The Leaping Hare

Nothing is quite as reassuringly rural as eating in a raftered barn, especially a 400-year-old one. Throw in some landscape pictures, crisply clothed tables and staff who radiate enthusiasm from every pore, and we're sold. Of course, the plentiful local produce that teems forth from the kitchen has something to do with it too, and here is where chef Charlotte Oliver really shines. His dishes are a mix of traditional European cooking and modern ideas, but with Wyken running through them like a stick of rock. The estate's venison might feature in a rissole to start, teamed with celeriac rémoulade and jam from Wyken damsons, while wine from the surrounding vineyards (an aromatic Bacchus enriched with garlic and cream) is used as the cooking medium for Brancaster mussels. More of that wine makes a silky velouté to sauce smoked cod, which appears with pickled oyster mushrooms and dill – or there could be a classic assemblage of pork belly and tenderloin with pommes Anna, sprouting broccoli, black pudding and Wyken apple in jus noisette. Sweet favourites furnish a dessert selection that includes trifle, panna cotta and pavlova, as well as dark chocolate mousse with poached pear, olive oil and sea salt. The estate's wines feature strongly on the list, and there is also a hoppy, malty house ale called Good Dog.