Jo Rees finds showstopping theatricality in The Duke Hotel, an unassuming Victorian pub just off the M4
In the age of Instagram, there are clicks to be had in sharing new and exciting discoveries with your followers. So why no one has yet filmed themselves, like Lucy Punch in Amandaland, revealing The Duke Hotel as the Next Big Thing is a head-scratcher. Anyway, this is your heads-up on a restaurant that’s all theatre, Japanese elegance and accomplished cooking in a roadside pub you’ve almost certainly never heard of.
Just a few minutes off the M4 in Wiltshire, The Duke Hotel – which looks like just another charming Victorian coaching inn from the outside – is a hugely entertaining pit-stop with delightful rooms and a restaurant worth planning a trip around.
Owners Matteo and Brandon Romeo-Marais (chef and front of house, pictured) have sunk everything into turning the village pub into a canvas for Matteo’s passion for pan-Asian food. And he’s certainly got the chops, having spent six years refining his skills under a talented Japanese chef.
It’s worth stating up front that, on our visit, we had the tasting menu, which is run as a once-a-month supper club as well as being available (with prior notice) for overnight guests. We didn’t sample the à la carte menu but, given the quality of the tasting menu, one could be confident of Matteo’s ability to carry off pub classics.
The couple’s ardour for all things Japanese is clear the moment you enter the bar and restaurant, where a colour scheme of deep blue and ochre is accented by Asian ceramics and artwork. It feels characterful and carefully judged, not gimmicky.
The tasting menu comprises nine courses. Now there’s a sentence that can inspire mixed feelings; in the wrong hands, such a feast can leave you feeling like a foie gras goose. This was distinctly different, more akin to musical theatre where each number delivers a dopamine hit of delight.
The curtain went up to a shichimi togarashi dip served with shards of rice crisp, followed by a delicate blini topped with beluga caviar and sour cream, blinged with a flake of gold leaf. Caviar is a bit of a thing at The Duke; numerous types are showcased and there’s even a caviar tasting experience.
Next came a panko-coated peking duck bonbon on a wakame seaweed salad, then a comforting tonkotsu dashi poured from a Japanese teapot over plump chicken gyoza.
The subsequent course of a bouncy steamed bao stuffed with Japanese barbecue pork and gochujang, served in a bamboo steamer, was unctuous and sticky. It was followed by a thick wedge of black cod that delivered rich, sweet barbecue notes, its flaky flesh and bed of lobster red-curry bisque ‘ta-dahd’ from beneath a smoke-filled cloche. A tiny frozen Strawberry Daiquiri palate cleanser arrived next, providing a moment of pause after the rich savoury dishes.
While theatricality was woven through the entire experience, Matteo saved the big number for dessert. A large icy glass dish arrived, from which grew a chocolate tree embedded in chocolate and mint soil. It was dotted with meringue pieces, served with clotted-cream ice cream and topped with an enormous canopy of candyfloss. Striking though it was, it required the perfectly chilled Left Bank Martini that followed to cut its sweetness. Served in an elegant coupe with a tiny origami bird perched on the rim, the cocktail made for a lovely finale, before an encore of coffee with homemade mochi (cocoa and red bean) ended the show to a metaphorical standing ovation.
