Bumpkin in Notting Hill's trendy Westbourne Grove is in the wrong place.
Don't get me wrong that 'place' (West London) welcomes it with open arms, but nevertheless it clearly belongs in a chocolate box English village somewhere in the Cotswolds.
Bumpkin sits confidently in London’s original bohemian quarter with the four-storey townhouse having undergone a revamp. And walking into the informal bar and grill and elegant dining room you're enveloped by the soft green decor and seduced by Mattia (our host for the evening) whilst sirens and the usual London patter melts away behind you.
And the delights do not stop there. The menu is dedicated to unashamedly unadulterated British food with bags of integrity.
It's feel-good, healthy British food, including an impressive selection of grilled dishes with a firm nod at traditional seafood such as fish and chips, sea bass and salmon. Bumpkin really is a country-in-the-city bolthole for in-the-know Londoners.
Unfortunately for Mattia not only did he have a reviewing journalist to deal with but I had also, rather cruelly, brought along my friend Barney, who happens to be a chef. No. I don't think we were popular in the kitchen either!
A rather gleeful if not slightly guilty-feeling traitorous Barney chose the lightly spiced cured highland venison with beetroot relish and foraged leaves for a reasonable £7.50 to start.
Now Barney knows his cured venison, having cured it and eaten it many times himself, so I think his lip smacking and guttural exclamations of pleasure and surprise indicated quite firmly that this was good cured venison. Words he used were 'delicate' and 'melting in my mouth'. That was encouragement enough for me to steal some and fully support his satisfaction.
I chose the chicken liver pate and tangy pear chutney homemade and served with sourdough toast for £7.95. Which was as smooth and creamy as the gods could have made it and as tasty as I'd have liked it. The homemade chutney would, more importantly, have met with my gran's approval, which is praise indeed.
For a main meal, after much deliberation between the tender roasted sticky citrus duck leg with spiced red lentil mash, roast carrot and onion, served with a honey, orange, raisin and black peppercorn sauce for £17.95 and the country chicken casserole with tarragon dumplings, herb mash and crispy bacon for £16.95, I choose the duck. Because I was curious.
They do say curiosity killed the cat and in this instant, not going with what I know, didn't exactly pay off. The duck was beautifully cooked and the sauce was a perfect accompaniment. But, for me the lentil mash was an odd choice that didn't quite work.
A rather smug looking Barney was by this point tucking into his chargrilled Durham venison haunch creamed savoy cabbage, crispy bacon lardons, vanilla shallots, with a raisin and black pepper sauce for £19.95. Yes he likes his venison. And yes he very much liked this venison. So did I.
Again beautifully cooked and complimented by the bacon and the creamed savoy cabbage.
Pudding time came around all to swiftly and to prepare ourselves (as we'd clearly been having a tough evening so far) we cleansed our palettes with a slurp of Calvados brandy, which could be seen winking at us from the very attractive bar near to which we were sitting.
I ended up finally choosing the mulled wine poached pear with a hint of spice, vanilla pod and cinnamon, served with gingerbread and clotted Cornish cream for £6.95. This was beautiful. Rich and spicy. It reminded me of the almost forgotten festive period only a month before.
Barney meanwhile was busy salivating over his Advocaat tart with rhubarb jam served with Jude’s vanilla ice cream for £5.95. Although a bit too sweet for me he virtually inhaled it off the plate.
Suffice to say we were rather shocked and disorientated to walk out into a West London street scene rather than a quite village road surrounded by rolling hills and mooing cows. That was perhaps the only real disappointment of the night.
