Visit: 29 April 2023, lunch for four people
Price: *
Website: https://www.theboatinnlichfield.com/
The Review
I have eaten at the Boat Inn, Lichfield, many times, and the food and service are excellent. You can see my other reviews here:
The three course choice menu costs £45 per head, with side dishes at £4 each and an optional cheese course at £15. There is also a four-course tasting menu at £65 and an optional wine pairing at £50 or £80 per head. These prices have reduced since my last visit and are very reasonable for the quality of produce and service provided. You can also splash out and order Sturia Oscietra caviar or Porthilly rock oysters if you want to.
We chose the three course choice menu. The snack was Black Bomber cheese custard with a pickled walnut gel, pickled celery, and grated walnut, served on a celery salt cracker. The bread was beer-soaked spelt loaf, served with a chicken butter, a cultured butter, and a root vegetable pickle.
There were three choices of starter. The barbecued and braised pig cheek, pork croquette, with carrot, and miso puree, was excellent. One of the highlights of previous visits was a snack of pig’s head meat in breadcrumbs, and this starter was a more generous extension of this snack, and it was fabulous! Another starter was a wild garlic velouté, with Jersey Royal potatoes and garden herbs. Also, there was cured Scottish salmon with cucumber and dill if you preferred.
There were four main courses to choose from. There was a smoked bacon loin served with barbecued hispi cabbage and a fried hen egg; Cornish cod with lovage, purple sprouting broccoli and confit leek; Staffordshire lamb, slow cooked belly and cima di rapa (a brassica with a sweet and slightly bitter taste); and salt-aged rib of Hereford beef (Cote de boeuf), with Jersey Royals, and tenderstem broccoli, for two people (a £12 supplement). The beef was perfectly cooked, medium rare and very juicy.
Optional side dishes included excellent beef fat chips, a very good cauliflower and Black Bomber cheese, and a Caesar salad (strangely with mixed leaves and whole anchovies), all at £4 each.
There were three dessert courses to choose from – carrot cake with a cream cheese mousse, soaked golden raisins and brown butter ice cream; The Boat Inn hen egg custard with forced Yorkshire rhubarb, ginger and parkin cake (a gingerbread cake traditionally made with oatmeal and black treacle, which originated in Yorkshire); or a malt mousse with Manjari chocolate (a single origin chocolate from Madagascar with a fresh, acidic, sharp bouquet with red fruit notes), and almond ice cream.
This was an excellent lunch. The Boat inn is definitely one of the best restaurants in the Lichfield area. The food is reasonably priced, of a high standard, and the service is friendly and attentive.
I highly recommend a visit!
The Menus:
