The Nut Tree Inn Review

After a lovely family holiday in Windsor, I was looking for a high quality family friendly restaurant to stop at on the drive home. Step forward The Nut Tree Inn in the Oxfordshire village of Murcott, a renowned gastropub and long time Michelin Star holder. With a great array of awards as well as overwhelming positive reviews from regular punters, I was fully expecting an excellent meal as I visited for lunch with my wife and two young children, on a beautiful May Saturday.

Rural Oxfordshire is certainly a very pleasant place to be on a sunny afternoon, and the pub, with its whitewashed walls and thatched roof sits perfectly in its surroundings. There's a good sized car park to the rear of the pub which is always appreciated, and we walked through quite an impressive beer garden on our way to the main entrance also, a popular spot on a warm sunny day.

The welcome on arrival was perfectly cordial and we were shown to our table in one of the dining areas. It's clear this is a fairly upmarket and smart venue, and I was probably the most working class person in a ten mile radius of the restaurant that day. One of the other tables in our small dining area was a group of (very loud) young men who spent most of their meal talking about the respective historic (and plentiful) property investments of their parents. Not that I have any issue with that at all by the way, but it does help gauge what I guess is the typical clientele here. Having said that, I should make it clear there was absolutely no issue from any of the staff with our young children.

The room was nicely finished with thick stone walls, historic wooden beams and a large open fireplace. My only minor complaint with where we were sat was that it was a sunny day (albeit not especially hot) and the room was quite a lot warmer than I would have liked, but there's probably not a huge amount the restaurant can do about that.

On offer at lunch is a short three course carte menu (three choices per course) and also a tasting menu, which is effectively made up of the same dishes from the carte with some additions - it's clear cooking a concise manageable menu is the order of the day here. Although the restaurant website states a children's menu is available, this wasn't offered to us so I'm not sure if that's still an option.

Drinks wise, there's an impressive wine list with a proper sommelier on hand, and there's a good range of other drinks too including some non-alcoholic options (albeit two of the six listed non-alcoholic 'cocktails' were effectively just Seedlip and tonic). I enjoyed my usual Hendrick's and tonics whilst my wife had one of the aforementioned Seedlip versions; the kids were perfectly happy with lemonade.

Lunch began with some complimentary bread (quite a rarity nowadays on a three course lunch); our waitress arrived with various types on offer in a basket, I had the rosemary focaccia which was delicious, but the other types were all enjoyed by our table also. Our waitress even returned a little later to offer a second helping.

Lunch proper began for me with a classic(ish) prawn cocktail. I enjoyed this, the prawns were lovely and full of flavour and the dish as whole was perfect for a summer day. My wife and daughter both went for the heritage tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella which was nicely constructed and another very tasty and fresh plate of food. My young son was perfectly happy (as always) with just a side of chips and these were delivered with the starters with no issue.

For mains, I had the onglet steak served with a chips and a peppercorn sauce. There's no cooking option here, the steak comes medium rare, but that's what I would have asked for anyway. The steak cooking was spot on, the sauce was nice and the chips were very good too. My wife went for the pearl barley risotto with spring vegetables and olives. This was a nice but not exceptional main course which was pleasant enough, but a little dull. With the only other main course option being fish and chips, I think it's fair to say we'd been hoping for a little more excitement with the main course choices; it was all very safe.

Nonetheless, there was no chance of us leaving without dessert and this proved to be a very wise choice. I had the passionfruit souffle served with passionfruit sorbet and a coconut rum custard. Was it the best souffle I've ever had? No. Was it still very delicious? Absolutely yes, and I'd happily eat that dessert again any time.

My wife and daughter both opted for the rhubarb panna cotta served with macerated strawberries and a strawberry sorbet. The panna cotta (I was lucky enough to try a bit) was delicious, as was the sorbet, it was a top class summer dessert. For my young son, the staff offered without any prompt that any of the ice creams or sorbets used on the menu could be served on their own; he went for a couple of scoops of that same strawberry sorbet and was very happy indeed.

And so, after collecting our bill with minimal fuss, a very enjoyable lunch came to an end. There's no automatically included service charge here, but there is the option to leave a tip on the card machine (which as always I did).

Overall I was very impressed with the experience, the cooking was of a high standard and we enjoyed all the food provided. Yes, I feel some of the dishes could have been a little bit more exciting, there's nothing cutting edge here, but I completely respect the restaurant knows their customer base far better than me. If the food they serve is the food their regular customers want, they absolutely shouldn't change that.

Service too was very good; the lady who served us for the majority of our meal (I believe the daughter of the owners) was great, and all the staff were really personable, and looked genuinely happy to be there, which is not always the case (believe me), even in top end establishments. The level of attentiveness was good also (water being topped up, checking for more drinks etc) as was the pace of delivery for the food.

I have absolutely no issue proclaiming this is a top class restaurant and one of the best gastropubs in the country for sure; I wish the owners and team lots of success moving forwards and I'm sure this is a venue which will continue to remain very popular; I'd certainly have no issue visiting again in future.