Smoke
Hampton-In-Arden, West Midlands
Most waiters are used to shimmying between tables; fewer have to navigate scrambling tomato plants too. Pull up a seat in the bountiful greenhouse – or inside Smoke's restored furnace house – and let the maverick, music-filled vibe fostered by chef Stu Deeley and embraced by an engaging front-of-house team, leave a smile on your face. As day fades, festoon lights (pinprick stars beyond the glass ceiling) and a firepit stoked for post-dinner DIY s’mores, create magic: cooked over coals, dinner here is deliciously playful. A ‘garden grazing’ plate whets the appetite with crunchy kale, radish and cured beetroot, Cobble Lane charcuterie, and house-made sourdough to scoop through a glossy chive emulsion. You might follow with cauliflower, cooked to nutty savouriness in yeast butter and served with local Berkswell cheese sauce and sharp beer-pickled onions; otherwise, there could be cured day-boat mackerel, flecked with bronze fennel and tiny nasturtium leaves, all brightened with the peppy flavours of horseradish, ponzu and elderflower vinegar. This works a treat with a sip of skin-fermented Zealandia Sauvignon Blanc from the Hermit Ram winery – one of the pours on a short wine list packed with alternative interest. Moving on, turbot is tucked luxuriously under a cascade of sugar snap peas and pearls of courgette in chimichurri sauce (vegetables are from the Manor's kitchen garden a few steps away) and there’s a shoal of brown shrimps in the mix too. Don’t miss the boulangère potatoes, darkly sweet with caramelised onions, and do make room for pudding because a lemon meringue tartlet, biscuity of base, treads that sweet-sharp line with masterly dexterity. As well as dinner (Tue-Sat), Smoke is now open for lunch three days a week (Fri-Sun); otherwise, linger over morning coffee and temptations from the vigorously recommended on-site bakery.
Dining Information:
Accommodation, Counter seating, Parking, Credit card required
Hampton Manor, Shadowbrook Lane, Hampton-In-Arden, West Midlands B92 0EN
01675 446080
