Paradise regained

The last time I had lunch in The Walnut Tree Inn, I was sitting opposite a man with a tiny video camera hidden in his spectacles who was recording everything I said. Not that I am given to paranoid delusions, you understand; the filming was for one of the first episodes of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, and I had agreed to go deep undercover, in a strand that was swiftly and sensibly found to be superfluous to the format.

That was a few years ago, during a low period for the legendary Walnut Tree, when the struggling owners attempted to turn things round by opening the doors to Hurricane Gordon. It was a bad decision that compounded their woes, and last year the Walnut Tree finally buckled under the weight of its own reputation and closed; a sad fate for a restaurant that under the original owners, Franco and Ann Taruschio, was one of the most famous in Britain, a beacon of Italian food and hospitality.

Now that beacon has been re-lit, with the reopening of the Walnut Tree under the stewardship of Shaun Hill, the universally admired former chef/patron of Ludlow's Merchant House. When Hill wasn't cooking (or, famously, doing the dishes) in Ludlow, the Walnut Tree was one of his favoured lunch spots. Now, in partnership with the local hotelier William Griffiths, he owns the place.

A subtle refurbishment has taken the restaurant's facilities up a notch or two. The small, squat dining room has been warmed up with potted lemon trees and trugs of fruit, to create a pleasing still life in every corner. And here's the real change. The dining room is full of people! Real paying customers, none of whom seems to be secretly filming for Channel 4.

On a midweek lunchtime, the place was rammed (not a Welsh joke); Hill has revived the Taruschio-era promise of always trying to find room in the bar for walk-ups. His menu, though, breaks with Walnut Tree tradition; the Italian influence is confined to a couple of dishes, including papardelle with hare sauce. Otherwise, the style is modern British.

Without making any loud claims for regionality or seasonality, Hill's menu offered – in the last week of the season for many game birds – woodcock, partridge and pheasant, as well as wild duck with morels and game gravy, saddle of hare and venison. Calves' brains, sweetbreads and poached knuckle of veal were there too, and grilled halibut and beef fillet for the easily startled. It's a menu you could happily spend a month or so working your way through, if it didn't change every week.

There was nothing showy about anything we ate, but each dish was composed with an instinctive feel for how to extract the maximum flavour from each element, and prepared with skill. Parsnip and morel pudding, a light, steamed mousse that delivered a huge hit of parsnip flavour, was saved from over-sweetness by a truffle-rich morel cream sauce. And the subtlety of calves' sweetbreads was given a jolt by a huge-tasting red-wine-braised sauerkraut.

The legs and breast of a roast partridge with a pork and chestnut stuffing and gratinated parmentier potatoes was a discreet masterclass; equally admired was the saddle of hare, served rare and tender, with a slow-cooked casserole of the gamier leg meat, and a fluffy celeriac mash.

Impressive as the cooking is, it's easily matched by the super-competent front-of-house team, led by a manageress who has been with the Walnut Tree for more than 30 years. The feel of the place may be informal – no tablecloths, wine left for you to pour yourself, tap water served in a Pyrex jug – but the service moves things along with a snap not often found in the smartest metropolitan restaurants. From the amuse-bouche of crisp fried won ton stuffed with ricotta laid before us within moments of our arrival, to the delivery of coffees, as ordered, one with, one after the dessert, the operation was bang-on.

By the time we were on to puddings – including, fans of Hill's trusty repertoire will be glad to hear, his version of somloi, the Hungarian trifle made with apricot, walnuts and apricot brandy – Hill himself had emerged from the kitchen to twinkle over a glass of red behind the bar. His original intention was to oversee things at the Walnut Tree as a non-combatant, and an experienced brigade is in place to enable that to happen. But the magic of the place has apparently drawn him into the kitchens on a more or less full-time basis, and both Hill and the Tree seem to be thriving on it.

This is a restaurant that once flourished under the reign of a larger-than-life host, and with the arrival of the admirable Mr Hill, a renaissance is guaranteed. The combination of wonderful food, a happy atmosphere and an underlying sense of quiet good taste is less rare now than it was when the Taruschios set up here in 1963. But it's still rare enough, so for this happy union of two great British institutions, let's give thanks.

The Walnut Tree Inn, Llandewi Skirrid, Abergavenny (01873 852797)

Food
Ambience
Service

Around £35 a head for three courses without wine. Set lunch menu £20 for three courses

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