Anarkali Restaurant

6 West Street

OX7 5AA

Arctic Fish Bar

8 New Street

OX7 5LJ

Bay Tree

21 High Street

OX7 5AD

Beijing Gourmet

3 Market Street

OX7 5NQ

Chefs Cottage

4 Middle Row

OX7 5NH

Imperial Chef

5 Market Street

OX7 5NA

Jaffe & Neale

1 Middle Row

OX7 5NH

Polly Jaffe &
Patrick Neale

Le Caf Raj

2 Horsefair

OX7 5AQ

Moveable Feast

1 Horsefair

OX7 5AQ

Nashs Bakeries

Withers Court,
High Street

OX7 5AD

Mark Nash

Office:

Old Mill Caf

7 West Street

OX7 5LH

Thai Shire

7 Horsefair

OX7 5AL

Whistlers

9 Middle Row

OX7 5NH

Vanessa Main

Whistlers Cafe Bar and Restaurant is located in the heart of Chipping Norton, just around the corner from the theatre, and opposite the Crown and Cushion Hotel in the High Street. We serve high quality fresh food and excellent wines at an affordable price. Our menu includes fish, steaks, pasta, salads and pizzas and we have a daily "specials" board.

Wild Thyme Restaurant
with Rooms

10 New Street

OX7 5LJ

Sally Daniel

Located in the heart of Chipping Norton, Wild Thyme Restaurant  serves modern British food with Mediterranean influences with relaxed warm service.

 

A cosy place where the food
is cooked to perfection
says The Oxford Mail

ATTENTION all foodies! Hitch up your wagons and head west to West Oxfordshire that is, and the busy market town of Chipping Norton. For there youll find, tucked in between the antique shops and estate agents, a cosy little eaterie offering top notch modern British food thats beginning to make a big name for itself since opening in December.

Cocking a snook at the credit crunch and waving talk of recession away with a jus-soaked spatula, chef Nick Pullen and partner Sally Daniel upped sticks from Portsmouth and opened Wild Thyme, a restaurant with rooms, cleverly spotting a gap in the market in Chippy for high-end nosh. We arrived to check it out after a flurry of posts on the chippingnorton.net forum and were immediately impressed by the cosy, but stylish, interior.

Despite being a chilly Saturday evening, we were shown to the last free table in the place. Or so we thought ... half an hour later we were amazed to see a party of 10 troop, in Tardis-like fashion, through to a second room in the rear. Offering a select range of dishes with locally-sourced ingredients all homemade from the delicious sun-dried tomato bread to the chocolate truffles handed out with the bill Wild Thymes seasonal menu is well thought out and makes mouth-watering reading.

SO WHAT DID YOU HAVE

For starters, I had the seared Cornish scallops and parmesan with cauliflower puree and crispy pancetta. The scallops were cooked to perfection, lightly golden on the outside and juicy inside, while the cauliflower puree tasted so good I had to stop myself licking the plate. My vegetarian husband spent a few minutes torn between the wild mushroom and sherry soup and the Rollright goats cheese tartlet before plumping for the latter. He was more than happy with his choice, particularly the tangy filling and the accompanying caramelised beetroot, hazelnuts and lambs lettuce.

For mains, he enjoyed the multitude of flavours in his butternut squash and Crudges cream cheese ravioli with spinach, walnuts and parmesan, while I tucked into whole roasted Ducklington partridge, braised red cabbage, roast chestnuts and chipped Jerusalem artichokes a beautifully wintry dish with a rich depth, which I savoured like a fine vintage wine.

With just the right amount of time to relax between the courses, we contemplated the sweet menu, noting some intriguing combinations such as beetroot and chocolate fudge brownie. In the end, I had the chocolate and hazelnut creme brulee, which consisted of whole soft hazelnuts in a light creamy, chocolately crme under a crispy topping it has to be tasted to be believed. Obviously deciding he hadn't already had enough cheese, he ordered the local cheeses, which included a couple by local popstar-turned-farmer Alex James and Kingham cheesemeister Roger Crudge, accompanied by quince chutney and homemade biscuits.

WHAT ABOUT THE SERVICE

Discreet and friendly, Sally is on hand with knowledgeable advice about which wines to choose she picked Pennys Hill McLaren Vale Vintage Fortified Chiraz from Australia to accompany the cheese board, which sent Himself home with a crimson-lipped grin of satisfaction spread across his face.

AND THE PRICES

Not particularly cheap; the mains are priced around 10.50 to 18.50 with slightly less expensive items on the lunch menu, but we both agreed you certainly get what you pay for, if not more.

VERDICT: A wonderful way to spend an evening truly fine dining in the intimate atmosphere of a lovely Grade II listed building, albeit easy to miss, occupying a thin sliver of space in a terrace of shops and offices. Perhaps we could persuade someone to rig up a giant red arrow in the sky, because believe me, you really DON'T want to miss it....