I went to Loch Fyne in Woburn last night for a work Christmas meal.
Their Christmas menu was very good value, £19.95 for three courses.
We were a party of 7, the entrance was very welcoming and even had an area to the side where a chef appeared to be plating up or preparing food which seemed interesting.
We were greeted and taken to our table which was actually in its own room. With the restaurant being on the highstreet of an old town they have made the most of the space.
Service was excellent and we were well looked after and it all seemed very slick even with a lot of parties going on.
To start I had the Fisherman's Platter;
Smoked salmon, Bradan Rost (kiln roasted salmon fillet), smoked prawns, potted peppered mackerel, marinated herring, marinated olives, shallot marmalade, brown bread.
As several of us had ordered the same starter they served it on one sharing board, which made it a little less formal and a little easier for people to skip the bits they didn't like so others could have them. They were a bit skimpy on the bread though, only 1 slice per person. Could have eaten the whole thing to myself if given half a chance!
For main I chose the Pan-fried Fillet of Bream
with braised fennel in a lemon beurre sauce, sesame carrots, buttered new potatoes, tender-stem broccoli.
Fish was perfectly cooked and a lovely crispy skin that got eaten as well. The fennel was very tasty, don't often have that. I thought the potatoes would have been boiled but they seemed to have been roasted which was nice. Carrots got some interesting depth from sesame oil which I guessed was used as no sign of sesame seeds that I was expecting. Very tasty.
Dessert was Glazed Lemon Tart with vanilla ice cream
Exactly as it was, nothing spectacular with the desert, but tasty and refreshing after the quite buttery main.
I had house red wine with the meal, probably would have picked white but someone else preferred red and the ladies were having rosé. Was perfectly fine for my palate but I'm no wine fanatic.
After the meal we were offered coffee which two people had, then we were sort of left to our own. It would have been nice to have been offered some further drinks or at least a check that we were ok.
Overall an excellent meal and the Christmas crackers gave us 25% off in January so I might have to re-visit and see what their normal menu is like.