Review: The Mole Inn, Toot Baldon

Living in Ludlow, I often find myself rolling up and down the M40 to the metropolis. So it’s useful to know a few good eats not too far from the motorway, to break up a tedious drive with a nice lunch or supper. One such spot is The Crabmill at Preston Bagot. It’s the absolute epitome of a dining pub; warm and cosy, food with punchy flavours, great value, silly village name, and in no way a pub.

The Mole Inn at Toot Baldon in Oxfordshire is cut from pretty much the same block, sharing more than just a silly village name. If someone ever wanted to put together a catalogue of classy dining pub fittings,

furniture and decoration then they could just come here for a photo-shoot and leave happy. Yes, it’s formulaic, but The Mole is at least a very good example of the species with some nice touches like the ancient fragments of carved wood panelling hung as wall décor.

Similar with the food: exactly what I’d expect of a dining pub, but some jolly good specimens for all that. My starter of devilled kidneys was delicious, piping hot and with roasted garlic cloves adding a chewy sweet hit alongside the deep, spicy, meaty sauce. The kidneys were cooked just right. Oddly, it looked as though Maureen’s starter had been given my toast. Her three enormous balls of breaded goat cheese certainly didn’t need the artfully balanced slice of toasted

sourdough, and my devilled sauce most certainly did. So I stole it. And lived to tell the tale!

For the record, the goat cheese was too dry and crumbly to be truly a pleasure in such large quantity. The beetroot and onion relish beneath was delicious, and the whole nicely presented, but this was a textbook case for less being more: smaller balls with a finer breadcrumb would have made a better starter.

My main was a slippery piece of haddock perched on minted curly kale, a surprising and delicious combination. It came with a pot of smoked haddocky mash, also lovely and full of gunky goodness. Maureen’s mixed fish grill was good, contrasting red snapper, haddock, salmon.

The prawns seemed a bit of a poorly afterthought. Good chips.

We finished up with a STP. It would be a bit much to say that a dining pub can be judged on it’s sticky toffee pudding, but they are as ubiquitous on the menu as green curry at a Thai and so (oh, very reluctantly) we usually order one. This one was sluiced in dark toffee sauce with a pronounced black treacle taste, though the pudding itself was a bit dry and dense. Not a bad STP, but not a memorable one.

The Mole Inn, then. It’s a good place to know if you want a comfy meal in pleasant surroundings and you’re anywhere near Oxford. I think the Bib Gourmand is well earned, and I like it. Can’t bring myself to rave about it though.