Restaurant Review: The Pointer, Brill HP18 9RT

Hello!

Review day today, focusing on The Pointer, a charming public house in Brill, Oxfordshire. I will attempt to get through this blogpost without attempting to offend anyone, intentionally or otherwise

So this is, admittedly, more of a maison publique review, but the pub has remarkable "restaurantey undertones". Any place that has more than 2 menus is, from now on, officially classed as "restaurantey". However the countryside village location, in addition to the wonderful all-dogs-welcome policy, balance the pub-restaurant scale back a bit.

Atmosphere: couldn't fault it. At all. The floors were a beautiful mix of flagstone, wood floorboards and carpet, suitable for almost every possible dog-related incident. Beams adorn the ceilings with signs of recent renovation, i.e. the ceiling paintwork was immaculate. The atmosphere was aided by beautiful views over the village green.

Food: okay, down to the business end of things. My dining partner and I shared two starters of Chicken liver parfait with brioche and home-made pickles and a bowl of whitebait...which were possibly some of the best whitebait I've ever had. My partner had the Fish and chips and I had the Long-Horn Beef Burger.

Whitebait

There is something comforting about eating a small animal with its eyes looking up at you and the contents of its stomach...and for it to still taste amazing. The breadcrumbs remained crispy after 15 minutes and a dosing of lemon juice: Always a good sign as far as I'm concerned.

Parfait

Nice and smooth. As it should be. There was a sweet taste of onion and, matched with the general taste of Chicken livers, really added a new realm of richness that even foie gras fails to deliver. Maybe that's because it's livers, butter and cream.

Fish and chips

A very large slab of haddock arrived, crispy batter and a sea of hand-cut chips and peas. The fish was, I am told, moist and the batter held its crunch in a similar manner to the Whitebait, which was "very well indeed."

Burger

As many of you know, I am a great purveyor of the BYRON burger. I have always said in the last 3 years I have been going to BYRON restaurants that there is no finer burger in the UK. Even the wagyu burger found in posh restaurants for people with more money than braincells (it was my first and only Wagyu experience btw. Fool me once... The Long-Horn beef burger at the pointer has usurped the good name of BYRON entirely. The balance of fat-meat was perfect and the meat was still pink in the middle, the juices dripping over the salad. Oh my, that was a bit Fifty Shades of Beige... Now we've cooled down a bit, back to the burger. Genuinely the most flavourSOME (not flavourful you daft Americanised morons. Yes Americanised, not Americanized you daft...anyway) beef I've had in a burger, which can often just not taste of anything.

Service: Friendly staff and very accommodating/attentive which you often don't get in pubs, of any quality. 

Price: Not bad for a nice gastro-pub. Mains came in around £13-14 which isn't bad if you compare it to lesser food from a lesser pub. All in all, 2 starters 2 mains and 2 juices came to £45. So £22.50 a head for a special occasion pub trip.

Overall, I would highly recommend a short drive out of Oxford to this picturesque village. The drive out is also highly pleasant, especially if you drive through Barton instead of the usual A40, Thame junction etc. Additional things to do would include a sporting day down at the Oxford Gun Company, 

For those of you liberal gender-equality fans out there, all the waiting staff were female. This is a bit unfair, in my opinion...Sorry, I tried to be nice; I guess I just can't.

Give it a go if you have a car, grab a cab if you don't. In fact it's probably better, because then you can drink alcoholic beverages. Choose from a wide selection of English Ales on draught. 

http://www.thepointerbrill.co.uk/ to book

BenY