The Duke, Henley

It's coming up on a year since I was last in this part of the world, when I had a very lovely lunch in the sun at Dominic Chapman, then a brand new restaurant in the Relais hotel on the banks of the Thames. Strolling around town before lunch last week I was pleased to see he was still at the Relais - he's a talented chef and deserves to do well - but I do remember being one of about 6 people in a vast dining room last May. It's strange how some of the wealthiest areas of the country need to be persuaded to spend money on food, even as they drive around town clogging up the tiny streets in their Range Rovers and Aston Martins.

So I was a little concerned that for the whole of a Saturday lunch service we were the only people eating at the new Duke Henley. But I suppose the point of these invites is to change that and get the word out, and perhaps it's not too much to hope the people of Henley can be persuaded out of the giant Wetherspoons round the corner and into this charming, dynamic little startup.

Aged beef fat focaccia was the first thing to arrive, which I hope you can tell even from my slightly blurry photo (I really think it's about time I got myself a better camera - any suggestions welcome) was nice and bubbly on top, smokey from the grill and came with whipped wild garlic butter (first week of the season apparently) and rosemary salt. I'm always a bit torn about having butter with focaccia - I have a feeling it's not very traditional Italian - but then rules are meant to be broken, aren't they? Apologies to any Italians out there.

Venison tartare came hidden under a layer of powerfully wasabi-spiked cream - horseradish cream, basically, only with wasabi. We were instructed to scoop it out using the accompanying prawn cracker style puffed snacks and while this sort of occasionally worked there weren't really enough crackers for the generous portion of tartare, and they had a habit of disintegrating when you attempted to scoop. So we basically ended up having the crackers on the side and then eating the tartare with a spoon. Tasted good though.

These were "Toastie"s, big chunks of chargrilled toast covered in gooey grilled bechamel and umami-rich black garlic, topped with shaved parmesan and what I think were crisp fried shallots. The trick in "poshing-up" cheese on toast is to not have too many confusing flavours, but black garlic and cheese are a perfect little partnership, and the bread was light and easy to eat despite being a generous portion.

King prawns with yuzu, jalapeno and cucumber made a delightful counterpoint to the richness elsewhere, adding more of those Asian ingredients to complement plump, meaty prawns. The yuzu and cucumber made a kind of Japanese gazpacho, and there were all sorts of micro herbs and interesting vegetables (sprigs of fennel maybe, and parsley) added to the mix. One of the highlights of the lunch.

We certainly only have ourselves to blame for ordering so many dishes with the same ingredients, but it was testament to the skill of the kitchen that these tube-shaped chips, that came with yet more cheese and black garlic, were ethereally light and ridiculously easy to eat. Topped with Rachel, a semi-hard goats cheese, it was another one of those dishes that would have gone great with a pint at the bar, or picked at in their little walled beer garden.

We had enjoyed everything up to this point so much that we went for both sweet desserts to finish. This is miso salted caramel tart, with pineapple chutney and crème fraiche, which was dense and gooey and almost slightly too salty but shared between too people not too overwhelming.

And this is Yorkshire forced (I assume) rhubarb, chunky and jammy, served with ice cream and shards of berry-studded meringue, which had a lovely summery flavour profile and some fantastic complimentary textures. Both desserts disappeared in record time.

As I say, this was an invite so we didn't see a bill, but doing a quick bit of maths and assuming the bottle of Chablis they sent us cost about £50, the total per person would have been about £60 (£67 if you add on service), which I think is incredibly reasonable for the amount of skill on display and the thoughtful, seasonal ingredients used. And because this is Henley, after lunch you have the option of a walk along the river, a pint in the Angel, and a photo opportunity outside George Harrison's old house Friar Park, all of which we did. And the sun shined the whole time. It was quite a lovely day.

8/10

I was invited to the Duke and didn't see a bill.

The Cadogan Arms, Chelsea

There's no sign of a cost of living crisis on the King's Road, but then the people of Chelsea aren't known for their frugality. The Cadogan Arms is a grand old Victorian boozer - which means it has nice high ceilings, stained glass and a big carved wooden bar - but then this is also Chelsea so they can do a good cocktail and have oysters and fancy salads on the menu. The place had been on my list for years thanks to the "new" owners (this was in 2021, when the country was in full plague mode) being JKS of Gymkhana, Hoppers and Trishna fame, but also because it's not that far from my house in Battersea, and living in Battersea, believe me, a short journey home is a rare treat indeed.

