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Brockenhurst
Simply Poussin

On arrival at Le Poussin at Whitley Ridge your anticipation rises as you drive up the
wooded single-track drive into a clearing in the middle of the forest. The house is Georgian
in style and provides the perfect setting for a smart restaurant.

Having been greeted at the door by a charming waiter with a soft approachable smile,
we were shown to the terrace for pre-dinner drinks and canapés. With so many
restaurants cutting corners these days, how nice to have such delightful nibbles. Choosing
was difficult. There is a set lunch menu which is great value at £15, with three or more
choices. However the à la carte menu at only £45 looked extremely good value for such
a highly-rated restaurant. We also planned to return on a special occasion for the eight
to ten course tasting menu at £58.50. The lunch menu even had dishes from the à la carte
so the decision was easily made. We stayed on the lunch menu for our visit leaving the
other menus for future special events.

When seated we were presented with a basket of different breads – real breads
obviously home-made, not just ‘baked on the premises’, and then, another little extra, an
amuse bouche – a warm intense-flavoured pea and truffle cream.

Our first course was a classic and by reputation one of chef patron Alex Aitken’s renowned
dishes, twice-baked cheese soufflé. It defied science by being both incredibly light yet rich
and full of flavour. Alongside this, we enjoyed a salad of crisp breaded and fried quail –
a ‘luxury Kentucky Fried Chicken’ served with little scotch quail eggs.

Main courses followed. A fat fillet of cod wrapped in pancetta was roasted, and served
on crushed peas (the peas had a hidden delicious extra flavour – the waiter revealed it
was Champagne vinegar flavoured with truffle), the mashed potatoes were fantastically
creamy. Alongside the fish we tried the rare haunch of New Forest venison with its
haggis. This was a chunk of venison haunch, crisp and well seasoned on the outside, very
rare and sweet on the inside. The haggis was like a faggot made from minced venison
pork and pearl barley and contrasted beautifully with the rare venison, having been
slowly cooked and sticky in texture.

Desserts are another house speciality – a hot soufflé of passion fruit has to be the lightest
I have ever tasted. The waiter punctured the soufflé at the table and added the most
intense passion fruit sauce. Then the soufflé rose again – amazing. We also tried the
cheeses. This was a revelation. Not only did we get a delicious selection of five different
cheeses, but, as a decadent extra, we tried five different small tastes of wine to
complement each one.

We retired to the lounge to take coffee with yet more goodies from the kitchen, this time,
in the form of petit four, which included bitter dark chocolate truffles. Then we were given
a glass Pedro Ximenez – if any one had told me sherry and chocolate works I would not
believe them, but it does. There were also amazing white chocolate truffles with a crisp
outer shell and a filling that melted and disappeared on the tongue. Fantastic.

For more informal dining visit Simply Poussin, also in Brockenhurst.

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