The Wheatsheaf, Braishfield, Nr Romsey

Matthew-from-Stoford has transmogrified into Matthew-from-Braishfield!  He's moved to manage The Swan's sister pub, The Wheatsheaf.

Being incorrigibly nosy we decided, when we went down to collect The Builder's mother to take her out for lunch yesterday, to drive out to Romsey and have a look see for ourselves.  Matthew had assured me that the food was good, even on a Sunday.  (I have noticed that many places who manage to do lovely food during the week seem to find Sundays very difficult to deal with.  I have become quite fussy about where I will go if lunching out on a Sunday! But if Matthew said that the food was good, then that was enough for me.)

I have to say that The Wheatsheaf absolutely surpassed itself.  I had a half pint of prawns to start with.  It came accompanied by a little bowl of Marie Rose sauce, a finger bowl with warm, lemony water in it, and a bowl for the carcasses.

It was absolutely lovely.  Gwen had a plate of smoked salmon, which she demolished at speed.  The Builder had a plate of whitebait which he also demolished at speed.  We were impressed with the presentation, with the flavours, with the service, and with the fact that all these interesting things were available on a Sunday menu.  The starter choices are so often boring and traditional on pub menus.

Being also boring and traditional, we all elected to have the roast beef for our main course.  It is a very, very long time since I had such a nice piece of roast beef.  It was extremely tasty, beautifully cooked and had obviously been properly hung before being sold.  It came with little Yorkies, roast potatoes and a quenelle of horseradish mousse atop the beef.  It was magnificent

The vegetables were fairly magnificent too.  Mashed swede and carrot would not ordinarily take my fancy, but this was lovely.  The broccoli was cooked just right - not too soft, not too hard.  And the red cabbage was a tour de force.  I especially liked the addition of the star anise.  I am pondering doing aniseedy red cabbage myself, with star anise, fennel seeds and a little pernod.

As an aside, my mate Richard, who in addition to being a train fanatic is also a cutlery fanatic, has been admiring not so much the food in these pictures but the cutlery.  He is definitely of the opinion that any pub which uses such good cutlery really ought to redefine itself as a restaurant.  The food was certainly restaurant food but I suspect The Wheatsheaf is also a very good pub as well.

We each had a dessert, an unusual event.  My bitter chocolate torte with raspberry sorbet was delightful.  The Builder enjoyed his sticky toffee pudding.  Gwen had ice cream.  Absolutely spot on for the end of a very indulgent Sunday lunch.

The prices hover between pub and restaurant prices but the food is excellent value for the money.  If you are anywhere within striking distance of Braishfield, I would thoroughly recommend a visit. I am now trying to figure when I can get back to Romsey myself so I can go again!