Hitchen's Barn — Restaurant in England

Having wanted to eat here due to people saying it's a must visit , we had tried to get in a few times. Seeing a cancellation pop up we called and left a message , the restaurant called back promptly and we got a table booked in the evening.

On arrival we were asked if we wanted a drink in the reception area or wanted to go straight to our table we chose the later. On reading the menu there was a lot of repetition of ingredients. And when we were given the specials available they didn't inspire us to want them. Bread is brought to the table ( well 2 measly slices of bought in local bread ) and comes with 2 butters one the well known Lincolnshire poacher the other a black treacle butter that was far too sweet and an odd thing to have at the start of a meal. We chose the Scallops & terrine to start. The Scallops were OK, but the chorizo it came with was burnt & tasteless as was the orange puree, the shaved fennel was just ok, the whole dish lacked seasoning. The ham hock , chicken & foie gras terrine looked great on the plate but the limp bruised lettuce as garnish wasn't needed. The pear and saffron chutney was far too spicy with chilli the dominant flavour. For mains we chose the chicken & turbot dishes. The chicken was a large piece cut into 5 or 6 bits ( we are not children) the skin was dark/ burnt and the meat just cooked. It was served mixed with asparagus , leeks all piled up underneath was a fondant potato again black/ burnt but hard in the middle. The only good thing on the plate was the morel mushrooms. The sauce just ok The turbot came with a crayfish sauce but the crayfish were chewy and sauce lacked any flavour/seasoning . I was really looking forward to the turbot roasted on the bone but this came with the skin still on after removing it myself I could see it was rubbery and not edible, the fish was over cooked and mushy. It came with jersey royals but they seemed low quality almost supermarket grade and not the in season jersey royals I was expecting. The baby leeks were ok but again the whole dish lacked any seasoning. We added a side order of " hand cut chips" which were not uniformly cut and were more like the fried potatoes cooked in a chip pan in the 70s .

The service was a little over bearing / pretentious with us being asked for drinks orders by 3 or 4 different front of house staff , we were given a bottle of water in a local dairy milk bottle but whilst they think it may be quirky it put us off drinking it. Some im sure will say why didnt we say something during or after our meal my answer would be " there would be no point " as we got the impression that this is the standard of food their customers expect. The wine was great as was the local cidentro cider which they adertise as 0% when it is actually called " zero point five " good job I only had one bottle as I was driving. This is supposed to be 2 aa rosette and michelin bib gourmand and also has other local awards but if that's the case it proves my point that these awards mean nothing!

Would I recommend only if you want a dissapointing average meal at around £50 per head. It's completely put us off eating out in Leicestershire & rutland

I have photos of...

This place could be really special with more attention to detail. Just had a meal for two and while the starters were really good, our £24 steaks (rare requested) were medium to medium-well in places.

We let the waiter know but felt requesting new ones would be a bit much as they were still edible but just not what we wanted. Ordered desserts which were also nice but we felt it might have been good of the restaurant to maybe make a deduction from the final bill (a dessert or something) to reflect the fact that our steaks weren't cooked correctly and it would have cost them more money if we had requested fresh ones.

Onion rings appeared to be from a packet, ice cream with dessert looked cheap branded, there was a dead fly on the windowsill and various items scattered around for decoration still had price stickers left on them.

Restaurant itself is very cosy and good atmosphere. As stated could be very special with more...

This is a restaurant already held in high regard and I was very much looking forward to coming. I was not disappointed.

The food, service and venue exceeded expectations.

Situated in the pleasant town of Oakham there is plenty of parking nearby.

We went for lunch and had their set menu two courses which was very much worth the cost.

Started with potted belly prok with crackling after the bread with marmite butter - the latter was exceptionally good.

Superb start and the main was even better ... Lamb with a rich gravy, bedded on ratatouille, with a potato gratin. The gratin was simply out of the this world. Infused with rosemary very richly.

I had a zero beer which wad on tap.

There were some excellent wine options also.

This is a restaurant that is recognised with a bib gourmand I believe from Michelin which is highly deserved.

I would highly recommend this very pleasant restaurant with superb food.

Thank...