5 Flavours Review: The Whitebrook

On our escape nearly 3 weeks ago (boo!), Dan surprised me with a dinner booking at The Whitebrook, a Michelin star restaurant on the Welsh side of the border. In our relationship, romance always comes with food.Head Chef Chris Harrod is an old boss of Dan's, and The Whitebrook's ethos is all about foraged, local, to-the-second fresh and seasonal food. They have "forest findings" on the menu, which is more or less the cutest menu item ever. All the crockery is made in the village pottery and is so beautiful you want to lick it clean and put it in your bag.(The only downside was that I was sat directly underneath a spotlight which made it extremely difficult to take photos!)Rather than a slightly boring FOMO restaurant review, I'm going to tell you about the five best flavours we ate...

Pine capers

These are painstaking to make - the little kernels from pine cones salted and pickled for weeks to become little pockets of bursting flavour to cut through a creamy cauliflower amuse bouche.

Miso and turnip

Three things you might not put together are scallop, miso and turnip. But the two different types of miso went perfectly with the earthy turnip, and was Dan's biggest surprise.

Smoked beetroots

So, I want to have all my beetroots smoked from now on. I love smokey flavours, and it really brought out that lovely earthy beetroot flavour and complimented the venison it was served with.

Violets

A cheeky extra dessert was a parma violet sorbet which took me straight back to eating the sweets at my grandparents (and made me feel all decadent eating flowers too).

Pine with Pear

I'm all about a fruit dessert - no chocolate for me, give me fresh, fresh flavours. The pine granita in this dessert adds an almost savoury flavour that is distinctive but blends so well with the pear. I've not tried anything like it before and it was the perfect end to the meal.