Review on The Talbot
For more than two decades, Annie and her sister Wiz Clift have been running this seriously rustic, white-painted hostelry overlooking the River Teme as part local boozer and part restaurant-with-rooms. There is full-on domestic enterprise at work here: the kitchen produces everything from pickles to salami, and buys just about everything (apart from fish) from the nearby locality.
The owners fly the flag for organic produce and are dedicated to unearthing traditional recipes, re-working them with twenty-first century flair. Meals in the bar might include – say – preserved fish salad with caper mayonnaise, fried pig's liver with dry-cured bacon, and stuffed breast of lamb with stir-fried gourds.
Daily fixed-price menus in the restaurant flesh out the repertoire with dishes like cream of nettle soup, Lady Llandover's salt duck (an eighteenth-century recipe), wild brown trout with wild garlic gnocchi, and Aga-roasted saddle of local venison with a homemade venison sausage and braised red cabbage. To finish, expect Teme Valley apple and cider cake, treacle 'hollyhog' and squidgy rhubarb crumble.
Added to this, the Talbot is also home to the Teme Valley Brewery, and its ales are on tap in the open-plan bar. You can also sample locally brewed cider and perry and delve into the 40-bin wine list – which also includes a couple of local names.
The Talbot is also featured in: Michelin Guide, Good Food Guide, AA Guide
Rate this RestaurantCuisine
British
Chef
Steve Thorley
Restaurant Opening Times
Lunch: 12.00 through until
Dinner: 9.00pm
Accepted credit cards
Visa, Master Card, American Express
