The Nut Tree

So for mothers day the other month I decided to take the folks for some slap up nosh somewhere different but near to where they live so I found out about a lovely pub near Bicester & Oxford called The Nut Tree http://www.nuttreeinn.co.uk/home.html which is in a lovely village called Murcott & has 1 Michelin star.
We went for Friday lunch & started by having a Campari & a couple of lovely nibbles (I think they were parma ham or prosciutto galettes). We scanned the menu everything sounded delicious & me & ma had to order the 6 course tasting menu, sounded ace! My pa went  for "Risotto of wild mushrooms" & we were shown to our table in a lovely bright room.
We were given some amazing home made bread & an amuse bouche of a soup with a little drizzle of truffle oil which was very tasty, then onto the six courses!

The first to come was "Fillet of Cornish mackerel". It looked wonderful as well as tasting delicious. It came on an onion tart with tapenade, pickled cucumber (which were deliciously tangy) & roasted peppers. The Mackerel was very tasty & went amazingly with the pickled cucumber.


Next up was one of my faves, "Pan fried terrine of pigs head & black pudding"! It was like a block of cake full of meaty pudding sitting on a little bed of sauerkraut, a schmear of piccalilli & there was a little fried quail egg on top which was perfectly cooked. The sauerkraut & piccalilli really set the whole dish alight!


Whilst all this eating was going on for me & my ma, my pa had his "Risotto of wild mushrooms" which was very earthy & had a wonderful mushroom taste. He enjoyed it very much & took a good half hour to eat it. Whilst he was eating his we were given "Roasted fillet of Cornish line caught seabass" It was a wonderful meaty piece of seabass & was served with wilted spinach & what I thought sounded maybe risky but was in actual fact incredible, curried risotto! It wasn't spicy but just had this incredible curried taste that was very moreish. A real winner & a dish that I really want to try again!

Onto the next & last savoury course which was "Roast cannon of Lamb" This was also bloody good. There was a torte of braised lamb shoulder with potato which was so tender & so so tasty. It just melted in the mouth. Under the cannon of lamb was creamed spinach so all in all another wonderful course. If I had to say anything bad about it, there was a few cubes of tomato which I don't think it needed but hardly a complaint.

This meant we were on to our desserts. What came up was one of the most beautiful & tasty desserts I've ever had. It was "Boiled egg & soldier" Obviously we were not sure what to expect until it came but it was a hollowed out egg shell with creme fraiche & vanilla mousse on a little bed of fruit (kiwi) with mango puree squeezed in from the bottom up. It was also served with a brioche perdu (creamy brioche), this was amazingly delicious. They also gave my pa one to which he enjoyed immensely. The staff were amazingly friendly & very kind!

So onto last dessert! We all tried something different, I had "Orange & Vanilla souffle" which was served with a blood orange sorbet. The souffle was light & fluffy & the sorbet was very refreshing. A very good souffle. My pa tried the "Warm chocolate fondant" which came with orange jelly, toasted almonds & cardoman ice cream. I tried a little of all of his & it was equally tasty. I especially enjoyed the cardoman ice cream. My ma had the "Rhubarb & custard" served with vanilla creme brulee & a yorkshire rhubarb sherbert. The brulee was lovely & ma enjoyed it very much.

This was definitely one of the best meals I've had for a while. We also had some lovely glasses of wine & I had a very nice sweet wine but can't remember the names of any I'm afraid. The sommelier was very enthusiastic & helpful. All of the food was absolutely delicious, the service was excellent & friendly & the pub itself has a lovely atmosphere. I will definitely go back, sooner then later though I hope!