Food review - The Kingham Plough is where flavour rules

Emily Watkins is eating lunch with her family at a big round table at the Kingham Plough when we visit, even though it’s her day off. She is cutting up her children’s chicken goujons, chips and peas, I notice with glee, grateful it’s not scallops with truffle shavings or rabbit ragu.

The Kingham Plough reopened this week with a brand spanking new kitchen and some very smart rooms, to match its very posh Cotswold location and reputation.

And yet the wonderful thing about this country inn has always been its lack of pretension. There are no airs and graces here. It’s a simple pub that serves fantastic food and always has, building up its reputation through the blood, sweat and tears of Emily and her team in the kitchen.

No Hollister model waiters here, or panoramic views through glass walls. Nice wooden tables and chairs in the cosy old-fashioned interior greet you; its normality is almost anticlimactic when you arrive.

And yet the kitchen is now gleaming with new gadgets and gizmos, Emily, unable to hide her delight, has a permanent grin on her face.

She deserves it, though, because the Kingham Plough is an institution; an immediate star since she and her husband opened up in 2007, gaining a Bib Gourmand award in 2008, national critics pouring through the doors ever since.

Surfing the hysteria to maintain a consistently good level of food is something that Emily has managed, admirably calmly, even when Lady Bamford’s Wild Rabbit opened on the same street, although both made The Top 50 Gastropubs Awards 2015 — the Plough at 15 and The Wild Rabbit at 49.

Generously, Emily says that if the opposition brings more people to the village, it’s good for business.

But the two couldn’t be more different. The food at the Kingham Plough is almost abrasively rustic, the overpowering, defiantly pared back, old-fashioned ingredients Emily uses, designed to startle; mackerel and beetroot, rhubarb, bone marrow, snails, hoggett, dumplings; all very Mrs Patmore on Downton Abbey.

We wanted nothing more than lunch, happy to leave the rambling to the grockles and the mini breaking to the Londoners, perusing the blackboarded bar food menu as much as the à la carte offerings.

The Cotswold rarebit with sourdough toast, at £4.50, shouted at me, grabbing my hair and slamming my head to the table. I had to have it.

The Scotched quail’s eggs, hand- raised pork pie and pickle, and potted shrimp, also tempted me, but I was sold up the river for a block of melted cheese.

And it was worth it, a wonderful hybrid of cheddar fondue, dipping my home-made bread into the vat of fromage, like soldiers in a boiled egg. Heavenly nursery food that curled my toes in pleasure.

The salmon fishcakes special was also nabbed off the bar snack menu, obviously more in keeping with a light lunch than the more filling alternative menu.

And small they were, smaller than expected, rolled in balls and absolutely delicious; more like a brandade than a fishcake and the perfect lunch dish.

My friend had her eye on the baked Caius cheese, with rosemary, foraged mushrooms, truffle and purple sprouting broccoli (£16), but as we were ordering it, they sold the last one. Game over.

Emily Watkins

Instead, she tried caramelised onion, sage and pearl barley risotto, the grain being markedly different to the usual rice staple and perhaps one she wouldn’t repeat; too earthy, a bit slimy, for her tastes.

But pudding restored our faith. The rice pudding doughnut — poached plums, spiced plum sauce and cinnamon ice cream (£7), pictured — was such a sweet and indulgent surprise. The piquant juiciness of the plums and the crunch of the sugar; the cold creaminess of the ice cream and the chew of the doughnut; all sending me into a calorific heaven that I’m yet to come down from.

The blood orange trifle (£7) went down equally well on the other side of the table, served with honeycomb, another great twist on a classic British dish.

Squeezing in a cheese course — the Kingham Plough being famous for its largely local cheeseboard — concluded our meal perfectly.

As we left, Emily was still there dining with her family, grandma laughing with the kids, showing us how to do it without any fuss and bother, even on her day off.

The Kingham Plough
The Green, Kingham, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire OX7 6YD
01608 658327 thekinghamplough.co.uk

Opening times: A la carte menu available Monday to Friday, noon-2pm, 6.30pm-9pm; Saturday, noon-2.30pm, 6.30pm-9.00pm; Sunday, noon-3pm. Bar Food available Monday to Thursday, noon-9pm; Friday & Saturday, noon-9.30pm; Sunday, noon-3pm, 6pm-8pm
Parking: Large car park
Key personnel: Emily Watkins and husband Miles Lampson
Make sure you try the... bar food; a great alternative to a full, sit-down meal.
In ten words: The Kingham Plough serves consistently great and unashamedly rustic food