The little additions didn’t stop there. Just as the first glass of wine was poured, along came a beautiful plate of little tasters of crispy pastry topped with reduced peapod with mint and a tiny portion of goats cheese with pickled tomato and freshly picked oregano leaves. Delicious flavour combinations.

Bread rolls, still warm from the oven and ready to apart, came next. We had THREE different types of butter to try: standard, truffle and garlic and herb. Garlic and herb was my favourite and I slathered it on with some sea salt, just for a bit more indulgence. I would like to say I was reserved here to save myself for the upcoming courses, but bread and good butter is just too hard to resist.

Here the actual five course taster menu began. What was described as ‘A Burnt Forest Floor” was absolutely stunning. A perfectly rectangle piece of toast was hidden by an assortment of mushrooms, mushroom mousse, truffle, leaves and a branch made of cheesy pastry to replicated a forest scene. Not usually a mushroom fan, dishes like this could start to win me over and I really liked the earthy flavours of the dish.

Monkfish Cheek “Scallops”, apparently created for the chef’s friend who is allergic to shellfish, were matched perfectly with the crab sauce and curry dressing. The texture of the “scallop” made it the perfect sponge to soak up as much of the sauce as possible.

The main dish consisted of Gammoned Pork Collar with bacon milk, prunes and crispy fried sage. The bacon milk was epic; like eating a bacon flavoured soft cheese. Admittedly I did use my finger to mop up the last bits of the sauce at the end. I got a little insight on how it was made: bacon cooked until super crispy, milk added to deglaze the pan, reduce down, sieve (in a snazzy way I can’t remember) and leave to set.

Another beautiful dish was the set lemon custard with lavendar, set on the most wonderfully flaky shortbread style biscuit. This was one of my favourite dishes of the evening.

By the final dessert I was starting to struggle. One cocktail, half a bottle of wine and many, many dishes were filling me up! I had to find a little space though for the final dish of chocolate sponge, coffee and tonka bean ice cream. I had to give the majority of the white chocolate ice-cream style cake to my dinner date though as it was too sweet for my tastebuds. I’m more of a bitter dark chocolate fan. My dinner date could have eaten this all day long though! I loved loved loved the chocolate mint leaves though. I need to find myself a plant for the herb garden.

Hang on, there was one more little treat to come. Firstly, a little nibble of strawberry and balsamic was a delicious flavour combination. Next, a fascinating creation of honeycomb topped with a refreshing cucumber jelly that dissolved so quickly in the mouth and balanced out the sweetness of the honeycomb. Amazing!