1. 36 I EXETER LIVING I www.mediaclash.co.uk www.mediaclash.co.uk I EXETER LIVING I 37
RestauRant
Food
Dining Details The Pig At Combe, Gittisham, Honiton EX14 3AD; 01404 540400 (reservations 0345 225 9494); thepighotel.com Prices Surprisingly reasonable, given
the quality/brand; starters from £3.75, mains from £16, sides £3.75, puddings £7 Opening hours Folly – 11am until 7.30pm; main restaurant – noon-2.30pm & 6.30-9.30pm
Vegetarian choice Usually a couple of highly inventive options Disabled access The gravel drive could be tricky, otherwise fine Drinks Longest wine list we’ve ever seen, with
well over 100 each of red and white, plenty of fizz, and three of their own blends service/atmosphere Second to none!
uick primer for those at the back:
The Pig is a brand of trendy,
informal country house hotels that
has, in a few short years, become
the Pokemon Go of the nation’s
metropolitan foodie classes. Right
now, the most hardcore fans are
travelling across the country in
a bid to tick all five high-end,
shabby-chic hideaways off their bucket list. Last year, the
company took over the much-loved Combe House Devon
in Gittisham and spent eight months engaged in a colossal
overhaul and refurb.
By the time The Pig at Combe officially opened for
business recently, anticipation was so high it took 1,500
room bookings in 24 hours. You’ll struggle to get a peak-
time table in the restaurant between now and the onset of
autumn, though if you really can’t wait there’s a delightful
Folly (log tables, wattle and daub lanterns), serving light
bites and drinks, with no need to book.
Scepticism’s our default setting,
but the reason for all this excitement
becomes clear bit by gorgeous bit, as we
pick our way across the gravel pathway
from the packed car park. The new
owners have breathed new life into this
beautiful Elizabethan pile – a whole,
vast window has been uncovered in the
restaurant, for example, the dark wood
paneling sanded down to blond, and the
imposing former entrance hall turned
into a warm, buzzy bar stacked with
mismatched coloured glassware, stuffed
animals and oil paintings, roaring fires
and comfy sofas.
They have also put the ‘country’ back
into the country house hotel – it’s 21st century Cider With
Rosie rather than Downton Abbey, the pots of living herbs on
bare wood tables, for example, the stuff of nature-deprived
city-dwellers’ dreams, and the army of cheery, efficient
waiting staff in Converse, and BBC 6 Music approach
to background tunes, making for a demob-happy mood.
Intergenerational conversations are in full flow. Human
life seems to thrive here, just as plant life does out in the
enormous kitchen garden – you can walk round it, and we
strongly recommend you do – which is in constant contact
with head chef Daniel Gavriilidis to update the menu by
the minute, according to what’s ripe for the picking today.
If your food isn’t from the garden outside, it’s from within a
25-mile radius.
One section of the menu is called ‘Literally Picked This
Morning’ and it’s from this we select our starter of yellow
and red Cylindra beetroot, crispy chickpeas and matchsticks
of Cox apples – it is as thoughtful as it is delicious, the
beetroot warm, the chickpeas hazelnutty, and preserved,
rather than fresh, lemon giving a distinctly deep, citrus kick
to the yoghurt dressing. Across the table, Lyme Bay hand-
dived scallops and homemade pancetta with a dense fennel
puree are at once fancy and filling.
‘Otter Valley and Lyme Bay’, the menu’s main section,
yields fillets of brill – flaunting its juicy flesh and perfect
crispy skin on a salty, fragrant cushion of sea kale and
seaweed the colour of Hunter wellies, and a fistful of plump
Exmouth mussels. Also, Pipers Farm rump of perfectly-
seasoned, pink-centred lamb dabbed with tomato jam and
served with crushed, buttery Arran potatoes and tenderstem
broccoli. On the side, crispy ‘tobacco’ onions – so called
because, after the thinly-sliced onion has been dipped
in milk, flour and paprika, and then fried, it looks like
something you could put in a pipe and smoke – are so good
I want them as a TV snack, every night, forever. The silken,
fruity Californian pinot noir, recommended by our young
sommelier, is a perfect match.
Desserts show a sense of humour: my gin jelly looks like a
silicon breast implant, and tastes like a wicked night out, the
cucumber sorbet it’s served with a head-rinsing revelation,
and my dining chum’s gooseberry tartlet with clotted
cream and honey is glorious, somewhat grandmotherly, and
quintessentially English.
This is local, seasonal cooking at its self-confident,
celebratory best. Or, as our lovely waitress puts it: “They
come up with stuff you wouldn’t even think would work
as food.”
We’re lucky enough to have a room for the night in the
converted stables – and are, literally, lost for words on
entering it. Let’s just say, if you want to knock someone’s
socks off, book the Horse Box.
The Pig at Combe isn’t just a great new arrival on the
Devon dining scene; it’s a gift. A joy. Say hello to your new
happy place.
the Pig
at CombeCan the year’s biggest new opening possibly live up to
the hype? ANNA BRITTEN trots off to find out
it’s21st
CentuRy
cider
with rosie
RatheR than
downton
abbey