I recently ate at the Glass and Bottle in Binfield (it’s not an invitation to fight btw) which was very very good, and The Potkiln in Frilsham ... we have excellent gastropubs around here.
The Potkiln is a Game speciality gastro place ... slowly curing me of my aversion to Venison
I am pleased that English cuisine seems to be recovering from the ghastly horrors of the last century. I can't quite figure out what went wrong. My current theory is a combination of two factors:
1. Domestic service, which you guys employed pre-war to a far greater extent than anyone else, sullying the noble discipline with issues of status and class. In practice, this meant that the few who could import French cooks ate well but the vast majority of middle-class aspirationals had to make do with the dubious inspirations of lower-class servants, who were often treated with contempt and exacted their vengeance through culinary means.
2. Post-war convenience which, as a faddish race, you embraced whole-heartedly (powdered blancmange, powdered custard, food bought at department stores and takeouts), reducing your kitchen facilities to little beyond what was necessary to boil tea.
Traditional English cuisine has much to offer -- I am a particular devotee of boiled puddings -- but can you please call your temples something other than "gastropubs"? For those of us raised to believe in silent, invisible digestion, it is an etymological disaster.
