Review: The Elder, Bath

This restaurant serves up an elegant contemporary take on classic British flavours, and specialises in game cookery

The Elder is located on a beautiful Georgian street in Bath, with a sage wood panelled interior, leather chairs and walls lined with photos of different animals (including the game the restaurant is renowned for). As it’s décor suggests, it works with traditional British flavours. However, under the guidance of Executive Chef Gavin Edney, The Elder provided a contemporary, refined and refreshing take on British cuisine.

We began with some delicious homemade bread, served with a warming shot of beef broth, which we followed up with a tartare of south coast bream, smoked eel and apple, with squid ink crackers, cod roe, dashi and lemon. It was a smorgasbord of tastes and textures, and we loved how local ingredients were use in such an interesting manner.

As the Elder is owned by Mike Robinson, who runs Deer Box (a wild venison delivery service), we knew we had to tuck into some venison! We had the nose to tail wild fallow deer with creamed celeriac, salsify, blackberries and dirty mash. It was pleasingly delicate, beautifully cooked and packed with autumnal flavours. ‘Dirty mash’ is a restaurant speciality; creamy mash topped with homemade deer gravy and some shredded shoulder meat - by gosh, it was delicious!

The desserts we tried were both standouts. We had raspberry soufflé and a blackberry tart with vanilla cream, salted almonds and blackberry sorbet. The raspberry soufflé was as light as a cloud, while the tart (another speciality) was encased in thin, crispy almond tuile, and gorgeously balanced. We were still talking about them for weeks after the meal!

This is British cooking at it’s best - a visit is strongly recommended!

theelder.co.uk