I shall start, for a change, with a side dish — a significant change because I don’t think I have ever done this before. But the vegetable dishes and salads at The Trout at Tadpole Bridge are so much better than one customarily finds — Kenyan green beans and carrot batons, anyone? — that they deserve pride of place in this article.

The specific ‘side’ I wish to name-check is the one ordered by Rosemarie. Her eyes lit up when she noticed petit pois à la française on the menu. That these were going to be a cut above the ordinary was a matter understood, given that the head chef is called Pascal Clavaud. He is steeped in classic French cuisine, having worked from his earliest teens in his godfather’s restaurant at Limoges and later at other hotels and restaurants in France and Belgium. We are lucky enough to have had him on this side of the English Channel since the late 1980s, for 20 years in the kitchen at The Lamb in Burford (I recall his wonderful range of Sunday lunchtime puddings) and for the past five years at The Trout.

His way with pois turned out to augment the traditional herby and buttery treatment of the vegetable — teamed with strips of a robust variety of lettuce (here seeming more like cabbage) — to include additionally lots of little pieces of ham. The finished article, which could almost have made a light supper dish in itself, was especially delicious owing to the sweetness of the freshly picked peas. These are truly one of England and I write as one who, as a boy, scoffed handfuls raw. How lucky we were that so many pods ‘fell’ from the tractor-hauled wagons passing our favourite train-spotting location en route to the canning plant.

Other sides from Pascal’s repertoire at The Trout include chantenay carrots with coriander, lyonnaise and dauphinoise potatoes (as well as new ones and chips — here not styled french fries), baby courgettes with wasabi tempura, rocket and chive salad, and tomato and red onion salad.

A pleasing feature of all these dishes, besides their being interestingly different, is that they are very appealingly priced. All cost £2.50, at least a pound less than seems the norm at other top-quality establishments. It is hardly surprising that The Good Pub Guide 2014 should have commented on the good value offered here.

As my colleague Helen Peacocke noted a few weeks ago on these pages, The Trout has, for the second year running, been named the Oxfordshire Dining Pub of the Year. Having been constant in my praise for the place since the arrival of owners Helen and Gareth Pugh seven years ago, I consider the honour wholly justified. Helen takes charge of the day-to-day running of the pub, while Gareth is largely occupied with a wider hotel business. Despite the demands on her time made by two teenage sons, she remains a hands-on hostess — if she will forgive the double double-entendre implied.

Hers was the beaming smile we first registered behind the bar on our recent dinner there. Soon we were to encounter another familiar face in head waitress Emma Stepp, a level-headed farmer’s daughter from Faringdon, who has worked there for five years. Later I was to meet a newcomer in waiter Daniel Oliver, who is doing a holiday job there at the end of his first year reading English at Lady Margaret Hall. I said I would say hello to his mother — “Hello Mrs Oliver!” — as she is a keen reader of The Oxford Times.

So what’s on the menu? In fact The Trout’s is not extensive, with so much of its offering coming in the form of blackboard specials. Among the starters are smoked eel and trout with crayfish mousse, wasabi fish eggs and lemon dressing, and pan-fried pigeon breast with celeriac remoulade and juniper berries. The mains are (besides the one Rosemarie had) Gressingham duck breast with pear and potato cake, braised little gem lettuce, beetroot and ginger, and confit rabbit wellington with chargrilled Mediterranean vegetables and wild mushroom sauce.

As for the specials, see the blackboard (left). Among much that was desirable, nothing to start quite matched the lobster salad, which I plumped for at once. The meat, from all parts of the crustacean, was lavish in quantity with a juicy sweetness nicely offset by pickled fennel and cucumber. From the main menu Rosemarie had a pair of pan-fried scallops and three razor clams with a topping of crisply cooked parma ham. The home-baked rosemary focaccia was so good we both asked for more.

Still on the specials for my main course, I went for the grilled place. This proved a chunky little number, beautifully fresh, topped with lots of buttery crayfish and served with new potatoes, whole baby carrots, sugar snap peas and ‘ribbons’ of leek (further evidence of the Trout’s care with vegetables). For pouring lemon juice on the fish there was a nifty plastic Aladdin’s lamp-shaped squeezing device, of a sort I have never previously encountered. I meant to ask Helen where I could get one, but forgot.

Rosemarie had the trio of pork from up the road at Kelmscott — pieces of tender loin and belly (with crispy skin) and a sticky chunk of cheek in a rich jus. It came with slices of sweet potato boulangere and apple jelly artistically housed in a hollowed-out baked fruit. Superb!

To finish she ate a sensational peach tarte Tatin with blackcurrant sorbet, while I had three cheeses: Cerney ash (goat’s), Hereford Hop creamy cheddar and Oxford Blue, a local favourite in the 19 years of its production. They came with a wonderful assortment of biscuits, grape chutney and fresh figs.

We drank a white rioja — a fresh Artesa 2012 from the viura grape — which went very nicely with almost all our food. We might easily have opted, on another occasion, for one of the excellent beers. The pub has a quartet of pumps, one always serving Young’s bitter and the others changing regularly but usually featuring local brews.

Though eating obviously dominates here, a section of the bar is set aside for drinkers. And, of course, there is always the beautiful garden, running down to the Thames.

The particulars:

  • The Trout at Tadpole Bridge Buckland Marsh, SN7 8RF 01367 870382 trout-inn.co.uk
  • Opening times: Mon-Sat 11.30am-11pm, noon-10.30pm Sun (closed 3-6pm). Last food orders 2pm and 9pm.

  • Parking: Spacious car park

  • Key personnel: Owners Helen & Gareth Pugh,  head chef Pascal Clavaud

  • Make sure you try the... pan-fried pigeon breast with celeriac remoulade and juniper berries (£6.25), salad of lobster (£8.75), trio of Kelmscott pork, sweet potato boulangere and apple jelly (£15.25), grilled plaice with crayfish butter (£14.95), selection of three cheeses (£7.95) and peach tarte Tatin with blackcurrant sorbet (£5.95).
  • In ten words: Riverside delight with delectable food served with a cheering charm