It was a good thing we'd booked - the place was completely slammed on a Friday night, not at all a given in many city centre pubs I've noticed lately. Welcome cocktails (well, we welcomed ourselves with them) were very good - an El Diablo with both mezcal and tequila, and a Sticky Toffee Pudding Old Fashioned which combined buttered bourbon and PX to produce a remarkably authentic STP flavour profile. There's a definite North-American-Mexican lean to the drinks list - I also notice they sold Agua di Madre as a non-alcoholic option, and interesting range of drinks made with fermented kefir. I mean, this is Chelsea, after all.

Now, I hesitate - usually - to review a place after having just one dish (each) but this is, after all, a gastropub and we definitely weren't the only people just popping in for one dish before heading home to watch the new White Lotus. My burger was perfectly fine - a good shape and size, easily eaten with my hands so many marks for that, but unfortunately the beef was overcooked to grey and rather dry. They didn't ask me how I'd like it cooked, so maybe this is just how they want to serve it.

Much better was a £34 sirloin, a giant chunky thing cooked accurately albeit a little timidly - we'd like to have seen more of a dark crust - but it tasted great and it really was something almost approaching a bargain for your money. Both sets of chips - chunky and fries - were decent, and the bill which I completely forgot to take a photo of but we did pay honestly, was £47.88 each, about right really. I mean, we didn't leave hungry.

It's almost always the case that when a restaurant doesn't have to be good to make money - when your customer base is the captive audience of an airport terminal, for example, or a posh suburb of London where residents are independently wealthy and not very discerning - it isn't. I have had some genuinely diabolical meals in Kensington and Chelsea - and Belgravia, and Hampstead - over the years, to the extent that it almost puts you off trying anywhere in this places again. But I'm glad I challenged my prejudices at the Cadogan, and found a place that both knows its audience and tries to do things well. And such an easy journey home, too.

7/10

Dastaan, Leeds

Three down, one to go. My determination to visit all of the restaurants in this particular mini-chain - because, so far at least, they've all been that damn good - has now taken me to a northern suburb of Leeds and to the Dastaan there. My worry is that all of the things that made Black Salt and Koyal so remarkable also very much apply to their Leeds location, and so this post may end up being a bit, well, familiar. But a good restaurant deserves to be talked about, and indeed the fact that this team is able to run 4 (I assume... or at least 3) world-class spots at once is even more reason to shout it from the rooftops.

Dastaan Leeds is big and brightly lit, and on this particular cold Tuesday evening pretty quiet, although the room did begin to start filling up towards the end of the evening. It's a pleasant enough space - functional, slightly corporate - but your experience is lifted immediately thanks to the attention of the staff, who are so charming and welcoming and enthusiastic about everything that you feel like the only people in the room (even if you actually are).

Dinner began - naturally - with papadums and chutneys. Interestingly, there was one more kind of chutney than Koyal, and one fewer type of papadum, so we didn't get the Walkers Max-shaped crisps but did get a tomato and chilli chutney alongside the coriander and mango types. They were still all superb though, particularly the coriander which had a deep, rich, vegetal flavour.

Pani puri were just as powerfully flavoured as the puri at Koyal but the pastry casings were just a bit smaller, and therefore far more comfortable to eat. Like all the best versions of this dish, they explode in the mouth in a riot of spices and a blast of tamarind, one of the all-time great vegan dishes.

But just look at that lamb chop. Just look at it. Have you ever seen a more beautiful thing? The way the extremities are darkened and crunchy from the grill, the way it has that incredible tomato-soup colour from yoghurt and spices, the way you just know the center is soft and just-pink, expertly conceived and beautifully timed. Then, let me tell you, it tasted even better than it looked. This was a monumental achievement in chop-craft, an absolutely stunning bit of cooking that even had the edge on the excellent version at Koyal a couple of weeks previously. This may, in fact, be the best lamb chop I've ever eaten in my life.

The problem is, you get the very strong impression that you could just order anything at Dastaan and it would turn out to be great - narrowing our choices down to a sensible amount for two people was more of a case of deciding what we could definitely not live without. These are veggie samosas, grease-free and generously portioned, with another fantastic coriander-based chutney.

And this is a bowl of marvellously fragrant jackfruit biryani, studded with peas and topped with crisp caramelised onions. The vegan version doesn't come with the famous Gymkhana-style pastry lid to smash apart (my dining companion on this trip was a vegan) but has the same room-conquering aroma as it's brought to the table.

