The Old Post Office, Wallingford

Oakman Inns & Restaurants, under its charismatic boss Peter Borg-Neal, first swam into my ken in December 2011 with the transformation of Witney’s Marlborough Hotel into the Blue Boar. This is an establishment of which the town can really be proud, as the local MP, one David Cameron, was quick to point out.

For two years before that, however, had I known it, I could have been benefiting from the company’s gifted approach to the business of running restaurants at Wallingford’s Old Post Office (a name that precisely defines this imposing building’s previous use). Why, dear readers, did you not send me shooting over there?

Perhaps because Wallingfordians wanted to keep this gem of a place all to themselves. Enough of them were thronging its bar and restaurant last Friday to make understandable any resentment over interloping outsiders.

Not that there was any in evidence when Rosemarie and I stepped from our Thames Travel X39 bus into an atmosphere of cheery revelry. Clocking our arrival, bar manager Rob piloted us between groups of beer-swilling youngsters to our reserved table by the window. “Sea view,” joked our guide. In fact we gazed out on the patio, populated during our visit by the occasional smoker. Actually, Rosemarie, from her side of the table, had the more interesting spectacle in the open-plan kitchen, stretching almost the width of the room, where chef Karol Cutka and his team were busy at their tasks.

Some of these involved the Josper oven whose charcoal fuelling lends a delicious chargrill flavour to meat and fish cooked in it. The Blue Boar also has one of these, part of a trademark Oakman Inns approach that also involves the use of premium quality 100 per cent British beef, the patronage, where possible, of local suppliers and seasonal changes to the menu.

As this was a public transport night, I could for once join Rosemarie in the pre-prandial cocktail which, as ever for me at dinner, had to be gin-based. The sampling of a Gin Fix (Hendrick’s, sugar syrup, St Germain elderflower liqueur, lemon juice, cucumber, cranberry juice and apple juice) was left to my companion, it being too sweet for me. Instead I had a hugely refreshing mix of Greenall’s Bloom gin, tonic and fresh strawberries.

As we sipped (actually sucked, since the cocktails came with straws), we made our selections from the menu to be duly noted by our friendly waitress Romy — her parents, she told us, had admired the Austrian actress Romy Schneider who died (1982) a good few years before she was born.

Our starter, which it hardly took us long to agree over, was to be a shared fish platter. Actually, left to herself, I think Rosemarie would probably have gone instead for the Oakman Platter with a few of her favourite things like free-range honey-roast gammon, handmade Scotch egg and Croxton Manor mature farmhouse cheese.

What we received, though — you can see it pictured below — was hugely approved by both of us. There was a generous quantity of excellent smoked salmon, a pile of juicy deep-fried whitebait, a pot of dressed crab with lemon mayonnaise, and four-bumper-size marinated tiger prawns (with finger bowl for use after the messy task of peeling them).

To make a good thing even better, we also divvied-up a portion of chilli and lemon calamari with aioli which was notable for the tenderness of the squid and the lightness of its tangy coating.

Our wine, a breezy blend of Picpoul and Sauvignon blanc grapes (Les Granges de Félines) proved an ideal accompaniment. It continued to be so with my main course, which consisted of a thin fillet of delicious fried turbot, with new potatoes, wilted spinach and lemon hollandaise. This was light enough to leave room (even after that bumper starter) for a portion of gorgeously pungent Long Clawson Stilton, with apricot and ginger chutney and biscuits.

Rosemarie had the tempting-looking dish pictured — a superb chunk of belly pork, full of the flavour of the farmyard, with buttered green beans, mashed potato, apple sauce and gravy.

She made her choice, in part, because doing so sent a 25p donation to Blue Cross, a favourite charity. The dish was much enjoyed, although she remarked — I agreed, after personal investigation — that the crackling was not so much the advertised “crispy”, as solidly impenetrable.

A white chocolate cheesecake, from a range of patisserie specially produced for the Old Post Office by Tiptree, sent her smiling into the night. Outside — as handy as a chauffeur-driven limousine might have been — waited the Thames Travel bus, on which, sole passengers, we sped happily home.

Opening times: Daily 8am-midnight. Food service: 8am-10pm weekdays and 8am-10.30pm weekends

Parking: No private parking but there are car parks nearby. Buses stop right outside.

Key personnel: Owners Oakman Inns & Restaurants Ltd, managing director Peter Borg-Neal. General manager: Silvio Del Torre; head chef: Karol Cutka

Make sure you try the... Chilli and lemon calamari (£6.95), sharing platters of fish (£15.95), meze (£12.50) and antipasto misto (£13.95), merluzzo all Napolitana (£13.95), slow-cooked belly of pork (£14.95), espresso affogato (£4.50), chocolate raspberry sundae (£5.95) and cheese plate (£7.95)

In ten words: Buzzy town centre gastropub offering great food around the clock