Ancient Shepherds By Mark Poynton — Restaurant in South Cambridgeshire

Great atmosphere, feels like just any local restaurant but the foods they serve here are special.

Pork taco, cod roe and chilli crab were all remarkable. Great selection of appetisers, can’t wait to try new ones in the future.

Sea trout was fine, although for me couldn’t feel any difference from salmon. Came with salmon roe instead of caviar which wasn’t informed properly so this should be improved. The taste was good.

Venison was better than I expected, quite juicy and tender although could have more flavour.

Duck was absolutely disappointing. Couldn’t cover the wild animal smell even with herbs. The meat was very chewy and was hard to swallow. Not sure if it meant to be like that but I do not recommend this dish.

They don’t have service charge which was bit surprising. I liked how you can choose the size of portion and create your own course. Might come back in few months time to try again.

Update

Still very average foods, lots of dishes lack of balance and flavour, could be more creative if not focus on the basics, not much improvement honestly

Snacks are always good, unexpectedly good but then starters are bit average and mains are just disappointing, missing so much seasoning for all the red meat dishes, worst beef sirloin in my life and have no idea why so much pepper is on top when the jus is so watery without much flavour, bit better plating presentation though, some wines are good, not all of them, and definitely the more expensive wines are likely to get...

The positive:||Lovely room with enormous bathroom and bathtub in a lovely country village. Mostly lovely staff who make you feel welcome, very quiet and lovely comfy bed with quality bedding and furnishings.||Bits that could be improved:||The room door stuck all the time making it really noisy when I tried to sneak out for a walk early morning.||No soap in the room||Weird option to buy the bottle your free water is in?||Room not made up during our 2 night stay so bins not emptied, bed not made no tea/coffee/milk, why are hotels so stingy with tea and coffee?||Coffee maker makes tepid hot water for tea drinkers||Breakfast could be a little more filling, 1 pain au chocolate, a yoghurt with oats, 1 sausage, 1 bacon, poached egg, small potato Rosti and a slice of black pudding, needs toast and some beans to make it a breakfast and lose the yoghurt and black pudding it’s fowl.||Would definitely stay again but it could be absolutely perfect if the above was...

The positive:||Lovely room with enormous bathroom and bathtub in a lovely country village. Mostly lovely staff who make you feel welcome, very quiet and lovely comfy bed with quality bedding and furnishings.||Bits that could be improved:||The room door stuck all the time making it really noisy when I tried to sneak out for a walk early morning.||No soap in the room||Weird option to buy the bottle your free water is in?||Room not made up during our 2 night stay so bins not emptied, bed not made no tea/coffee/milk, why are hotels so stingy with tea and coffee?||Coffee maker makes tepid hot water for tea drinkers||Breakfast could be a little more filling, 1 pain au chocolate, a yoghurt with oats, 1 sausage, 1 bacon, poached egg, small potato Rosti and a slice of black pudding, needs toast and some beans to make it a breakfast and lose the yoghurt and black pudding it’s fowl.||Would definitely stay again but it could be absolutely perfect if the above was...