Enter the village of Murcott, Oxfordshire into your SatNav and you realise that you don't need to enter the street, for there are only two of them in Murcott, one a cul-de-sac and the other the main road on which the village sits. Accordingly, you can't get lost and you can't miss The Nut Tree Inn, and why would you want to? For those of you who, like us, celebrate the great British pub, The Nut Tree Inn is a great example and is housed in a 15th century thatched cottage. There's even a duck pond outside that, on the occasion of our visit, was frozen over, much to the consternation of the resident duck.
All of that is reason enough to go there, and this is a pub that where you can go for a pint, but few surprises, we find ourselves drawn there because it's a place that is serious about food, holding a Michelin star for the past three years.
We're greeted warmly on arrival and all the staff during our time there were friendly and attentive. There are two dining areas within the pub, one being in the original building itself and one being part of a modern extension. The former, while smaller than the newer dining room, has of course much more character and heated (as both rooms are) by a wood burning stove, it is one of those pubs where you could happily stay all day when it's white outside.
All of that is reason enough to go there, and this is a pub that where you can go for a pint, but few surprises, we find ourselves drawn there because it's a place that is serious about food, holding a Michelin star for the past three years.
We're greeted warmly on arrival and all the staff during our time there were friendly and attentive. There are two dining areas within the pub, one being in the original building itself and one being part of a modern extension. The former, while smaller than the newer dining room, has of course much more character and heated (as both rooms are) by a wood burning stove, it is one of those pubs where you could happily stay all day when it's white outside.
the Inn
a cosy corner in the pub dining area
The menu here is reasonably straightforward, offering the likes of fillet of mackerel, wild mushrooms in puff pastry, onion soup and salad of roasted roots to start. Our choices were 'tartare of aged beef fillet' and 'pave of Nut Tree smoked salmon', with the pub doing its own smoking on site we understand. The dishes arrived at the table looking clean and fresh, the plate not overworked. Neither dish was of course rocket science, but both offered good quality ingredients and in the tartare for example, the Parmesan and the egg both made big contributions. Overall then, starters were good.
Pave of Nut Tree smoked salmon, whipped horse radish cream, Avruga caviar
Tartare of aged beef fillet, aged Parmesan, egg yolk
Main courses are a mix of traditional pub food and the slightly posher variety (sometimes in the same dish). There's sausages and potato purée, there's cod with triple cooked chips, and fresh salmon fish cakes also. Additionally, there is seabass, and our two orders: slow roasted belly of pork and grilled fillet of aged beef. The slow cooked pork belly was exactly how it should be, moist with good flavour and included a belt of crackling that offered great crunch without risking your jaw. There was also a lot of pork leaving you both full and satisfied. The beef was good enough to please but not enough to rave about.
Grilled fillet of aged beef, triple cooked chips, baked tomato, onion rings, tarragon butter
Slow roasted belly of pork, celeriac purée, savoy cabbage, apple gravy
Quite full, for dessert we shared a Hot prune and Armagnac soufflé with caramel ice cream, which arrived at the table around ten minutes after placing the order. It tasted good however, the Armagnac a heavy presence but the soufflé itself light enough; a nice end to the meal.
Armagnac soufflé with caramel ice cream
Thinking back on our meal here, good is the word that keeps recurring and we're aware that it has been used plenty in this post already. Given though how useful this workhorse word has already been, let's use it a few more times in our wrap up: this was good food from a country pub, honest and often hearty food, and despite the award of a star, (we're guessing) that little changed for them with them continuing to cook for their customers, and not for the Guide. There's nothing particularly 'jazzy' about the menu, but we're sure it goes down well with the customer base, and if we lived within a reasonable driving distance, I'm sure we'd visit often. Conclusion: good food in a great pub.
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