LASSCO at The Three Pigeons, Milton Common

There is a risk of serious expenditure on a visit to The Three Pigeons at Milton Common, and I am not talking about what you will pay for the first-class food and drink there.

The danger arises from the fact that everything around you as you eat — well, everything movable that is — is for sale. It’s pretty unusual stuff, too. Just by the bar is a “handsome American vitreous enamelled cast iron roll-top bath-tub, early 20th century”, to give its catalogue description. Taking a fancy to that — perhaps after an injudicious second bottle of the excellent Viognier — would set you back nearly £5,000. For rather less, you might go for one of the light fittings, fire baskets, bookcases, chairs and tables, and the like, that crave your attention as you dine in cluttered candlelit splendour before the cheery log fires.

The Three Pigeons, you see, is a restaurant in a specialist antique shop run by the London Architectural Salvage and Supply Company, otherwise known as LASSCO.

The company, which has been going since the 1970s, is best known for its operations at Brunswick House, a Georgian property in London’s Vauxhall district that was once home to the Duke of Brunswick and, much later, a social club for railwaymen from the nearby Nine Elms depot. Their other London operation, at Ropewalk in Bermondsey, is likewise linked to trains, being part of a flourishing market housed beneath Victorian railway arches.

By contrast, the Three Pigeons’ historic link was with road transport. For generations it supplied refreshment to travellers on the A40 to London, its crossroads position doubtless accounting for the sitting there of a gibbet where a convicted highwayman was the last to die. The opening of the M40 removed at a stroke so much of its lucrative passing trade. Finding other sources was never going to be easy. The lap dancing that preceded LASSCO’s arrival in 2007 sounds like a final desperate measure.

A significant expansion in the food side of the business, with dinner now served on Friday and Saturday night in addition to daily lunches, is a phenomenon that has followed the arrival late last year of new bosses, chefs Edward Madden and James Ngu. Alerted to this by our art dealer friend Clico Kingsbury, who lives nearby, Rosemarie and I were delighted to make up a party of four with her and husband Gerald.

Between us we were able to secure, at one stroke, a significant survey of much that was being offered that Saturday night from James’s kitchen, with locally sourced ingredients much to the fore. Rosemarie noted, too, the range of craft beers (Shotover, Vale Brewery and XT) which, since we stuck to wine on our visit, awaits her attention on another occasion.

Greeted on our arrival by courteous host Edward, we were shown to our table in the central part of the building comfortably close, on this somewhat chilly night, to one of the log fires.

Our study of the menu, not a necessarily very lengthy affair, was accompanied by the first sips of our wine, a fruity (apricots, oranges) Viognier — Domaine Saint Ferreol, 2007.

Food was very soon on the way, a visually appealing range of dishes, as may be judged from a few of Rosemarie’s pictures on this page. Well, perhaps not her own starter of gazpacho which, while fully approved on the taste front, looked somewhat strange with halved baby tomatoes and big chunks of cucumber bobbing about in it.

I began with a delicious crisp pastry tart topped with caramelised red onions, chicory leaves and pieces of Colston Basset. Cheese also featured in Clico’s beetroot and almond salad, with its pieces of creamy Tunworth. Produced in Hampshire, it has been described by Raymond Blanc as “the best Camembert in the world”, some compliment from a Frenchman! Gerald had a rather daring combination of flavours in his slices of black pudding, topped with cauliflower and a poached egg.

A high standard was maintained with the main courses. Mine was turbot, not a meaty white chunk as I expected but the tail of a small fish, deliciously fresh, served on the bone above five spears of asparagus with a white wine sauce. Clico’s baked bream was more in chunky style and much enjoyed with the accompanying pot of cucumber and dill.

Rosemarie was delighted with the flavour and tenderness of her substantial serving of pork loin, which came with a cake of layered potato and red cabbage. Gerald was equally complimentary about his rump steak, with hand-cut chips and garlic butter.

He and I shared a cheese plate to finish, on which slices of the aforementioned Tunworth and Colston Basset were joined by an excellent cheddar. Odd to have this with bread, we thought, rather than biscuits. By then we were drinking glasses of Keates Drift cinsault-shiraz and Bodegas Lan rioja, while our compan-ions finished the Unplugged dry Riesling, lively and citrusy, that we had ordered earlier. Clico enjoyed her rhubarb mess (‘Eton’ style, without the strawberries) but Rosemarie found her banana cake stodgy and lacking in flavour, even with the salt caramel.

LASSCO at The Three Pigeons
Milton Common,
OX9 2JN
01844 277183
thethreepigeons.com

Opening times: Monday to Thursday 9am–5pm, Friday and Saturday 9am–11pm, Sunday 11am–5pm.
Parking: In adjoining car park
Key personnel: Chefs Edward Madden and James Ngu, below
Make sure you try... Edd’s black pudding, cauliflower and poached egg (£6.20), red onion tart, Colston Basset and chicory (£6), baked bream cucumber and fill (£13.40), pork loin, potato cake and cabbage (£13.50), turbot, asparagus and white wine sauce (£11.40); rhubarb mess (£4.50), banana cake with salt caramel (£4.60) and cheese plate (£8.90).
In ten words: Classy food and great drinks – and take home the fittings