Restaurant-Guide.com
hand picked restaurants

Formerly a haunt of smugglers, the inn has now become ultra-respectable and it is doubtful if its former habitués would so much as recognise it, much less appreciate what it now has to offer. Standards are high throughout and though a meal is pricey, it is a small price to pay for such wonderful food. You can have the customary three-course meal or really push the boat out and go for the seven-course gourmet that, the instructions say, can be chosen under the element of surprise.

The whole process is taken seriously and such distractions as mobile phones, pipes, cigars etc are firmly banished to the bar. Main courses on the a la carte could include Spiced honey glazed duck breast, accompanied by baked Peking duck leg and sausage, caramelised orange, French beans and sherry vinegar sauce; gently poached fillets of brill, laid on baked celeriac fondant served with seared langoustines, spinach and baby leeks finished with roast chicken reduction or roast breast of farm chicken, spiked with fresh truffle, placed on dauphinoise potato with glazed shallots, wild mushrooms and complemented by a cep cream and truffle oil foam. They boast a well-conceived wine list with house wine at £13.50.

Another contribution to the movement which is beginning to make Emsworth look rather like Ludlow-sur-Mer, but which still has a long way to go in sheer weight of numbers. You eat smart in the upstairs restaurant or more informally downstairs in the brasserie, which seems much more fun. Fish roams freely on the menu but the well tried favourites are there and local estates offer opportunities (legally I hasten to add) for pheasant and venison. Roast monkfish with bacon is a dream come true. The wine list is business-like and fiscally friendly. House wine at £10.50 with a decent-sized glass at £2.

A real fun place, presided over by Lawrence Murphy, who thrashes the stoves, and Julia, who does just about everything else. History does not relate anything about the former fisherman inhabitant of this converted cottage quite near the Quay, but one likes to think he would have joined in the fun with enthusiasm. Certainly everybody else seems to be doing so.

The menu is exciting and not overlong, which lessens the time taken in the preparatory stage, and your food arrives promptly. Somebody has taken time though, compiling a subtle wine list, with house wine at a sensible price. No children under 8 years old, except at Sunday lunchtime when everyone is welcome.