Restaurant Review: Montagu Arms, Palace Lane, Beaulieu (From Bournemouth Echo)

Restaurant Review: Montagu Arms, Palace Lane, Beaulieu

11:00am Wednesday 14th July 2010 in

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FOOD tourism is big business these days. The waiting list for the newly named best restaurant in the world (Noma, in Denmark) now stretches well into 2012.

But sometimes it’s easy to forget there’s world-class cuisine right on our doorstep. Take The Montagu Arms, for example.

Quite apart from being a great place for a ploughman’s and a pint after a Sunday walk, it’s also home to the Michelin-starred Terrace restaurant, and the talents of Matthew Tomlinson.

And if you think ‘Michelin star’ means poncey and expensive, guess what? It doesn’t. True, the dining room is oak-panelled and carpeted but on the busy Wednesday we ate there it certainly didn’t feel too formal.

Deliberation over the menu had started two days before we walked through the door but that didn’t make it any easier when we got there. Local and seasonal produce is the star, from venison to fish, with forgotten cuts like brisket and cheek making more than an occasional appearance.

An incredible Jerusalem artichoke soup came accompanied by balls of risotto and a basket of warm bread (including the best fennel bread I’ve ever tasted) while we waited for our starters.

We had seasonal asparagus with a breaded and fried (goodness knows how) egg, which was delicate but lovely. However, the real star was the beef brisket starter, with roasted beetroot, slivers of carrot and micro salad, which was rich, deep of flavour and perfectly balanced.

A quick breather and time to order a second glass of wine and admire the view of the beautiful garden before the main courses.

After much deliberation, I chose the roast duck breast, which was tender, perfectly pink and crispy-skinned. The accompaniments, wild garlic and vegetables, were beautifully and subtly flavoured.

My boyfriend went for fish with a razor clam and mussel gratin with samphire, which he declared the best fish – and possibly even the best meal – he’d ever eaten, being sweet and light and meaty all at once.

After such a superlative main course it would have been rude not to try the desserts. Again, a tough choice, but we went for pistachio cake with rhubarb sorbet and a banana soufflé with butterscotch sauce, plus the recommended dessert wines for each one.

Both were superb; the pistachio cake crumbly but moist and the rhubarb sorbet the perfect level of tartness. The banana soufflé was rich but light and the sauce the best kind of dark caramelly deliciousness.

By now we were pretty full, but in a restaurant like this it's a terrible mistake to turn down the petit-fours that come with coffee. Ours included a soft nougat, a white chocolate fudge and mouth-watering raspberry jelly, all served with an excellent espresso.

The food came to just over £100, not counting the drinks, but it’s truly brilliant cooking: not fancy, or fussy, just delicious food and great service. And if you stay in the hotel you get £45 towards the cost of the meal. So for a special occasion, why not be a food tourist in your own backyard for a change?