The story
The Sir Charles Napier sits in the hamlet of Spriggs Alley, ten minutes from the M40 yet deep in the Oxfordshire countryside. This is a place of beechwood walks and beautiful gardens – a country pub that has earned its Michelin recommendation with something far more considered than the usual gastropub formula.
Proprietor Julie Griffiths and Head Chef Andrew Lewis lead a kitchen that turns out modern British cuisine with the kind of polish that made the guide take notice. The à la carte might start with chilled almond soup with Charentais melon and pickled garlic, or citrus-cured mackerel with cucumber, horseradish and grapefruit. Mains range from brown butter skate wing with capers and shrimps to a glazed chicken with black garlic and sauce albufera.
The weekday set lunch and dinner – two courses for £35, three for £40 – is where the precision of the kitchen becomes clear: a rum baba with strawberries and magnolia custard one day, a galantine of smoked chicken, rabbit and foie gras the next.
Beyond the main dining room, a private room seats up to 40 and opens onto the terrace. For weddings and larger parties, an awning extends capacity to 120. The grounds themselves – garden, sculpture, walks – give the place a sense of arrival that few restaurants manage.
Wine list and a notable sake selection are available, and the 12.5% service charge is suggested, not compulsory. The cooking is the draw – and the Michelin recommendation the confirmation.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Given its location in a Chilterns hamlet, this comely old pub-turned-restaurant needs to attract custom from afar – and it has long been successful, establishing a covetable reputation for high-quality food. Chef Andrew Lewis is keeping the kitchen on track, nudging the operation forward with a range of concise menus suffused with eclectic Anglo-European flavours. Appetisers – perhaps a delicate, creamy broccoli and Stilton tart – are served to guests seated on sofas in the venerable beamed bar. Beyond, is a choice of smart dining areas furnished with unclothed tables and upholstered wooden chairs, plus a leafy terrace and capacious lawned beer garden. Even early in the evening, there’s a romantic feel to the place: art on the walls, candles on tables, smoochy jazz on the sound-system and curvaceous sculptures of wildlife dotted around. Beautifully presented dishes add to the allure: a large piece of sherry-glazed pork neck arrives with thinly sliced peach and dabs of peach ‘ketchup’, the ensemble boosted substantially by a little mound of pâté-like pesto. An inspection meal continued with a compendium of piscine flavours: a large chunk of accurately cooked monkfish sharing a plate with a dolma (the vine leaf stuffed with cuttlefish and flavoured with thyme), a dollop of mustard and dulse relish, half a preserved lemon, hazelnut pâté and a creamy smoked-eel sauce. Puddings, too, show technical skill, with a perfectly risen blackberry soufflé complemented by a tangy blackberry sorbet; only a thin crème anglaise missed the mark. The voluminous wine list seems old-fashioned by comparison, with the Old World dominating an unannotated line-up arranged by region. Service, from the kindly proprietress and her young staff, is obliging and swift.
3 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
Location
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