The best restaurants serving British food in Chadacre Babergh East of England

Having been told by a number of people that this family-run pub and restaurant is well worth a visit, we booked for Sunday lunch. We checked sample menus online, saw a variety of dishes at reasonable prices, and also checked that there is something for vegetarians. We booked in advance (and also mentioned that one of our party was vegetarian). The overall result was a mixture of some excellent cooking, tempered with aspects that could be improved. The menu on this Sunday offered a choice of three each of starters, mains and desserts. Though it says on Facebook that the menu is "on the board" it was actually written only on the back of a piece of paper which the lady serving us read out, though I was able to glance across and see what was on offer, together with the prices. Often in small restaurants such as this with a changing menu this comes to the table on a small blackboard - that would certainly help customers (and the servers). For starters there was a choice of scallops, muntjac carpaccio or prosciutto and pear. Two of us had the prosciutto (£6.50), but as our vegetarian didn't find anything vegetarian, they opted for a bowl of olives and bread that was instead offered (£4.50). The prosciutto also came with a nice moist mozzarella - in Italy you would have been served some bread with it too (how can you otherwise mop up your plate?) but we weren't offered any so we borrowed it from our olive eater. For mains there was a choice of sea bass with ratatouille, sirloin steak or venison. Two of us chose the venison, especially as this comes from a well-regarded local butcher. For our vegetarian, our server did ask the chef, but apparently the only option was the ratatouille that would have accompanied the sea bass. It was too minimal as a main course - and, being a different 'take' on a traditional Provençal ratatouille, was more a stack of the constituent parts, but it looked pretty (£7.50). The venison, however, was beautifully cooked, accompanied by a really tasty, rich jus and fine green beans. Personally for £25.50 I'd have hoped for three slices of loin, rather than the two, but those two were delicious and their cooking couldn't be faulted. The quantity of roast potatoes too (six potatoes between three people) was a bit meagre, but they were well done - crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. Dessert was down to a choice of two as the crumble had sold out (it looked very good at a neighbouring table). There was fried banana and ice cream (£4.50), or tofu and chickpea chocolate cake (£7.50). This latter sounded intriguing: it was made with an intense, dark cocao, and the binding ingredients gave it a firm, ever so slightly gritty texture, but it really needed something else to tone and contrast it: a dollop of vanilla ice cream or crème fraîche, or just a splash of single cream would have made all the difference - on its own it was a little hard going. The other dessert was less remarkable: two halves of a banana gently caramelised with some vanilla ice cream. The wines were on the expensive side. On the board the 2021 Pinot Noir (it's a very local one, quite interesting, but looking and tasting a little young) was advertised at £8.50 per glass: when the bill came, it was charged at £9.50 per glass. We didn't want to cause a fuss, so paid the extra £2. However, only when getting home did we find that we'd been charged for six glasses of the (rather good) sparkling rosé (£7.50 per glass), when actually we only had four. I have no doubt at all that this was an honest mistake - someone keyed it in twice - and we should have spotted it at the time. So, whilst the main meat dish was really well cooked, other elements didn't altogether meet expectations.