Review: The Bell, Ramsbury

I really loved The Bell at Ramsbury. For starters, Ramsbury itself is a beautiful village nestled beneath the hills of the Wessex Downs, clearly one that was more like a small town back in the mid-20th century but has been forgotten by time (and by everyone dashing past to more well-known points west). The Bell must be one of the finest buildings in the whole place, especially lit up at night. And we did stay the night, so I can say that the rooms are cosy, comfortably well appointed and full of character. And the Bell is also part of Ramsbury Farm Estate, a really good example of modern countryside management, with their own brewery and distillery (the beer at least I can attest is a good’un!), forestry, solar, market garden, butchery, zero waste, etc. So of course the food in their restaurant is absolutely loaded with produce sourced from, oh, less than three miles away!

Maureen snacked on some pig’s head croquettes for starters, lovely gooey bits of piggy goodness in a crisp breadcrumb with (not enough of!) a tangy brown sauce to dab in. I went with an artichoke and hazelnut soup, a very soothing proposition and I’ll admit to adding salt and pepper to amp up the lovely artichoke flavour. Came with a very sound chunk of springy sourdough focaccia.

My main was venison loin, still pink but fairly well cooked. Nice deeply flavoured jus, and accompanied by softly cooked turnip, radicchio and a big heap of softly cooked polenta. The polenta was a coarse grain, and had a very full flavour, nothing meek in this, it paired very well with the venison. Maureen went with fish and chips (yep, the menu having a few classics and even pizzas alongside the more grown-up dishes), a very generous helping of fish in good batter, loads of scrunch and not oily. The same could be said of the chips, almost impossible to stop eating. Especially dipped in the tartare sauce, a really refined affair with good punch but also a powerfully fragrant element… was it just tarragon? Not sure, but wish I’d asked.

We even found room for pudding. Maureen’s was top-notch, a lovely vanilla rice pudding with a crisp little brulee crust of burnt sugar on top, delicious compote plums and cinnamon ice cream alongside. My pear frangipane tart was fine, though I’d have preferred more pear and less of the sturdy frangipane. The pear sorbet was lovely, but – just an observation – it didn’t pair with the tart. It was nice on its own, it vanished when eaten with the tart. Better pear ice cream, maybe?

Aaaaanyway, we had a lovely meal in a splendid pub. You’ll pay £45-50 for three courses before drinks, which I think is top end for the wilds of Wiltshire but the quality was excellent and I’d definitely come back.