty squodgy raspberries to the plating frankly bizarre. The best main (judging by the cooing noises Martin was making, as I didn’t try any) was some rolled rabbit saddle with peanuts and lime. Peanuts and lime, eh?

The dessert made me smile, mostly in a good way. It was a banana cream slice, with some peanut ice cream. The banana cream was an arrow straight out of childhood which smacked cleanly into my heart. The ice cream was decent company, though predictably sickly. There was some other stuff on the plate, including bits of squishy banana and a fairly tasteless jelly, but they didn’t need to be there. A meringue-covered cheesecake with nifty tarragon ice cream (must remember that one) was declared very good, while a rhubarb concoction (seasons, people!) was somewhat unbalanced but definitely rhubarby.

So where did we end up? Well, it looks like there are some interesting ideas in chef David Jaram’s head, but accomplishment perhaps isn’t quite reaching aspiration. There were some slightly duff elements and some plating that made me smile in the wrong way. The menu was £49 for three courses, with a decently priced wine list. In the gastronomic micro-climate of Ludlow it’s easier to judge value: this is £10 more than a decent three courses on white linen at Dinham Hall Hotel, and £10 less than having your socks knocked off by three courses at La Becasse. On the evidence of this outing, that is probably a tad expensive for the food and ambiance here.