3 minute read
Culinary updates from the pros RESTAURANT We drop in on The Oddfellows
SUPPER CLUB AT THE ODDFELLOWS The Exeter bar and restaurant proves to be a home away from home for Harriet Noble
When you look back at notes you’ve made from a restaurant review they can sometimes be, frankly, unintelligible. Dimly lit rooms where you can’t see what you’re writing and a couple of glasses of vino will have you writing nondescript phrases like “starter yummy, weird texture” or “fab loos” with a smiley face emoji. Such mutterings a good review does not make.
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What you really want, apart from all the morsel-bymorsel detail, is to articulate the atmosphere for the place. Because that’s what people really want to know isn’t it? Yes, brilliant and exciting food is on the need-to-know list, but the heartbeat of a place is everything. My busy squiggles from The Oddfellows say, in capital letters, with biro sun-rays coming out at 360 degrees, FEELS LIKE HOME. Which is odd in a sense because my home isn’t half as nice as The Oddfellows gaff, but it’s something about the feel of the place. It’s got all the right kinds of ambience by the bucket load. And on the Friday that my pal and I head there for one of their supper clubs, it proves to be a great way to kick off the weekend.
The aesthetics help: the sage green walls, little alcove dining area, dainty tea lights, pretty wallpaper, chunky wooden furniture, wall hangings – paired with really friendly and relaxed service and the mellow voices of Cat Stevens, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan singing to us throughout our meal.
And then there’s the food. The six-course taster menu kicks off with a dazzler: tea and crumpet – a forest fungi mushroom tea course that is quite possibly the cutest, quaintest dish you’re ever likely to see. What arrives is a chintzy teacup and saucer, with spoon, hosting a beautiful Asian-influenced tea. It’s thin in consistency but ocean deep in flavour, with earthy flavours melting into layers of sweet cinnamon, and sharp pickled onion. We drink it out of our teacups, we slurp it from our spoons and we dip into it with our gorgeous holey crumpets: I absolutely love it. It’s delicious, almost medicinal (in a good, healing sort of way), looks a treat and scores full points for originality.
Next up is the salt baked beetroot, celery, pear and walnut. It’s light but creamy; the celery and pear contrasting nicely with the crunch of the walnut and astringent punchy beetroot.
Third course is fish for my companion, a Brixham lemon sole which comes with shrimp, capers and a herb butter which gets the thumbs up. Normally a man of few
adjectives, he proudly claims it’s “lovely, clean and refreshing.”
I have the whipped Somerset ricotta radishes, with hazelnuts and dill. The magician of a chef has done wizard-like whipping here; the ricotta feels like fluffy marshmallow clouds in my mouth, with the thinnest slivers of al dente radishes. The lamb breast from Dartmoor comes with butternut squash and lamb jus and is tender, rich, and sweet with a delicious dark chocolatey background flavour.
Pudding sees us delve into the elderflower cider and blackberry sorbet, a classic cleanse the palate dessert, followed by Baileys and vanilla brûlée; a boozy, moreish pud with a rooftop of crumbly pebbles of chocolate and hazelnuts.
It’s all pretty fantastic, and light years ahead of your average gastropub offering – though it’s the tea and crumpets dish that has elbowed itself into my permanent food memory bank – and at £35 for this six-course taster menu, it is very good value.
We are last out of the restaurant (sorry Oddfellows) but, as I say, it’s because it feels a bit like home. You kind of feel like you just want to kick off your shoes and settle in for the night. n DINING DETAILS The Oddfellows, 60 New North Road, Exeter; www.theoddfellowsbar.co.uk Opening times Supper clubs are every Friday and Saturday night, a six-course taster menu for £35 – with the menu changing weekly And Christmas? They’ll be hosting Christmas meals soon with three sittings of 12:30, 3:30 & 6:30 on Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays Disabled access Mostly all on one level from the front door with no steps Dietary requirements There’s a vegetarian taster menu as well as the general one; they’ll ask you if you have any dietary requirements when you book Service/atmosphere Warm, friendly and relaxed
