I think it’s quite a rare occasion that you go out for
dinner and you are genuinely (and delightfully) surprised by the menu.
You tend to know what you’re getting if you opt for Italian,
Indian, Mexican, Thai, etc. So when we booked a table for two at the Sun Inn,
we expected the usual British homemade favourites. How wrong we were! The menu
is filled with unusual, but seriously scrumptious, combinations.
Take my starter, for instance, I had scallops with roasted
mooli, pickled kohlrabi and peanut puree. The puree, served with a few whole
peanuts too, emphasised a flavour in the scallops that I had never tasted
before. The roasted mooli and pickled kohlrabi also added an exotic edge to the
dish.
For his starter, Tom opted for the veal sweetbreads, which
were served with black pudding, carrot puree, walnut and mushrooms. He had
never tried sweetbreads before and they certainly didn’t disappoint.
Our meal was well-matched to a bottle of 2013 Tapiz Malbec –
an aromatic and intensely fruity red, with hints of vanilla. It balanced the
flavours of the red meat we had for our main course.
Now, our main course – “Venison loin, chocolate ganache,
potato croquette, figs and Brussels sprouts choucroute” – was quite the
revelation. The venison was cooked beautifully rare, just how I like it, and
was presented upon a chocolate ganache that was spread along the plate. The
depth of flavour in the red meat was excellently complemented by the sweetness
of the chocolate. It was literally a perfect combination. The Brussels sprouts
and potato croquette were also really tasty, but it was the venison and
chocolate pairing that was the showstopper for me.
After finishing our main courses, we had a little break before dessert and admired our
surroundings. The Sun Inn is full of character, with roaring fires, big leather
chairs and classic country décor. If you walk past its prime spot on Market
Street in Kirkby Lonsdale, you can peek through the windows and see how warm
and inviting it is (so inviting, in fact, that it’s always pretty busy!) I’d
definitely recommend booking a table in advance, especially if it’s a weekend,
as it’s very popular with locals and visitors.
Dessert was a tricky one for Tom due to his egg allergy. The
menu states that the restaurant has allergy information for each course and our
waiter quickly identified that Tom would struggle to eat any of them, but that
he would inform the chef to see what he could rustle up. Tom was then presented
with a light and tasty fruit salad, with orange slices, melon, pineapple, figs,
sorbet and fresh mint leaves. It went down well, Tom said it was just what he
fancied after a filling meal.
As the evening centred on fantastic food combinations, I was
pleased to see my personal favourite on the menu. Two words… Salted. Caramel. (I’m
salivating just thinking about it). The dessert was a salted caramel tart, with
praline cream and a macaroon. Salted caramel was a huge food trend in 2014 and
it still ticks all the boxes for me. My dessert certainly didn’t disappoint, I
loved how the saltiness harmonised the sweet caramel. The tart’s pastry, the
cream and the chocolate macaroon were all light as air, so even though there
were three elements to the dessert, it didn’t seem at all heavy (which was good,
as I was feeling pretty full from the starter and main course).
If you appreciate truly good food and are curious to
experiment with combinations of ingredients that you might not have tried
before, then I’d recommend booking a table at the Sun Inn without a second
thought. Our meal was, quite simply, a foodie’s dream.
The Sun Inn, 6 Market Street, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, LA6
2AU
No comments:
Post a Comment