Not one to decline a good cooked meal, MICHELLE TOMPKINS journeys to The Eagle, where she enjoys stellar food like no other

The Eagle Tavern
Little Coxwell, nr Faringdon
SN7 7LW
Tel: 01367 241879

I GET to eat out a lot in this job – too much, according to my bathroom scales. Recently, I worked out I cooked only one meal in my own kitchen at home in the space of a week, relying instead on other people in other kitchens to cook my other dinners for me.

It would be churlish to suggest this is a problem. It really isn’t. I love it. Especially when I get to combine two of my favourite things – good food and good people – into one good night out.

But just occasionally, when I’m heading out for the fourth good night in a row, I wonder whether I really want another plateful of rich restaurant food. Just sometimes, a jacket potato with baked beans at home sounds so much more appealing than all the butternut squash risotto or roasted guinea fowl in the world.

Last Wednesday was a case in point. It was the tail end of that week of face-stuffing and my waistband was feeling the strain. The aftermath of Storm Jonas was still blowing around outside and, if I hadn’t been meeting up with two of my closest and loveliest friends, who had driven miles to be there, I might have decided to call off my visit to The Eagle Tavern and give my stomach a rest.

And what a mistake that would have been. Because the food I had at the Eagle was some of the best I’ve had in a long time – exquisitely cooked, inventively presented and served in a cosy, clean and convivial setting. My stomach and I agreed that we wouldn’t have missed our visit there for the world.

Very much off the beaten track (that track being the well-worn A420 Swindon to Oxford road), the Eagle was built in 1901 to serve the farming community but, judging by our fellow diners, now serves the better-heeled residents of the tiny Oxfordshire village.

The building itself is an imposing red brick place, but the decor inside is fresh and light in a Country Casuals kind of way, the roaring log fire making the welcome even warmer.

The menu was fairly limited, even more so when were told there was no rump steak, no burger and no mussels that evening. Starters were hence whittled down to three – soup (£5), potted rabbit (£7) or blue cheese brulee (£7) – all of which sounded pretty filling, so we opted for a few ‘nibbles’ of whitebait (£4) and bread and olives (£3.50) to whet our appetites.

Main courses were also restricted to just six, but any niggles we had over our constrained options soon disappeared when we saw what was put in front of us. Who needs masses of choice when the food simply blows your socks off?

My two friends had both gone for the day boat fish of the day, a Norwegian cod (£16.50), with mashed potato, samphire, almond bechamel and dill oil. The thick square of fish, with its crispy skin, was perched on top of a beautiful quenelle of mashed potato, swimming (pardon the pun) in a creamy sauce and draped in salty samphire. As women who know their food, both were stunned by the quality and marvelled at how well it had been cooked (“not easy with a thick piece of cod,” they agreed).

My choice was lamb from nearby Hinton Marsh Farm at Bourton, cooked two ways (£17.50) – a piece of shoulder served medium rare and sliced into medallions, and a small square of slow-cooked leg which fell apart at the touch. Mine also came with mashed potato, but this time the plate was strewn with triangles of roasted root vegetable – parsnip, carrot and squash. An earthy mushroom sauce gave me something to moisten the whole dish. It was superb.

We toyed with desserts (creme brulee or grandma’s honey cake were favourites, each at £7) but eventually settled on a cheese plate (£8) to share over coffee. Little touches like homemade chutney and perfect circles of Granny Smith apple lifted a typical platter into something special.

The Eagle is not the cheapest place to eat – we skipped starters and desserts, and shared one bottle of pinot between us, and the bill still came to just short of £100 – but if I’ve learned one thing in this job, it’s that you get what you pay for.

That, and that other people’s food always tastes so much better than my own. I love my job.

To ensure the integrity of our reviews, all our critics dine as paying customers without the restaurant’s knowledge (unless otherwise stated). Photographs are taken at a later date