Bluebells Restaurant & Garden Bar

The old white-painted building presents a reassuringly traditional and neat face to the world, but once through the door all is revealed: this is a chic, contemporary restaurant with a good deal of ambition. Voile screens split the open-plan space into bar, main restaurant and conservatory areas, while olive-coloured walls (and ceilings) combine with exposed brick, darkwood floors and white-leather seats to give the place a modish lustre. British produce stars in dishes such as a first-course Barkham Blue cheese parfait with a warm celeriac velouté and crisp pink peppercorn biscuit, and main-course roasted roulade of partridge partnered with pickled red cabbage, bubble-and-squeak and sautéed girolles. The creative ideas and confident execution continue to the end, as witnessed in a dessert of baby doughnut with warm apple compôte and rippled pistachio and chocolate ice cream.