The Lambert Arms - Aston Rowant, near Thame

The arrival of a press release concerning the new sausage and cider nights on Thursdays at the Lambert Arms served to remind me that it was some time since Rosemarie and I had paid a review visit to this hotel, in a Victorian building fashioned from a former coaching inn on the outskirts of Aston Rowant, very close to where the Oxford Tube calls at Lewknor en route to London. In the days before the motorway was built, it had, of course, been beside the m ain road.

Our files show that it was as long ago as February 2007 that we last dined there ‘on business’. This was on Valentine’s Night, I see. Presumably we still did romance in those days, I thought, until I read further into the article where I wrote: “Rosemarie and I fixed our visit for St Valentine’s Night, expressly eliminating any prospect of celebrating it by inviting along her mother.” Romantic, me? No.

The Lambert Arms, one of a huge number of properties run by the Bespoke Hotel Company, is named for a baronet (title dating from 1711) whose descendants now live in Canada. I was conscientious, as well as unromantic in 2007 and could tell readers, after some research, that the family motto was Sequitando si giunge (“By following he comes up”). Me neither.

For a long time I was aware of its existence, prominent building as it is, but knew that it was unvisitable. Then owners Trust House Forte used it as a training centre. The present manager, Craig Webb, told me he once found upstairs one of the templates used in classes: a plate with marker-pen-drawn contours indicating precisely how the constituents of a meal — meat, vegetables and potatoes — were to be placed. This confirms, I think, what we’d always suspected about THF.

As with my last restaurant review, at The White Hart in Minster Lovell, I had intended to travel by bus, thus permitting a glug or two of booze. Stagecoach scuppered things last time by axing all the stops in the village for its S2 service. From Lewknor’s Tube stop it’s a five-minute walk to the hotel, but alas there’s no footpath and some pretty uneven terrain to be traversed. Not advisable to walk at night, I was told, when I rang the hotel to inquire. Don’t the good folk of Aston Rowant think something should be done about this?

So out came the motor, leading me to eye enviously later as Rosemarie sipped her Hendrick’s and tonic in front of the hotel’s flickering log fire, while I endured a gin-free version of the same.

Menus were being studied by this time, with appreciative comments about the range of grub offered by the chef Chris Coates. The same approval was not, I should say at once, extended to the look of the dining room into which we were shown.

“Characterful, it ain’t,” said Rosemarie, eyeing a tired decor not improved by the bright lighting in which it was bathed. The night-light candle illumination on each table was hardly necessary in the cicumstances.

It was better on the whole, we thought, to concentrate on what was being placed in front of us. Attractive presentation, as well as appealing tastes, is a feature of the chef’s approach. In position for two-and-a-half years, Welsh-born Chris offers a wide-ranging menu. There are starters like smoked ham and parsley risotto and confit duck terrine, and mains that include pork cutlet with mustard mash, fillet of gilthead bream and three vegetarian options: roasted butternut squash with thyme gnocchi, wild mushrooms with creamed pearl barley and mille feuille of provencale vegetables. Puds include banoffee cheesecake and slow-cooked pineappple with coconut syrup.

To start I enjoyed a plate of crab and crayfish with lime mayonnaise, cucumber and pickled ginger. This light and elegant dish was an ideal approach to the robust flavours of my main. Pictured above, this featured slices of lamb rump — Welsh, I assume — with sweet potato purée, wilted greens, white beans and a rosemary jus.

To finish off, I had four cheeses — Colliers Welsh cheddar, Cornish brie, Golden Cross Log (goat’s) and Reblochon, the night’s special — all of them much enjoyed. The menu sensibly advises ordering of cheeses, if required, at the start of the meal (which I did) so that they have time to breathe.

Rosemarie began her meal with a big bowl of freshly made tomato soup, simple but delicious, and with good crusty bread. After that she decided (since this was a Thursday) to dip into the special sausages. She could have had wild boar and apple or beef and red wine, but stayed with the more traditional pork and leek, with creamy mash (rather than horseradish or sage flavoured spuds) with onion gravy. Plum and almond tart with honeycomb ice cream rounded things off nicely.

From a well-assembled, if modestly proportioned, wine list, we chose the drinkable South African chenin blanc.

The Lambert Arms 
Aston Rowant, near Thame, OX49 5SB
01844 351496
bespokehotels.com/lambertarms

Opening times: Sun-Thurs noon-3pm and 6.30-9.30pm; Fri-Sat noon-3pm and 6.30-10pm.
Parking: Large car park
Key personnel: General    manager Craig Webb, chef Chris Coates, pictured here
Make sure you try the... Crab and crayfish (£7.50), rump of lamb (£17.95), four cheeses (£8.50), plum and almond tart ((£6)
In ten words: Happy team, delicious food, only the decor a  tad tired