If you can remember, last month we visited The Herb Garden for their Secret Dinner. Having not tried the standard menu, we vowed to venture back… and we did.
You can read about our Mexican themed visit here
Arriving at 5pm, we were promptly escorted to the best seat in the house. A round booth with great views of the dining room, the pretty lanterns and of course, the herb garden itself!
We started with the Italian Anti Pasti (£13 for 2) which was piled high with wafer thin charcuterie, creamy mozzerella, plump briny olives and sun dried tomatoes.The ‘rustic bread’ was very interesting, the dough had a sweet taste with purple jewelled dashes throughout thanks to the inclusion of beetroot!
Mr Tramp wasn’t quite brave enough for the monsterous 36oz beef rib and settled on the Minted Lamb Pittas (£11.95). The platter arrived as a feast for the eyes. Crisp herbed potatoes were served along side a chickpea and feta salad which had such a clean, refreshing flavour.
The lamb itself was served medium rare and perfectly minted in pitta breads with rocket. The balance of mint and seasoning complimented the lambs natural flavour. A cucmber raita added a sharp tang to the meat to help everything along.
I opted for a meaty Calzone with prosciutto, rocket, olives, parmesan and garlic (£13). I had tried to order a side salad to go with this but thankfully our waitress was on the ball and warned me that the calzones come with a large dressed salad. She wasn’t lying about the size!
The pizza dough was light and crisp and held the tasty filling in place well. The salty prosciutto and olives were offset by the creaminess of the dress salad and the gooeyness of the melted cheese was balanced with the crispy dough. The rocket did get a bit stringy during cooking but as I was using a knife and fork it was fine…. speaking of knives, my knife was just not up to the job of attacking the calzone dough! I could have done with a steak knife!
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and the food was outstanding. We dined with 2 other people and their vegetarian choices also looked delicious.
Service started off very attentively but as more customers were piling in, the quality slipped slightly but it wasn’t anything major. Just a sign the restaurant is in high demand!
A brisk walk back to the car park at the Sage helped all this glorious food go down.