Our food editor Katherine MacAlister can’t get enough of the views, or the food, at The Maybush

I bet the locals never get bored of the view at The Maybush whether they’re sitting inside or out. What a setting, perched as it is on the edge of the River Thames.

But then many a pub boasts a nice vista and fails to recoup on its idyllic situation.

In fact, Oxfordshire hostelries are notoriously poor at cashing in on their location, instead letting some of our most picturesque pubs become unloved and unwanted, sole providers for tourists, the ignorant and the desperate. And yes it is a bugbear of mine.

The 18th-century Maybush has taken this challenge and sprinted up the riverbank with it, like Ratty and Mole on a jolly. But then it is a freehouse, recently relinquished by Greene King, and it shows.

Not only have father and son team Kevin and Sean McDermott, backed by Simon White, set the kitchen up to provide some really wonderful food, but they have decked the pub/restaurant out in a wonderful mix of modern and old – woodburning fires, glass ceilings, old rowing boats, bikes on walls and cow hides. There’s a big open plan kitchen, a huge decking area, endless picnic tables in the gardens and huge plate glass windows all overlooking the river.

“We never get bored of it,” our waitress Lindzey Lieser said “because the view changes all the time with the seasons.”

The pub’s riverbanks boast crowds 100-strong in the summer, all clamouring for a decent meal and a drink in the sunshine, which resulted in an outdoor bar being built.

But as winter beckons we sat firmly inside, leaving the outdoors to some intrepid dog walkers and keen cyclists.

Open for a year now under the new team, The Maybush had so far eluded me, although tantalising pictures of its exquisitely presented food on social media had drawn me in, like Trump to a spray tan booth.

From the road it doesn’t look like much, positioned as it is opposite The Rose Revived on a decommissioned toll bridge on the A415 at Newbridge. But once inside it’s like entering a Scandi wonderland, very hygge!

The kids can choose steak, or fish and chips, the chorizo and pork burger or pasta penne, the more adult menu is equally as enticing if you can draw your gaze away from the meandering river outside.

I fancied a bit of everything – the autumnal curried pumpkin soup with coriander and naan bread (£4.50) which was seasonal, spicy and rich, and the beetroot textures, toasted walnuts and creamed goats cheese starter (£6.50) which was pretty as a picture, although the cheese needed to be softer to stop the dish being too dry.

My children started off with some deliciously pungent cheesy garlic bread and then went for the 4oz rump steak which they sliced without any help as it was such a good cut of meat, and enjoyed the accompanying chips, tomato and mushrooms.

My youngest chose the children’s fish and chips, which wasn’t dumbed down, arriving with home-made mushy peas which had a lovely naturally sweet bite accentuated by the crunch of the capers and gherkins in the home-made tartare sauce, all boosting the crispy batter and the softness of the fish. A great success.

The wild mushroom gnocchi with a crispy hen’s egg and butternut squash purée (£12) was another masterpiece on the plate, although I prefer my gnocchi silky, rather than baked, which leaves them slightly sour – and the egg was undercooked so jellyish.

The hot chocolate fondant with pistachio ice cream (£6.95) and the pistachio cake with poached clementines and red berry sorbet (£6.95) rounded off our delightful Saturday lunch perfectly.

There was nothing particularly surprising on the menu, nothing to match the inventive interior. What The Maybush did instead was provide wonderfully executed, seasonal, locally-sourced comfort food, brilliantly.

And it was heavenly to step off the world for a bit and just watch it drift by as the boats swept up the river.

Personally I can’t wait to return to The Maybush in the summer, when I might even take up residence in the Shepherd’s Hut situated on the river bank.

Very Wind In The Willows.

The Maybush, Abingdon Road

Newbridge, OX29 7QD

01865 300101

www.themaybush.com

Parking: Yes on the other side of the road. The pub even has its own traffic lights because it is a busy crossing

Staff of note: Father and son team Kevin and Sean McDermott and Simon White

Opening hours:

Monday: Closed all day

Tuesday- Sat: 10am-11pm. Food is served between noon and 2.30pm and then recommences at 6.30pm until 9pm.

Sunday: 10am-7pm, Sundays last order for food will be 5pm.