CHRISTOPHER GRAY enjoys a blissful lunch at the Unicorn in the lovely village of Deddington

We were seated on a sunny Friday lunchtime in the bay window of a lovely village pub, basking in the warmth of an open fire just beside us and preparing to tuck into plates of wonderful food on the table before us.

Beyond that window was the famous streetscape of Deddington, dominated by the 13th-century church of St Peter and St Paul, built in mellow Hornton stone and topped by eight glittering gold weather vanes.

Next to our plates were well filled glasses of a delicious Chilean sauvignon blanc (Paso del Sol), topped up when necessary (which was often) by attentive, personable staff. Heaven must be like this.

Such delights been available to all at the Unicorn Inn for over two years now, since this 17th-century pub came into the hands of business partners Chris Brewster and Johnny Parke.

The former heads the team front of house, together with manager Paul Quintella, while Johnny excels in the kitchen.

He is the son of Jeremy Parke, a well-known figure in the business as long-time owner of the Studley Priory in Horton-cum-Studley, which precisely 50 years ago posed as Sir Thomas More’s Thamesside house in the film A Man for All Seasons.

The Priory was a favourite nosebag of mine in the 1970s when I lived in neighbouring Stanton St John. The property was sold in 2004 and is now a private house.

Our lunchtime jaunt to Deddington, as originally planned, involved the use of Stagecoach’s S4 service from Oxford, which stops bang in front of the Unicorn.

But the recruitment to our party of pal David Gaunt-Newell brought us not only a jovial companion – or rather companions, since his poodle Ella came too – but also the offer of a lift.

Ella’s presence meant we were seated on arrival in the ‘pubbier’ front bar rather than the restaurant at the rear. As already indicated, however, this was entirely to our taste.

Where the option is available, my preference is usually for the bar. Here Chris and Johnny strike the ideal balance between the gastropub and the traditional boozer.

Real ale fans will approve the range of hand-pumped beers on offer. These are Eagle IPA from the pub’s Bedford-based brewery owner Charles Wells, Courage Best Bitter and the golden ale Straw Beer, from Elgood’s of Wisbech whose excellent products were a significant feature of my misspent youth.

Today it was wine for us, with the sauvignon blanc as aperitif seguing nicely into its consumption with our first course. I laer sampled the excellent rioja (Coto Vintage, 2011).

As is customary, I shall first mention some of the things we didn’t have before detailing those we did, some from the main lunch menu and others from the fixed price alternative (£12 for two courses, £15 for three).

The first offered such starters as scallops with suckling pig belly and cauliflower puree, and pressed chicken and duck liver terrine; main courses including butternut squash, goat’s cheese and oregano cannelloni, and rump of Cotswold lamb; desserts of white chocolate parfait and sticky toffee sundae.

Butternut squash soup, longhorn short rib with mustard mash, and bread and butter pudding figured in the fixed price.

My starter was a bowl of juicy Cornish mussels steamed in cider with smoked bacon. The shells were all open and the molluscs beautifully fresh. There was excellent home-baked bread to mop up the creamy broth.

My companions’ openers illustrated chef Johnny’s imaginative approach to the fixed price menu. Rosemarie was delighted with the lively flavours of her brown shrimp and herb risotto, the rice nicely sticky but still with ‘bite’.

For David there was a latticework of lardo, a white Italian salami of cured fatback with herbs. Its richness was offset by a topping of sundried yellow tomatoes. It came with grilled sour dough.

He stayed with the fixed price menu for a main course of a pearly white portion of hake, on a base of braised peas and leeks.

I had a sensational dish of gloriously tender roast saddle of fallow deer in port jus, with celeriac, Swiss chard and rosti potatoes. Toulouse sausages were Rosemarie’s choice, with chive mustard mash, tender stem and onion gravy.

Rhubarb and apple crumble with crème anglaise completed this excellent lunch for her, while David and I shared the artisan cheese board (Godminster cheddar, Langres, Colston Bassett stilton and smoky Applewood) with quince paste and biscuits.

* The Unicorn Inn, Market Place, Deddington, OX15 0SE. 01869 338838/unicorndeddington.co.uk

Open for food: Monday to Thursday noon to 2pm, 6.30pm to 9pm; Friday and Saturday noon to 2.30pm, 6pm to 9.30pm; Sunday noon to 4pm.

The people: owners Johnny Park and Chris Brewster; manager Paul Quintella.

Do try the . . . cider steamed mussels (£8), chicken and duck liver terrine (£8), roast saddle of fallow deer (£19), Toulouse pork sausages (£12), rhubarb and apple crumble (£6), cheese board (£8)