The Swan, Southrop, Gloucestershire Alex James, Observer Food Monthly 27/5
The menu features pommes frites. Not so long ago I wouldn't have felt that comfortable asking for pommes frites in a boozer, but the national pub-grub paradigm has shifted and we're definitely in a better place. The dining room is all weathered York stone and stripped antique pine; the menu a bewildering mixture of French, English, Italian and Thai classics.
Juliet's fish soup was the real deal -
bona-fide brothy bouillabaisse with a salver of croutons, aïoli and Emmental on the side.
I had the Evesham asparagus to start. The village pork listed as "brochette" was good, though rather pink. Juliet was pleased with her monkfish, but got moody when asked about cheese. "Never order it if the menu says 'a selection of cheese' - they're not taking it seriously!" she said. She's probably right.
The Headley, Brentwood, Essex Jay Rayner, The Observer 3/6
A pork chop was a solid piece of meat with a good ribbon of fat. There is always a choice to be made when cooking a slab of porker such as this: do you crisp the fat and risk drying out the meat, or forgo crackling for tenderness? They did the latter, which I think was right.
It came with a chorizo stew, full of seasonal broad beans and peas and sprinkled with smoked paprika. So far, so basic, so (modern) pubby. It was at the sweet end that one began to sense the Midsummer House influence. An accomplished lemon-and-lime cheesecake came topped with a turban of lemon foam. Its lemongrass ice cream, perfectly judged, came studded with shards of candied peel.
A good espresso at the end, with what we will call home-made chocolates. Service was on the ball. My only doubt was the pricing - with most starters at about £9 and main courses leaping away into the teens, bills here can quickly mount up in a non-pub way.