First of all, a big thanks to the staff of the Wild Wood Cafe for letting a party of 20ish people take over 90% of your restaurant for a 60th birthday celebration. When we got the invitation, we had never heard of Wild Wood, but the couple of reviews here helped us feel confident that we were up for a good night out - and we weren't disappointed.
It's a small venue with a small menu but the bright, fresh and comfortable atmosphere was matched with welcoming staff who handled our large group with ease. The small menu had all my favourites - and I happily chose (we picked in advanced so that helped the staff serve our group) pigeon to start, followed by duck; my husband went for the scallops with black pudding (his fave combo) and the duck as well. I would have started with the goat cheese and beet root tart but my hubby hates goat cheese and since I wanted to taste his scallops, I knew I had to order something I could barter with.
The food was fresh, nicely presented (without being super 'cheffy') and my options combined local ingredients with an asian spice palate. The pigeon and red cabbage had a sweet, rich, star anise infused sauce (slight niggle that I bit into a giant piece of star anise that was hiding in the cabbage). The pigeon was tender and enhanced by the wedges of roasted apples and fragrant braised cabbage. I could have eaten a bowl of the cabbage on its own - I would love to be able to recreate this at home! Actually, one of my tests for a good meal is whether I want to try and make it myself and the Wild Wood really delivered on this. I've recently started making duck breast according to a meal we had in Provenance. I am now moving on and will try to recreate the Wild Wood version. The duck was simply cooked and sliced, and accompanied by another asian inspired sauce. But, unlike the braised cabbage, this was lighter and fresher with hints of ginger and Chinese 5-spice. The duck sat on top of a sweet potato rosti, again fab - and surprisingly crisp and fresh - not overcooked and mushy. In fact it had more of the texture of grated carrot. A lightly cooked warm 'salad' of rocket and Pak Choi rounded out the plate - and gave me veg cooking envy.
There was a small selection of desserts - lacking a chocolate option for me - but luckily we had a birthday cake to satisfy our sweet tooth.
I am now off to hunt ingredients to try and work out how to recreate their beautifully spiced sauces and vegetables but I have the feeling I may just head back to Wild Wood and let them do the work for me. At a 3 course set price of around £23 - I'd be foolish not to. read more