Lean into decadent feasting with the tastiest and most dynamic luxe tasting menus the South West has to offer
Gather, Totnes
Any chef worth their salt knows where their produce comes from, yet the zealous team at Gather go that extra mile by foraging many of the ingredients themselves. Such dedication and produce-led practices have even seen the restaurant feature on Channel 4’s Remarkable Places to Eat.
For chef Harrison Brockington – a Roux Scholarship finalist – the seven-course tasting menu must showcase the very best of Devon’s fields, shorelines, rivers and hedgerows. As such, the menu is devised and revised monthly to reflect precisely what’s in season.
While the tasting menu changes frequently, the sourdough bread and butter (both made in-house) are an almost-addictive happy constant. This September, the menu includes hedgerow beignets made from foraged greens, a shallot tarte tatin and pan-fried sea bass, while the cheese course is accompanied by wind-fallen apples and a walnut wine made by the Gather team.
Each course comes with an optional wine pairing with styles hailing from all over the world including Devon, Burgundy, Lebanon and South Africa.
£90pp (excluding drinks). Book here.
Culture, Falmouth
As befitting a Michelin Green Star restaurant, the narrative-driven tasting menu at Culture is seriously sustainable.
The menu is a journey, taking diners on a plate-based road trip of suppliers while simultaneously reflecting the ebbs and flows of nature; Culture only use what the growers have available, rather than requesting them to grow specific ingredients.
All seven courses use a range of techniques from ancient to modern, and are expertly crafted by Hylton Espey. His experience cooking across the world is reflected in fish and meat dishes made using a custom braai with sustainable charcoal from Mount’s Bay.
The feast always beings with Flurry – a flurry of snacks which shoot out from the pass, designed to be devoured while drinking in sumptuous views of Falmouth’s harbour and fields beyond. Coastal Fields is a course that celebrates the humble spud, while the Scent of Summer dessert features ingredients from coast and countryside rambles, and is the only course created by Hylton’s wife, Petronella. All courses are carefully matched with a global tour of wines by the glass, from England to South Africa to Greece.
£85pp (excluding drinks). Book here.
Olive Tree Restaurant, Bath
Bath’s sole Michelin star restaurant is inside the quaint Queensberry Hotel on a quintessentially stylish Bath-stone street just north of the city centre.
Despite the restaurant’s lofty Michelin status, the tasting menu is a comforting combination of top-notch locally sourced ingredients from Newlyn-landed lobster to Cheddar strawberries. Even the fig leaves from the head chef’s neighbour’s garden play a leading role in one of the courses.
The eponymous head chef tasting menu – Chris Cleghorn’s Taste of the Season – is a triumph of flavours across seven courses, including the likes of Cornish kern raviolo with vin jaune and Australian black truffle and Sladesdown Farm duck with fermented carrot, fennel and apricot.
For an extra touch of theatre, a number of dishes are finished at the table by the chef who produced it. Finally, to truly max out on flavour, thoughtful wine pairings are composed by restaurant manager Aisling Bury.
£175pp (excluding drinks). Book here.
Fowlescombe Farm
The food scene just got seriously exciting at the Refectory, the restaurant of this regenerative farm at the foot of Dartmoor, as acclaimed chef Elly Wentworth came on board.
Her famously captivating flavours and meticulous execution make for a magic combination with the sustainable farm-to-fork ethos of the farm and its restaurant. Working closely with the farm’s manager and head gardener, Elly produces refined seasonal courses served up in rustic-cool surroundings.
The daily menu always begins with charcuterie produced by the farm’s sister company Rare & Pasture. This is followed by the likes of courgette and elderflower velouté with lemon thyme parker buns, cured john dory with buttermilk and gooseberries, and sirloin of shorthorn beef with cavolo nero-pesto and broad beans. Desserts include the sweet thrills of poached apricot with farm honey crémeux and toasted granola, or cucumber and lime granita with berries and white chocolate curd.
Those lucky enough to be familiar with Fowlescombe Farm will know that dinner at the Refectory used to be exclusively the privilege of overnight guests (the farm has ten individual suites) but now it’s all change. The restaurant has happily made a few extra spaces for non-guests, however, spaces remain super limited.
£75pp. Book here.
Ugly Butterfly 2.0
Adam Handling’s Cornish culinary castle, Ugly Butterfly 2.0, boasts breathtaking coastal views while dishing up a flexible ‘4×4’ menu in its new home at The Headland in Newquay.
The relaxed approach to this tasting menu gives diners the opportunity to build their own way through the South West larder. Each of the four courses has four options (plus there’s the luxurious optional extra of six Porthilly oysters). Dishes range from bluefin tuna with preserved truffles and elderflower to Adam’s signature ‘lobster, wagyu’ which uses sweeter and smaller St Ives lobsters, plus a freshly baked tarte tatin served tableside.
Alongside goods from local suppliers, ingredients are frequently foraged locally or plucked from the kitchen garden at sister pub, The Tartan Fox. Local wines, cocktails and beers are available in abundance, although for extra swank why not order a glass of something sparkling – Champagne or otherwise – from the restaurant’s Champagne trolley?
£100 for three courses, £120 for four courses (excluding drinks). Book here.
Enjoyed reading our pick of luxe tasting menus in the South West? Check out these forage-led dining experiences.
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