Finally, another contender for dish of the day, pork cheek vindaloo. The complex, vinegar-spiked sauce could have credibly made a paperback book edible but the meltingly tender chunks of pork served to lift it into the stratosphere - this was a genuinely breathtaking dish, quite an incredible thing.

But, sadly, there's only so much of the menu at Dastaan it's possible to eat in one go, and so we reluctantly finished up and paid, vowing to return next I was in town. The bill, with a couple of beers and 10% service came to just over £42pp, which considering the expertise on offer here (remember, these are ex-Gymkhana people serving 2-Michelin-star quality food) is one of the great dining bargains of the country.

So yes, just like Black Salt, and Koyal, Dastaan is absolutely bloody brilliant. I will be a bit mean and dock a point for the slightly soulless room but there's every chance when you visit it will be packed to the rafters - it certainly deserves to be. I can't imagine Indian food gets much better than this, but then I haven't yet been to Dastaan Epsom, so I have to consider the possibility it may do. Meantime, I'll have nothing but fond memories of this unassuming little place in the West Yorkshire suburbs, where life-changing Indian food costs less than a London-Leeds train ticket.

9/10

Interlude at Leonardslee, Horsham

If there's one thing I've learned after nearly twenty years of writing about food in this country, it's that fine dining can happen pretty much anywhere. If Ormskirk, an otherwise unremarkable town in Lancashire previously best known as the childhood home of Marianne Faithful (and very little else) can in 2025 hold five Michelin stars then all bets are off - there's no excuse for anywhere not being a food destination.

So let me introduce you to West Sussex, and specifically to the South Downs just outside of Horsham, where on the same short stretch of road sit no less than two Michelin starred restaurants. And although I'm sure Ben Wilkinson at The Pass has plenty to recommend it (another time, maybe), today I'm going to talk about Interlude at Leonardslee House, a local, seasonal, South African-leaning fine dining spot quite unlike anywhere else I've ever had the pleasure of visiting.

They don't make much of the South African angle on the website - perhaps because if you're trying to sell yourself as hyper-local and seasonal then I suppose you risk confusing people a bit. But in practice it all works incredibly well - a South African-led kitchen, working out of South African-owned vineyard and estate, is cooking ingredients grown, foraged and caught within shouting distance of the restaurant using African-inspired techniques and recipes.

Lunch began in the spectacularly comfortable (think St James' private members club) bar, with a beetroot and goat's cheese meringue which burst on the tongue into a riot of flavour, and a prettily decorated cheese stick with home made "Marmite", powerfully rich with umami and with a lovely delicate bite.

After those, a dainty little Jerusalem artichoke and Hamachi tuna taco, which involved curry leaf emulsion to great effect, dressed with some micro herbs and what looked like mini vine leaves. Leonardslee have a couple of vineyards on the estate with which they make 3 varieties of (actually very reasonably priced) sparkling wine, and part of the 'experience' at Interlude is to be talked through them before lunch at an entertaining little tasting. And I'm happy to report that working through 3 glasses of fizz and a cocktail before lunch even starts is a great way to get into the right mood.

We were then led from the bar into an anteroom on the way to the dining room, where stood a cute little presentation of some of the estate's bounty - their own venison biltong on one side, various herbs, seeds and oils on the other, and between them a glass teapot of rich, silky venison consommé. The pride in showing off the variety of elements available to work with was evident - even the chocolate was "local", made in Horsham using fair-trade cocoa.

Now reseated in a gorgeous, high-ceilinged dining room with a commanding view of the gardens, the lunch proper began, with this oak-smoked oyster. The smoking had turned the bivalve from its usual texture to a firmer, meatier style, which various dots of sharp citrussy jelly offset nicely.

As is so often the case in fine dining places, bread was a course unto itself - a mosbolletjie loaf, all soft and brioch-y and made using fermented grape juice (the estate's own, of course) as a leavening agent. It arrived with koji-cultured (another little ingredient I'm seeing a lot around lately) butter and some home made preserve, which is apparently a nod to how this bread is eaten back in Africa, with butter and jam.

