The Hand & Flowers, Marlow

An attractive looking pub on the outskirts of town with plenty of hanging baskets and other colourful foliage, it’s run by celebrity chef Tom Kerridge and consequently food is very much the focus here and it is, I believe, the only pub in the country with two Michelin stars. The front entrance from the road takes you directly in to the restaurant with a greeter there ready to take your reservation details. The side entrance from the car park leads in to the bar area, and this was quite contemporary and looks to be housed in a modern extension to the rear of the pub. It has an open vaulted ceiling with plenty of sturdy oak beams, a wood strip floor and a mixture of exposed brickwork and fresh white plaster on the walls. A tiny courtyard was off to the side, which is presumably provided primarily for smokers from the restaurant. A freestanding wood burning stove was in one corner with a flue leading up to the roof whilst the walls had a number of diagrams on showing the different cuts of meat from various farm animals. A shelf housed a collection of accolades that the chef had won, and there was also some rugby paraphernalia including a signed shirt and ball. Other random objects stuck on the walls included a giant pair of shoes and a hand grenade. The restaurant area at the front of the pub was much cosier and presumably was at one time the main lounge bar, with a low beamed ceiling, and a mixture of wood strip and slate style tiling on the floor. As mentioned, the food offering is quite upmarket with most of the main courses being in the £35 - £40 range, so a step or two up from your normal “pub grub”. Even a bowl of (12) chips came in at £6.50. That said, you get what you pay for and we thoroughly enjoyed everything that we had. A smoked haddock and parmesan omelette for a starter was a particular highlight, being one of the best dishes I can remember having. Likewise a desert of milk toffee tart with old English spice and a grapefruit sorbet was perhaps an acquired taste, but I soon acquired it and found it too quite excellent. An amuse bouche of crispy whitebait was a nod to pub style food. Beers on tap were Rebellion Zebedee, Abbott Ale, Old Speckled Hen and their own Hand & Flowers. The pump clips were pieces of slate with the beer name chalked on to them which was perhaps supposed to suggest a frequently changing selection, but since the same choices were printed in the menu I suspect that this is not actually the case. The solitary cider was Hazy Hog, which is a new one on me. In some way, this is a tricky one to mark. As a pub it’s nothing remarkable although still perfectly pleasant, but if you’re after some food then it’s very good and highly recommended.