I first visited Nether Westcote and what was then (1990) the manifestly misnamed ‘New’ Inn in early autumn, because I remember gathering a basket of sloes — I need hardly say why — in a lane behind the pub.

At the time, the garden of this bog-standard Morrell’s boozer was not a thing of beauty, since it was being run as a caravan and camping site.

These days, the stunning view those holidaying folk enjoyed is shared by all visitors to what is now — following lavish and tasteful renovation — The Feathered Nest Inn. Owned by Tony and Amanda Timmer, who previously ran a successful restaurant in the Algarve, this lovely country inn has been open only 11 weeks but is already receiving tremendous acclaim. It’s getting a bit more from me today.

Chef Kevin Barrett offers constantly changing menus, based around the best British ingredients, some of which are being grown in the garden. I don’t know if the sloes are still there for the picking in a month or so’s time, but if they are I feel sure Kevin will find some way of using them in one of more of his good-looking dishes.

The menu we were presented with on our visit last Wednesday, while not large, offered interesting variet. Starters included warm pigeon with lovage purée, ballotine of duck with orange curd, and crisp (how so? one wondered) smoked haddock with an egg and curried potatoes. A homemade tagliatelle of summer vegetables, shoulder of Old Spot pork with black pudding and greengage purée, and an assiette of new season Cornish lamb (including sweetbreads) with lentil purée and marinated tomatoes were the three main courses we did not select.

And to finish, there were English cheeses and four puddings, including hot chocolate fondant and a poached white peach, with a peach mousse and sorbet.

Daily specials were main courses of grilled Longhorn rib-eye steak and fried mullet (actually ‘pan’-fried but what else are you going to use — a wellington boot?) with Provençal vegetables and octopus fritter, as well as two starters, one of which I ordered.

In fact, I ordered both — the cured Cornish mackerel with anchovy salad and apple purée being exactly what I wanted until I saw an example of the organic salmon gravadlax with Wasabi cream and preserved lemons en route to another table.

To be honest it was the quantity of the fish that appealed. I think it must have been a main-course version, or perhaps a bar blackboard special, though, because when mine arrived the gravadlax was in more meagre supply. It was what you might call a refined rather than robust dish, consisting of four folded fragments of fish, decorated with cornichons, capers and pretty purple shoots with a dollop of Wasabi cream (sour cream with horseradish) and small segments of preserved lemons — little flavour bombs, with an astonishing concentration of citrussy taste.

I was glad of the generous basket of three home-baked breads. These earned Rosemarie’s approval because they weren’t the flavoured breads she dislikes for ‘competing’ with what is on her plate.

What was on her plate to start was Brixham crab, with pink grapefruit jelly and mango. She enjoyed it but could not resist unfavourable comparison with the Jersey crab she often orders at Oxford’s Quod, which is a ‘meatier’, far less runny affair.

By contrast, her aged Longhorn beef plate — and especially the rich, gravy and marrowbone fondant potatoes — was judged a nonpareil. Some of the generous quantity of meat was casseroled, some grilled pink. All was excellent. My main course was a piece of Atlantic cod loin, again rather small, very lightly ‘pan’-fried, topped with a slice of crisp-cooked Cumbrian ham, and served with lovely sweet garden peas, girolles of varying sizes and wonderful waxy potatoes (a £3 extra). I loved it, and the lemony Picpoul de Pinet proved an ideal match — if not for the beef!

Still, Rosemarie had a pudding for which it was much more suitable — a ‘gateau’, so called, of white and dark chocolate ganache in the shape of a pyramid. I got the English cherries and Kirsch syrup.

This was a fine meal enjoyed in lovely surroundings. Try it.