Restaurant review: The New Inn

Wednesday 9th December 2009

This is a Crackerjack review of The New Inn. Do you agree? Rate and review this venue.

Food and drink: 9 / 10.
Service: 9 / 10.
Atmosphere: 9 / 10.
Value for money: 8 / 10.

There was a genuine air of expectation at the reopening of The New Inn in Backwell last Friday evening.

OK, there were a few first-night nerves from some of the staff and a problem with the front door refusing to close properly in the wind, but by and large it felt like it had been open for years.

Of course, it’s hardly a new pub. It’s the oldest pub in the village, but it has a new owner and has reopened after a major refurbishment.

The new man at the helm is Nathan Muir, one of Bristol’s best chefs who also oversees the cooking at the Robin Hood’s Retreat on Gloucester Road.

Before that, he worked at the now-closed Brazz on Park Street, The Picture House on Whiteladies Road and Sir Terence Conran’s Bibendum restaurant in London.

In short, this is a chef with serious form and it’s no wonder the Backwell locals poured through the door of The New Inn.

Many of them had dressed up for the occasion and the air was heavy with shower gel and perfume. It was clearly a big night.

And who can blame them for making an occasion out of it? It’s not often that one of the best chefs in Bristol rocks up at your local boozer.

The New Inn has been given the full gastropub makeover with the ubiquitous sage green tongue and groove, slate flagstone floors and exposed brick and stone.

The bar area has comfortable dark green button-back leather chairs, sofas and gentleman’s club armchairs.

A smaller drinking area has a real fire and high stools and tables, although personally I would have put the sofas in that room by the fire to make it even cosier.

The L-shaped restaurant has pine tables, Van Gogh chairs, flickering church candles and a soft, mocha-coloured carpet.

A couple of people near our table thought it was a little cold in there, but we were galloping through a bottle of Cotes du Rhone – after a couple of pints of Sharps Cornish Coaster in the bar – so we were well and truly warmed up.

Muir is a serious chef and it was a suitably serious, grown-up dinner menu.
He likes to use as much seasonal, local produce as possible and it was one of those frustrating menus that contained too many tempting dishes. In the end, we ordered three starters to avoid a scrap.

Shetland Island scallops with cauliflower and almond puree (£9) was a well-conceived dish. The scallops were perfectly cooked and nicely seasoned, the silky smooth purée was delicately flavoured and not intrusive and the pig’s trotter and sherry sauce was rich and slightly sweet to complement the sweet, juicy bivalves.

A quartet of West Country game (£7) comprised bite-sized versions of what could quite easily have been starters in their own right.

There were some rosy red slices of cured pigeon, a crisp-coated quail Scotch egg, a pool of almost liquid duck liver parfait and a mound of moist rabbit rillette with just the right amount of fat running through it.

Best of all was the caramelised veal sweetbread (£9) which was expertly cooked so that it was slightly caramelised on the outside, creamy and soft inside. It arrived on a bed of carrot puree studded with plump golden raisins and a slice of braised chicory to add a hint of bitterness. I can’t recall eating a better dish all year.

Main courses followed in a similar vein. Gloucester Old Spot pork (£15) was tender and had a very good flavour. It was served with a well-made white bean purée flavoured with sage and a meaty charcuterie sauce.

A rib-eye of Clevedon beef (£19) was precisely cooked on the rare side of medium-rare, as requested, and had veins of clotted cream-like fat. It was a fine piece of meat, which had been rested to let the juices redistribute to ensure maximum tenderness. Beside the steak, there were a couple of spoons of indecently tender ox cheek in a robust sauce, which must have been cooked slowly for hours. The duck fat-fried chips were hot and salty but could have been slightly crisper.

Additional side dishes were spot on, too – steamed broccoli (£3) with plenty of bite had been drizzled with lemon butter and flaked almonds, fat slices of beetroot (£3) had been roasted in salt to enhance the sweet earthiness.

To finish, an intense and rich slice of torte-like bitter chocolate mousse (£7.50) was complemented by a nutty ice cream intriguingly made with pearl barley.

A neat Armagnac and custard tartlet (£6.50) had a layer of prune purée, excellent crisp pastry and was served with a cluster of Armagnac-soaked prunes and a shot glass of the same digestif. Not one for the designated drivers.

Perfectly located between Bristol and Weston-super-Mare, The New Inn covers a very large patch and I imagine the people of Yatton, Nailsea, Clevedon and all points in between will be claiming it as their own as much as those gatecrashing from Bristol.

By the time we moved back into the bar, three hours had passed in a flash, the pub was packed and all we could hear as we walked back to the car was the sound of laughter and people having a good time.

Nathan Muir put the Robin Hood’s Retreat on the map in Bristol and now he will be doing exactly the same with The New Inn.

This is exceptional cooking in a relaxed village inn and the people of Backwell are very lucky indeed. The rest of us will have to travel to it but it’s well worth the journey.

MARK TAYLOR
 

Wheelchair access: Yes
 
Prices (dinner): Starters from £6; main courses from £13.50; desserts from £6.50. Three-course set dinner menu £27.50; two-course lunch £15; early-evening menu (Mon-Thurs, 6pm-7.30pm) £15 for two courses or £19.50 for three courses

This is a Crackerjack review of The New Inn. Do you agree? Rate and review this venue.