Brawn

Nothing i can really say bad about Brawn. My second visit of the year. The first visit a surprise midweek lunch which delighted. Returning with friends from overseas & building it up rather in my & their expectations we were all mightily pleased by all the above catagories which all scored very high.

The room (we sat at the front) is simple but cosy enough & though there was a nice buzz from other tables we could chat & be heard easily. The service exceptional, the waitress with a great knowledge of wine & liqueurs assisted & helped with her expertise in helping us select very well. Elderflower liqueur was a real find instead of a sweet wine with pudding. The food was interesting & eclectic in a very good way with sharing plated allowing us to savour many delicious, delicate & fabulous tastes & textures. Value for money definately yes. The only tiny criticism was the air con which seemed to blow a gale but this is a minor quibble.

My overall score is high & would possibly be a bit higher but as this is my first review here i thought i shouldn't get to carried away. The location is a wee bit off the beaten track but do go & explore both the area & the amazing food.

A belated review from the soft opening in December – it was one of their first nights, and the fact that they managed to impress so much on that visit is hopefully a very good sign.

First of all, the rooms. We sat in the back room, with a view of the open kitchen (the front room is where the bar is, and where cheese and charcuterie are served, and it seemed a bit buzzier there on the night we visited). It's not a formal, white tablecloth, gleaming cutlery sort of place; the furniture looks reclaimed, the walls are white, there are big windows onto the street, there's a variety of tables and counters to eat at, and it's quite basic and homely. It reminded me of evenings spent sitting in friends' kitchens, able to relax and eat as you please.

Service was sweet and friendly – eager to discuss the history and sourcing of the wine and the food, and wanting to please without being intrusive.

A warning: it's hard to limit yourself to a sensible amount of food because each section on the menu (Taste Ticklers, Pig, Plancha, etc) begs to be explored. We tried something from each: well-sourced charcuterie ranging from the familiar to some more daring options (a kind of brain/blood sausage on our visit), lovely soft pork rillettes, grilled prawns, clams in a gorgeous buttery sherry broth, an italian version of steak tartare, monkfish cheeks, and a stunning duck and salsify pie that was packed with meat and that I could eat every day. I've lost the paper menu that I took away – it seemed to be mainly meat and fish, but the vegetarian dishes included a nicely dressed salad, a vegetable gratin and a good cheese selection, with plenty of chewy sourdough bread to mop everything up with. I'd like to have explored the puddings more, but had to limit myself to sharing a perfect iles flottantes, sprinkled with crunchy caramel. We left the wine selection to our waiter and drank several different glasses, all of which were good. We were busy discussing and exploring the food on our first visit and didn't pay much attention to what is probably a very good wine list, based on my experience of their sister restaurant.

The menu seems to change regularly, according to other accounts I've read, so it's a place that's well worth visiting on a regular basis. The food isn't overly fussy, which is a plus. It's interesting, well-sourced, well-prepared, and the menu has been put together with a lot of thought that allows you to create whatever kind of meal you feel like eating on the night. I'd be happy to call in for some charcuterie and cheese, or to have a much larger meal. I'm looking forward to exploring the wine list further because I imagine as much thought has been put into it as the food menu.

It may not be ‘officially’ open yet, but Brawn is already up and running. On a cold dark night, it looked very inviting from outside, and had a nice buzz inside, with a friendly welcome.

We skipped the small number of more substantial main courses, opting for a selection of tapas style dishes. All the dishes were good, but the highlights were Suffolk pork rillettes, Iberico ham, scallops with gremolata and leek gratin. The cheese options come from local supplier, Androuet, and were also a real stand out (we had Comté and Cornish Blue). The chocolate mousse was good, but not as special as the cheese.

The wine list is focused on independent producers making small quantities of ‘natural’ wines. This appears to be a broad term for organic, biodynamic and other winemaking methods, with no additives and often unfiltered results. We thoroughly enjoyed our first exposure to this style of wine, getting good recommendations by the glass from our waiter. Some of our choices tasted similar to conventional bottles, but others were totally different, in particular the red Vino di Anna from Mount Etna.

If we were looking for faults, I'd say that service gapped a little at the start – we had to ask for the menu – but picked up nicely from there. Also there was a cold draft at one point, which we couldn't understand as the door was closed. Finally our table seemed slightly awkwardly positioned, making it tricky for the waiters to move about freely.

That very pedantic nitpicking aside, we had a great evening. We also had an entirely unexpected and very welcome surprise when the bill arrived, and the charge for our food had been removed. Our waiter explained that this was because they are ‘still practising’ before their formal launch – so full marks for goodwill generation! We'll definitely be coming back and look forward to trying more natural wines.