The Winteringham Fields is a 3 AA rosette
restaurant on the banks of the river Humber. Previously the restaurant was one
of the best in England, holding two Michelin stars, however the previous chef sold
the restaurant and as things stand some have considered it a fall from grace. However things have been looking up as new owner and head chef
Colin McGurran became a well known face on the Great British Menu (a
competition between the top regional chefs of Britain) and twice has had his
dishes on the final menu beating top competition.
Despite no Michelin star the kitchen
clearly has ambition and talent with Colin at the pass and modern techniques are
handled very well, not too obtrusive, actually adding to a dish.
We visited last year and looking back the
tasting menu showed real skill and precision and is definitely somewhere I am
keen to visit again to see how things are and should be progressing.
The menu we chose was the 9 course “surprise”
menu at £79. With only a tidbit of information given for each course the menu
should show the chefs vision for the restaurant whilst also perhaps exploring
new flavor profiles for the diner.
If you wish not to spoil the surprise you should
stop reading now because despite the time gap the menu remains the same, interestingly
a quick look at the a la carte menu gives you a pretty good idea of what each
course will be anyway.
One of the main problems people seem to have with the restaurant is that only the tasting menu is available on the evening. This cuts the restaurants diners in half surely because once you have tasted it why would there be regulars? The lunch menu offers a la carte and gives the option to choose most of the better dishes in the tasting menu and this is what we would do in the future.
The amuse bouche consisted of three little
appetizers, firstly a cauliflower veloute that was pleasingly warm and thick
with good strong flavor of cauliflower. Next, a tapioca cracker of squid ink
and sage was nothing to write home about and lacking crunch. Finally a foie
gras cigar on a biscuit crumb which I think was ginger. The foie gras was
smooth and rich without any graininess however the objective to dip into the
biscuit was impossible so we ended up picking up crumbs with our fingers.
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| Fried from South Ferriby beach |
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| Baked from the fields |
The second course was Jerusalem artichoke, truffle and blue cheese in various forms. The
artichoke was well cooked with a nice earthiness and the blue cheese did
complement it well but if you do not like blue cheese this dish will be a nightmare.
Cheese gratings, sauce and also a gel perhaps made the dish a cheese course with
the artichoke and truffle being the additions and I think it could work better
this way.
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| Roasted and Confit |
The third course of “Roasted and Confit”
starred a deliciously cooked chicken thigh that was beyond moist with its extremely
crisp skin sat in a pool of its own broth. A confit egg yolk with a gel like
outside and undercooked inside flooded its fresh richness onto the plate. Some
crispy salty kale brought the seasoning up a level alongside the crumbled
cheese. This all combined together to form a truly memorable dish that hit
every note.
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| A pinch of seafood |
The fourth course of “A pinch of seafood”
slightly underwhelmed following the previous course. It consisted of a crab
quenelle on top of a crispy celeriac sheet and raw julienned pear surrounded by
a rich sauce. On the side was another rice cracker with a thick seafood paste
and some seaweed powder. This dish was very delicate and had good seafood
sweetness. The seafood paste on the cracker was magnificent, almost like extremely
concentrated bisque.
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| Mi-cuit, WF green 5 ways |
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| Braised from Lincolnshire |
The sixth course of “Braised from
Lincolnshire” was a crowd pleaser. Slow braised beef cheek had massive savory
richness and just fell apart meanwhile onion puree, crispy onion, pickled onion
and burnt onion all added to its depth. The parsley puree brought some lightness
to an otherwise heavy dish, another perfect meat dish from the kitchen.
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| Curiouser and Curiouser |
The seventh course was a little bon bon of coconut, pinapple and basil. The thin “bomb” shell bust
with the slightest pressure on the tongue and flooded the mouth with fragrant
exotic fruits whilst popping candy crackled. A fun palette cleansing dish, just
make sure to keep your mouth firmly shut or risk a messy accident.
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| Simply Freshing |
The eighth course had various textures of mandarin, fresh, gel, sorbet puree. Small violet
meringues brought floral notes to the dessert and the citrus freshness of the
mandarin ended the meal on a light note. Unfortunately this dish was not very
memorable compared to the previous courses and after Colin’s recent GBM win
perhaps a replacement should be looked at.
The final course was the cheese trolley had
a wide variety of world cheeses and offered as much as you liked.
Overall this tasting menu was made up of
some very highs and some lows. It began slowly but the middle courses were
easily Michelin standard and I would not be surprised to see the restaurant
earn one if it keeps it up. The restaurant seems to do well under the head chef
and he has a good appreciation for textures as seen by all of the plays on the
same ingredient which I very much like so I hope the restaurant can continue to
improve. To us, the main way that it can do this is to offer an a la carte on the evenings too.
Rating: 9/10
Expect to pay: We paid £79 for the tasting
menu however the a la carte lets you choose what were my top dishes (including both
chicken and beef) as a four course lunch menu for just £45.
Would we go back: Yes definitely but for the lunch menu
Any freebies: Not including amuse bouche,
no.
1 Silver Street, Winteringham
Scunthorpe
North Lincolnshire
DN15 9ND
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