Review: The Loch & The Tyne, Old Windsor

The signature dish at The Loch & The Tyne, Adam Handling’s big rambling dining pub in Old Windsor, is a starter called ‘Mother’. It’s a splendidly savoury dish of thin slices of baked celeriac formed into a package around a creamy-gooey interior that includes the warm earthy flavour of truffle, the odd zing of apple and the unexpected sticky dollop of date. The whole thing works very well, although I would have loved the celeriac to be a tiny bit more soft and yielding.

Mains were a bit more pub-driven, although always executed with a lot of class and a twist (you’d hope so at £30+). I went with the steak, and it was a beautifully full-flavoured bit of rib eye with a top crust of butter with gently warming chillies diced finely into it. Very nice too. Top-drawer chunky chips and an excellent peppercorn sauce. Maureen’s duck breast was an absolute wallop of flavour, all coming from the duck itself and how well it had been charred and

cooked to a perfect rosy hue. This was dish of the day. Can’t fault the boulanger potatoes either, although the chips here were king. One tiny duff note: we ordered a side of charred hispi cabbage with anchovy. The anchovy was done as a cream sauce, soaked into the cabbage. I am here to report that anchovy and cream is yucky.

Brilliant palate cleanser of rhubard sorbet with custard whipped cream. And then a truly scrumptious tarte tatin. In contravention of the current trend for wafer-thin slicing this one was made with big hearty chunks of pink lady apple. It worked. The pastry was crisp with stickiness.

All this is great, but you’ll be putting down £60 each for three courses before drinks. Putting The Loch & The Tyne in a strange place where it’s more expensive than any pub dinner has a right to be, but not really into serious fine dining territory. For me it’s a bit expensive, but I doubt the good folk of Windsor and Ascot really notice.