A cosy pub on West Street, Marlow, The Coach is in some ways an unassuming Michelin-starred eatery, with red leather booths and an intimate bar space packed full of friendly patrons.
I began my lunch seated in a wide bar space across from an open-plan kitchen of busy chefs, among them Sarah Hayward, recent recipient of the Michelin 'Young Chef Award 2023'.
The Coach's menu seems aimed at reinventing, or resizing, standard pub fare for elevated fine dining. From my seat at the bar, I glimpse miniature battered cod, arranged artfully beside a handful of chips and teeny, towering slider burgers.
My meal is the set lunch, priced at £22.50 for three courses and £15 for two. While the portions are not huge, taste and, to a slightly lesser extent, presentation are clearly foregrounded.
Of the three courses I try, the starter of mushroom soup with truffle and hazelnut pesto is the most satisfying in terms of flavour. It's the kind of dish designed to be savoured and has a gorgeous mix of rich umami tang and nutty texture.
The main, house fishcake with poached egg, is visually impressive and makes for another flavourful few mouthfuls, largely thanks to the tart mustard-mayonnaise sauce.
My only qualm was that it felt more like a secondary starter than a main course - perhaps something to be remedied by ordering a side dish of chips or vegetables alongside the set courses, which Sarah tells me customers regularly choose to do.
Dessert is another fascinatingly layered dish - a blood orange posset with cardamom meringue and salted oats. The posset is a curious mix of sweet and citric and the meringue, scattered with cacao nibs, and the surprisingly delicious oats make for a light but exotic mouthful.
The patrons I was seated next to at the bar said they kept coming back to The Coach for its friendly staff, TV sports - during my visit, women's cricket - and the gourmet food with a modest price tag.
It is modest in the scheme of Tom Kerridge Michelin-starred restaurants and while it's not as hearty as some prefer their pub meals to be, it's a taste of expertly crafted cuisine in a warm, jovial atmosphere.
For many, The Coach seems to be a weekly haunt and it's not at all difficult to see why.
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