Review: The Wild Garlic, Beaminster

First visual impressions of Masterchef winner Mat Follas’s Beaminster dining room are of a tearoom that’s been subjected to a lick of paint and some design consultancy. Exposed brick, chunky wooden tables and a daily menu on the chalkboard give The Wild Garlic a studied “refined rustic” look. It’s not unpleasant, just a bit mannered. However, that’s the last so-so impression this place makes.

Follas’s love of foraging is evident right from the starter: both are delivered in hearty portions on wooden butcher’s blocks garnished with wild leaves and edible flowers. The brill ceviche is fresh and delicate with a whisper of zest, lacking only a grain or two of salt for my taste. A flash-fried and optimally cooked pigeon breast comes with a chunky compote of dark berries and beetroot. It’s delicious.

Mains are equally generous in size and flavour. A whole baked lemon sole appears on a plate of hubcap dimensions, but still looks elegant. It’s a classic recipe, with a lemon caper-butter sauce, and executed to classic standards. Better still are a pair of Barnsley chops, pink and succulent and complemented with a coarse, crunchy pesto. The head waiter suggests local beers from Bath Ales and Weymouth’s Dorset Brewing Company to pair with the food, and his advice is right on the money.

The common thread through each of the savoury dishes is the taste of every ingredient. Follas doesn’t flummox my palate by throwing the larder at every plate. Good produce and well though-out combinations do all the work. I can only imagine that the baked Dorset mackerel with a tomato and tamarind sauce and the spelt nettle risotto were infused with the same ethos. Desserts, in contrast, are competent but unspectacular. Eton mess is tidily presented in a tower nest, and tastes as it should; a well-built lime tart is a bit short on the lime, and therefore tang. But they are my only real reservation about the food. The Wild Garlic serves up cooking of the highest quality in surroundings designed not to intimidate—there’s highchairs for the kids, well-pitched service, and even a pack of Huggies waiting in the baby-change room. Good portions and fair prices ensure that Follas’s small dining room (just 30 covers or so) is often full, and rightly so. I’m planning to head back again next month.

The Wild Garlic
4 The Square, Beaminster, Dorset DT8 3AS
+44 (0) 1308 861446
Lunch £70 for two inc. drinks