Phillippe Boucheron Review
Philippe Boucheron discovers one of Shropshire’s culinary secrets – The Saracen at Hadnall
It’s no secret, I enjoy lunching. My ample Pickwickian figure is sufficient evidence. But best of all I enjoy discovering restaurants with really talented chefs using local produce to create interestingly different menus – without slow braised shank of lamb, pork belly or blade of beef – and with affordable wine lists.
Imagine my delight the other Wednesday when the place we had decided to lunch was packed. So we drove down the road towards (I better not tell you where we had planned to eat) and suddenly came upon the Saracens at Hadnell. This grade two Georgian inn – formerly the Saracens Head – has been lovingly reincarnated as a splendid restaurant with five comfortable en-suite rooms by Allison and Ben Christie, who also own the popular Bear at Hodnet. With the former Duke and Duchess of Devonshire’s personnel chef, David Spencer, at the stove they have achieved that rarity, a triple ‘A’ restaurant. One that is Approachable with no fancy false pretentions, Agreeable with excellent food well presented and professionally served, and above all Affordable – three course lunch for two, with a bottle of Louis Sipp Pinot Blanc from Alsace (£18.95) and coffee for £57.00 plus a tip.
The brilliant vegetarian soufflé we had as a main dish was almost worth it alone!
Over coffee we chatted with Allison, who has come all the way from Texas via London to settle in Shropshire, a stone’s throw from Shrewsbury’s famous battlefield. Her husband, Ben’s, family are farmers in the south to the county with a special interest in rare breeds keeping Dexter cattle and Southdown sheep. She is an ideal restaurateur who has got everything right in the kitchens and front of house and now wants to fill her smart dining room and keep the kitchens busy.
I took away with me a copy of her exemplary menu and excellent wine list – her wine merchants are Addisons of Telford – to plan a little celebration dinner for four of us in the New Year. We would meet in the bar in front of that blazing fire and share a bottle of Benoit Marguet’s outstanding rosé champagne (£44.50) that is without a doubt one of the very best pink fizzes of all.
We would start dinner with Marinated Crayfish Tails set in a white wine jelly with salmon caviar and a citrus dressing (£6.75) partnered by a Loire Sauvignon Blanc (£15). Our main course would be breasts of corn-fed Goosnargh ducklings, cooked pink (£17.95) accompanied by a bottle of Pirie’s glorious Tasmanian Pinot Noir (£24.75) served just off room temperature. Next would come a a splendid selection of three great British farm cheeses (£22 for four|) – a smoked Tanatside from Abertanat Farm near Oswestry, a Colston Bassett Shropshire Blue and a creamy white Perl Wein from Caw Cenarth in West Wales
– with a glass of Quinta da Novel ten-year old Tawny Port (£14.40 for four). And finally, in its proper place closing the dinner, a fruited brioche Bread & Butter Pudding made with a compote of apricots and clotted cream (£5.75) with a half bottle of VAT 5, a botrytised Sémillon for South West Australia (£19.95).
Allowing 12.5% for service – and at the Saracen it is well worth it – you will have enjoyed a superb dinner party with exceptional food and stunning wines for say £74 a head. Mind you, if you have been sensible enough to have joined GourmetLife then you would have a full 20% taken of the food element of the dinner taking some £32 (£8 each) off the bill.
© Philippe Boucheron MMX
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