Next Door

Richard and Vicky Nuttall do indeed live ‘next door’ to their restaurant – a 17th-century timber-framed building that was formerly a butcher’s shop owned by three generations of Vicky’s family. She runs front of house and does sommelier duty in the dining room – an airy space with crooked timbers, plain tables and watercolours on the walls. Richard, meanwhile, has cooked in some big kitchens, and his experience shows in a concise, pared-back menu of up-to-the-minute dishes with just four choices at each stage. Seasonal ingredients are deployed with deftness and imagination – smoked eel with lettuce, chicory and sloes, for example, or venison bresaola accompanied by pear, brown butter and parsnip. Meat from Cheshire farms is a big feature, as in dry-aged fillet of beef with ox marrow bone, heritage carrot and leeks or a pork chop embellished with quince, kohlrabi and sorrel. It's also worth ordering a couple of sides such as parsnip purée topped with crushed hazelnuts or chips cooked in duck fat (‘delicious, although there were just four of them, which works out at over a pound per chip'). Desserts keep it modern with assemblages such as cinder toffee with salted caramel and oats. A short seasonal wine list kicks off with house selections from £24.