First look: former Restaurant Gordon Ramsay chef opens new gastropub

Steven Ellis, who worked at Gordon Ramsay’s eponymous triple Michelin-starred London restaurant as well as Andrew Pern’s award-winning Star Inn, Harome, opened the Oxford Blue, Windsor, Berkshire, on New Year’s Eve.​

Ellis, who set his sights on the pub world after working for Andrew Pern, acquired the site’s freehold in 2015 before giving it a lengthy refurbishment. 

The site was originally planned to open in May 2016 but was postponed until December. 

Sample dishes include wood pigeon and foie gras pithivier with Waldorf salad; stout-glazed short rib on the bone with confit chips, smoked bone marrow and horseradish Hollandaise; and braised turbot with cockles, sea vegetables and seaweed emulsion.

Desserts include soufflé with Earl Grey and biscuit ice cream; chocolate tart with milk ice cream and orange macaroons; and burnt Cambridge cream with set vanilla custard.

A range of 'nose-to-tail' tasting menus will also be available for private dining parties.

Writing on the Oxford Blue’s website, Andrew Pern said: “Coming from the fine-dining lifestyle of three Michelin-starred, plush restaurants to our wayward inn on the edge of the moors couldn’t be a bigger change.

“But the fact that we have a fabulous pantry of food literally on our doorstep, and we allow the seasons to write our menus, somehow helped [Ellis] feed his ambition to eventually open his own establishment and to combine the two diverse experiences.”