Next came what I assume was either a last-minute or usually-dinner-only dish as I don't seem to have it on my menu - a cute little quenelle of some kind of lobster tartare, topped (well why not indeed) with a dollop of Exmoor caviar. It tasted exactly as good as you might hope lobster and caviar would taste - extremely good, and the theatre of the caviar presentation, arriving under its own little crystal dome, added another bit of joy. It's interesting to note at this point that while Interlude is not a cheap date, unlike some multi-course places the prices do reflect the ingredients - there's some high-end stuff on offer here.

"Rabbit eats carrot" is, we were told, a dish that has been on the menu in some form at Interlude more or less since day one, but has gone through several metamorphoses. Here you see it as a little boat-shaped snack of estate rabbit topped with some of the herbs and vegetables (carrot, of course, included) it feeds on. Also part of the same dish, little tartlets of I think rabbit tartare, and miniature millefeuille-type mouthfuls of what I think were rabbit jelly sandwiched between layers of carrot emulsion. Sorry for the vagueness, it all rushed past in a happy blur and after those introductory glasses of wine my brain was very much in 2nd gear.

Fish course was aged turbot, the fillet of which glinted with a mother of pearl sheen, indicating (I have been told) both an extremely high-quality fish and a delicate touch in cooking it. The sauce was one of those beautiful French types, at once both light but buttery and rich, and accompanying were various types of foraged (at Shoreham-by-Sea, the closest bit of coastline to Horsham) sea greens like monks beard, sea kale and sea purslane. Oh yes, and an absolute truckload of winter truffles, because if you can, you absolutely should.

The "main" meat course was their own venison. Leonardslee are lucky enough to have four different types of deer on the estate, and this is sika, served both as a lovely pink bit of seared loin and a bitesize nugget of slow-cooked game served skewered over coals. The loin came with more winter mushrooms of various kinds, and a crisp, salty slice of grilled kale, and it was all just completely perfect.

The transition to the dessert courses began with sorrel granita soaked in Leonardslee sloe gin, yet more showcasing of their seemingly endless ability to make any food or beverage out of what they find growing around the place. I'm still kicking myself for not taking a bottle of it home with me, but I suppose there's always next time.

Blackberry - preserved (literally, as in made into a preserve) from earlier in the year was topped with crumbled ice cream blast-frozen theatrically tableside. And then shortly after the classic pairing of chocolate and mint, albeit foraged water mint (they grow next to the estate's lakes) and chocolate from J Cocoa, a bean-to-bar producer from Hassocks. The mint flavour in particular was incredibly arresting - your mouth felt like it had been lovingly cleaned from the inside out.

There was yet more - a superbly-kept cheeseboard that focussed on serving a small (although not tiny) selection well rather than have a trolley groaning with a bewildering number of options (not that I don't often enjoy that approach too). And once we had finished with that it was time for a final flourish of petits fours back in the bar, expertly crafted little choux buns, citrussy bitesize jellies, and chocolate truffles all variously infused with acorn, eucalyptus and their own homemade walnut butter.

OK, so, let's get the locally foraged elephant in the room out of the way before we go any further. Interlude is not cheap. Our lunch had we been paying full whack, with wines and cheeseboard and welcome cocktail (etc. etc.) would have conservatively come to about £250pp, perhaps more if you made more use of the bar, which puts it all pretty firmly in the "special occasion" budget bracket. But Interlude is a special occasion, in a hundred different ways at once, and this is exactly the kind of experience that you'd hope to get when paying that amount for your lunch. In its own way, it's great value.

While waiting for the uber home, sozzled and sated, my friend said "I think I've just seen a kangaroo". I looked blearily up at her, then without even bothering to follow up such a ridiculous statement, replied "No, you haven't" and went back to checking my phone. It was only when I got home and visited the restaurant website that I discovered that Leonardslee does indeed have its own population of not kangaroos but wallabies, which have lived on the estate since the late 19th century. So if after reading all of the above you still needed a reason to visit, there are also marsupials.

So hopefully, wallabies included, I've now given enough reasons why Leonardslee, and Interlude in particular, are worth your time and money. A unique operation as far as I'm aware, this South African-English-foraged-seasonal restaurant, based in a stately home and garden centre and formal gardens and wildlife park is able to offer an extraordinarily varied menu year-round thanks to the bounty of riches on its doorstep and the skill set, time and energy to make the most of it. They are doing everything right and nothing wrong, and such generosity of spirit can only realistically be awarded the highest score. There's nowhere quite like Leonardslee.

10/10

I was invited to Interlude and didn't see a bill. Lunch menu is £120, dinner £195 and rooms start at £525 for a two night stay.