Having vowed to take a look at Donna and Rob Taylor’s new place the second it opened, I obtained there ultimately. The pair left the wonderful, if considerably outback gastropub The Compasses Inn in Crundale, Kent, on the finish of final summer season, promising that they had larger plans afoot. And right here they're at Tallow: 26 covers and a 10-seat personal eating room in Southborough, a leafy city within the civil parish of Tunbridge Wells, but, I hasten so as to add, a complete 2.6 miles from the city’s primary railway station. Don't, I encourage you, say that Southborough is definitely simply Tunbridge Wells, or its residents will revolt. Properly, they may after they’ve completed taking part in cricket on the frequent missed by the heroically fairly St Peter’s Church. Parking up on a Saturday lunchtime with the cricket in full swing is a bit like guest-starring in a Miss Marple thriller, maybe much more so if you get to Tallow itself, a tall, slim constructing painted a relatively gothic darkish gray.
Simply because it was on the Compasses, Tallow’s meals is definitely good. Greater than that, it’s get-in-the-car-and-go good. It’s “How far is Southborough, anyway?” good. Rob Taylor’s cooking appears, on first look on the menu, reassuringly simple – there’s a steak tartare starter and chocolate brownie on the pudding checklist – but his work is far more shocking. Take one of many first choices, a small, freshly baked wild garlic bread that was sticky, aromatic and vividly Kermit-coloured. There was no want for butter, as a result of its innards had been moist with some form of buttery, salty, algae-like concoction. Such touches at all times present a restaurant that’s going the additional yard. In the same vein, a pre-lunch snack of crisp lamb croquette with a neat, mint mayo topping was substantial but delicate on the similar time.
Tallow’s kitchen is on the primary flooring, which should imply a heavy calf muscle exercise for the serving workers each shift, up and down these stairs, however they do it with countless esprit. Donna and her workers have a shiny fashion that leaves you unequivocal about the truth that they actually care about that plate of barbecued loin of pork with confit stomach and celeriac and horseradish puree, or that they've personally eaten all the pieces on the menu and would fairly fortunately eat all of it once more proper now, if time and work commitments allowed.
I can’t blame them, as a result of there's at all times time for carbohydrates within the type of Tallow’s heat terrine of potato and Cashel blue: translucent layers of clearly deeply cherished spud combined with pleasantly pungent blue-veined cheese from Tipperary. (By the way, we had Cashel blue delivered by the kilo throughout lockdown, till my coronary heart valves begged Charles to cease, however I used to be nonetheless overjoyed to see it on a menu once more.) Once more, at face worth, “potato and cheese terrine” doesn’t sound a lot to put in writing dwelling about, however this one is a lot greater than the sum of its elements. It was topped with a hedge of microherb salad so excessive that Donna quipped she’d been late for work as a result of Rob had given her the chore of clipping all of it from their dwelling patch.
Tallow’s steak tartare is likewise ludicrously fairly, dotted with wealthy confit egg yolk and the briefest suggestion of pickled shallot. My favorite course could properly have been the hake starter, that includes plump, completely timed fried white fish in a heavenly puddle of chic curry sauce, with three of the fattest, meatiest, shelled mussels consuming within the aromatic broth. That is my form of superb eating: the highest-quality elements and complex plating, however with the coy undertones of strolling again tipsily from the chip store.
For primary, we shared a roast thornback ray wing with a pleasant inexperienced mess of broad beans and sea greens, and a few smoked haddock bonbons. In the future, I’ll write a thesis on the culinary variations between the croquette, the bonbon and the kushikatsu panko-crumbed skewer, however now is just not the time. A tart of caramelised garlic and parsley with child leeks and onion puree was fantastically constructed, however such a cool collaboration of flavours that it’s positively not one for the allium-phobic. I sought refuge in a facet of contemporary Kentish asparagus – an enormous whopping bundle of the stuff – that negated its one-of-your-five-a-day prowess with a thick dijon mayo and a scattering of crisp onions.
As at The Compasses, the desserts at Tallow linger. Sure, there was an excellent, mild do-it-yourself shortbread with whipped vanilla cream cheese and contemporary, candy gariguette strawberries, however the relatively dull-sounding “chocolate and hazelnut brownie” was nothing of the type: as a substitute, this was a plinth of wealthy chocolate-and-hazelnut mousse in a glistening pool of salted caramel and miso sauce – a lot sauce, and so shiny, in reality, I may have styled my hair within the reflection. The entire meeting was topped with an ideal quenelle of espresso ice-cream, and adopted by a wobble again to the automobile. Spring Saturday lunches don’t get a lot better than this.
Tallow 15a Church Street, Southborough, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, information@tallowrestaurant.co.uk (no cellphone). Open Tues-Sat, noon-2.30pm, 6-10.30pm. From about £50 a head à la carte, six-course tasting menu £79; each plus drinks and repair.
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