The Boathouse @ Station Road, Henley-on-Thames

Noah himself would have viewed the flooding with the same sense of impending doom as Shaun Dickens.

Admittedly Shaun did not have the entire animal kingdom, a large wooden boat, an angry family and disbelieving neighbours to worry about. But he did have a new restaurant to protect, which meant he could be found pacing the decks of his own ark, watching the river rising in alarm, and manning the pumps around the clock with his dedicated team of staff until finally the water overwhelmed them, flowing across the decking outside and pouring in, immersing his brand new gleaming floors and leaving tide marks on the new paintwork.

And yet when I attended a few weeks later you would never have known. It was as if the floods had never occurred, except that I had to wade through a waterlogged car park to reach The Boathouse in Henley. The floors had been relaid, the paint retouched, everything was back to how it was before, give or take a few grey hairs, and it was business as usual.

Because this is Shaun’s baby, his life’s dream, his seminal work, and nothing, biblical or otherwise is going to stop him from achieving it. The cheerful staff who met us in the clean, bright interior, and showed us to our table by the large windows, framing views of the obviously swollen river as it rushed past, were as proud as the owner of what is taking place here, so while the interior isn’t exactly sumptuous, in the summer this must be one of the best spots in the country.

Chef Shaun Dickens

Even in the depths of winter it was busy, Shaun’s culinary fame pulling in punters from all over Oxfordshire, because with an ex-Manoir pedigree and a CV that includes Thomas Keller and Alan Murchison, Shaun Dickens is certainly one to watch. The Boathouse is already listed in the toptable Diners’ Choice Top 100 Best Restaurants of 2013, and has just been awarded the Best of Britain in the Tatler Restaurant Awards, securing him a ladies-who-lunch clientele for ever after.

But perhaps the best part of all is that Shaun’s food is within all of our grasp, his current prices meaning it’s yours for the taking. The Monday to Thursday lunch, for example, costs £21.95 for three courses, or £30 for five, which for this calibre of food is beyond reasonable, the attention to detail being second to none.

Give Shaun a few years and he will be right up there with the greats, and perhaps his prices will follow suit, so get in there now while he’s on his way up.

We had the five-course lunch of course, (what’s an extra £8.05 for two courses between friends) hooking up with an old girlfriend who nipped down from London.

It’s hard to impress a Londoner, but from the moment we arrived it was an unmitigated success, and I found her chatting to the welcom-ing staff, champagne in hand.

We had an inkling of what was in store from the word go because there’s an air of excitement and anticipation about the place, proved by the amuse bouche: salmon rillette with cucumber sorbet and compressed cucumber, confit duck pastilla with a soya glaze and cheese gougeres which were almost worth the £30 price tag alone.

We’d opted for a mix of the taster menus and were seated in time for the first course, a life enforcing roasted garlic veloute poured from a tiny jug over the watercress and truffle puree, decorated with a parmesan tuile. The lightness was such that I expected it to float away before I managed to drink it, but was delighted I got there first, its delicate flavour a far cry from the usually overpowering flavour of the bulb. The attention to detail evidenced in the seared pigeon scattered with the black pudding crumb dish was an equal match.

And so we meandered on, through the exquisite butternut squash tortellini made with a saffron pasta, a confit of plum and amaretti biscuit, with sage and sprouting broccoli, through to the lamb belly, braised for 12 hours, roasted and pressed, enlivened by the dashes of sharp lemon gel, anna potatoes and puréed cauliflower. The presentation was second to none, but the devotion to each ingredient and addition to the plate was so extreme that we had to nibble our way through each dish in case we missed anything, despite the urge to wolf it down and lick the plate clean. A palate cleanser of compressed melon with mint and an orange sorbet cleared the path for the delicious selection of cheeses and a home-made beetroot chutney that I ate with a spoon.

Pudding came as an innocuous- sounding bakewell tart, except here it transpired into a plum syrup smear, plum quenelle, rectangle of bakewell tart, enhanced by the spoonful of clotted ice cream, a shortbread crumble and a milk tuile, bringing our meal to a grand finale Mozart would have been proud of. I expected applause, for Shaun to come out and take a bow.

Instead we had to wade back to the car park, the river flowing ominously faster and I prayed it wouldn’t rain. But the Gods weren’t listening, or if they were they laughing in derision and ignored me because the heavens opened and it poured.

Suffice to say a few days later I got a miserable email from Shaun. The Boathouse had flooded once again despite a night-time vigil and round-the-clock pumping. They were closing. Luckily a nearby steam boat provided a brilliant respite, and Shaun jumped ship literally, adjusting his menu to fit in the tiny galley, until his beloved restaurant was dry and once more ready to entertain you.

The Boathouse reopened this month and I’m delighted because you can’t keep a good man down, and from a selfish point of view, it means I can go back for more.

If I were you I’d do the same because come rain or shine, Shaun is right up there with Noah in terms of creating miracles.

Foodie heaven.

The Boathouse
Station Road, Henley-on-Thames RG9 1AZ
01491 577937 www.shaundickens.co.uk

Opening times: Lunch served: Tuesday to Saturday 12pm-2.30pm; Sunday 12pm-3.30pm.
Dinner served: Tuesday to Saturday 6.30pm-9.30pm
Parking: Right outside, plus nearby public car park
Key personnel: Shaun Dickens patron chef, Rees Griffith restaurant manager
Make sure you try the... Chicken terrine: seaweed, radish, pickled ginger, miso, herb-crusted sole, pink grapefruit, squid ink pasta, fine herbs, lemon parfait, almond, thyme ice cream. Three courses for £25.95.
In ten words: Ten words isn’t enough to summarise The Boathouse’s gastronomic splendour