Kensington’s The Hunter’s Moon bills itself, accurately, as “a modern take on classic countryside dining”. This is, as anyone who has been to a gastropub in the past couple of decades knows, something of a risky strategy. For all of the rus in urbe philosophy, an awful lot of expensive British restaurants have taken solace behind a ‘concept’ that masks indifferent food and high prices. Very few of these places have lasted. But what makes the Hunter’s Moon not just enduring but special is the way in which it combines all the best aspects of a local pub with the superior qualities of a really good restaurant, and comes out swinging on both counts.
Not that we lingered in the pub, which was full to the brim with well-heeled and well-dressed drinkers when we visited. Instead, we headed straight to the back dining room to peruse the menu. It is either a sign of failing eyesight or encroaching old age- probably both – that meant that the bill of fare had to be examined with the aid of a light on a mobile phone, but once it could be discerned, there were all kinds of treats to be had.
Nibbles of focaccia and sourdough with wild garlic and beurre noisette and grilled merguez sausages with green sauce and saffron aioli were accompanied by a very fine brace of cocktails in the form of an aged barrel Negroni and an Amaretto sour. Then it was time for the starters proper in the forms of rabbit raviolo with more wild garlic velouté and a scallop crudo, both of which showed a happy adherence to European traditions as much as English ones. Accompanied by a very fine Loureiro Eschola white from Portugal, it was all top-notch.
We cleaved closer to British tradition for the mains. After being tempted by, but ultimately steering clear of, the rib of beef, we decided that a sirloin steak with peppercorn sauce and a chicken, bacon and mushroom pie were just the ticket, and they were magnificent in all regards.
Oddly neither the chips nor an overpriced creamed potatoes with confit garlic – which was served on the tepid side – were particular world beaters, but a really excellent salad of bitter leaves with stilton, honey and mustard was stunning, and proof that the excellent kitchen can do lightness just as well as the richer stuff. The manager’s recommendation of a Cotes du Rhone was particularly apposite, and welcome.
We just about had room for a quintessentially British pudding – chocolate mousse for me, sticky toffee pudding for Boothby – and then it was out into the dark, cold evening, with only a warming Old Fashioned to guard against the night sky (moon duly prominemt, too). But our hearts were fired with the excellence of everything we ate and drank. This particular hunter hits the spot, and no mistake.
The Hunter’s Moon, 86 Fulham Road, South Kensington, London SW3 6HR. For more information, and for bookings, please visit www.huntersmoonlondon.co.uk.
