Butterstruck Review: #1

The Railway, Honiton

Queen Street, Honiton, Devon. EX14 1HE.

I had no idea where we were heading; all I knew was that we were headed towards Honiton, which struck me as an unlikely sort of place to go for a romantic dinner. Not that I’ve anything against Honiton, it’s great of you like antique shops, but it’s not the sort of town where I was expecting to find an intimate restaurant, with a friendly European wine-bar vibe.

The Railway is all of these things. Housed in a historic, 19th-century building which once served as an inn for the workers building the London-Exeter line, the present owners have somehow managed to fuse elegant and easy-going to create a cosy bar-restaurant which produces high end, Italian based food at affordable prices.

As we stood pondering what to order as a pre-dinner drink, the jovial atmosphere kicked in right away as two girls seated at the bar recommended a piccolo bottle of Yellowglen Pink, the proceeds of which were being donated towards breast cancer research.

Soon we were seated at a table overlooking the open kitchen, with complimentary sourdough bread and oil. So far, this surprise dinner was proving a success. The menu is enticingly European, with (gasp!) several vegetarian options; interesting looking vegetarian options at that. It offers enough choice to keep you flipping the page over a few times and dripping oil from your bread all over it, but not so much that you flail spasmodically at in the direction of something safe and live to regret it.

In the end I couldn’t resist a starter of Formaggi Misti (£6.95), which consisted of dolcelatte, pecorino piccante, beautifully fresh fior di latte type mozzarella drizzled with balsamic, crunchy, curly green chilies, winter vegetable salad and some rather spectacular ruby-coloured chutney. Although I perhaps would have left the cheeses to their own devices, with a slice of plain rather than garlic ciabatta, after three generous helpings of cheese luxury, I certainly wasn’t complaining. (Mr H, meanwhile, had a starter of whitebait. It disappeared fast, so I assume it was also enjoyed).

I’d opted for one of the starter-as-main options on the menu: courgette, feta and mint fritters with Lebanese houmous, (£10.95) whilst Mr H had been attracted by the specials board’s promises of Jambalaya. Our food choices were already rather eclectic, when we saw a bowl of incredible looking, hand-cut, salt and pepper chips go by, so of course we had to get those as well. This is the end proved to be a wise move; were it not for the fact I’d just eaten more cheese than I’d usually eat in several days, I may have felt that my main dish was a little under-equipped. However, what was there was perfect: warm and falling-apart-fresh fritters, creamy on the inside and lightly crisp outside, the mint a light top note over the salty feta and garlicky homous.

As a vegetarian, there is nothing worse than going to a restaurant which promises to deliver freshly prepared, well thought out dishes, then being presented with something that has been batch made twelve hours before and dismally warmed through, whilst your friends rave about their fresh-from-the-grill steaks. The Railway however, was a welcome change, with chefs who had obviously paid attention to their vegetarian offerings. This is not to say the meat dishes have been in any way neglected; from the look of the monster prawns Mr H was extracting from his jambalaya, I’d say the Railway has both tracks pretty well covered.

We weren’t planning on dessert, but it sort of happened anyway. I was edging towards my favourite affogato, but Mr H had other ideas, insisting that I should try the consciously gourmet sounding Bourbon vanilla ice cream with olive oil and cornish sea salt. I, not being one to turn down a food challenge, accepted. (He of course had the highly exotic Sticky Toffee Pudding.) It has to be said that the result was completely baffling. Although I’m aware that the combination is very Italian, I would have enjoyed it more were the salt not quite so thoroughly pervasive. A few flakes, sprinkled over the top would have been enough. However, by this point I was too charmed by The Railway’s good-nature and good food to worry much; and at £56.00 for two, with three courses including drinks, I forsee The Railway becoming a much more frequent stop on the food network from now on.

4/5.