hand & flowers

the duck may have won on tv, but it was the tenderloin of wiltshire pork with pickled mustard leaf, malt glazed cheek, garlic sausage and potato dauphine that won on the day for us. the pork, much like the duck, was cooked succulently pink. it was so tender, it sliced as easily as if you were running a knife through a banana. but it was the non-starring bits that brought the dish alive. the cheek was syrupy and crunchy. imagine candied pork and you'll be on the right lines. the garlic sausage was pungent, wrapped in my new favourite vegetable - pickled mustard leaf - which added bite and acidity. and the potato dauphine was in the form of tiny puffed and filled balls, designed to be a garnish and not a stodgy side.

i had an excellent afternoon. the staff were wonderful and kept appearing out of nowhere to top up our wine and water. the dishes were beautifully presented and tasted every bit as amazing. tom kerridge- you are a genius.

the hand and flowers – tom kerridge from great british menu’s quintessentially british gastropub in marlow stands out for two reasons: firstly, it could well be britain’s campest named pub. secondly, as the only 'pub' in the world to ever be awarded two michelin stars (please correct me if i'm wrong), it could justifiably be claimed to serve britain’s best pub grub. i went, hoping for the latter.

as it’s the only two michelin starred pub in the entire uk it caught our attention - so we booked in for a visit. the hand and flowers is about an hour out of london but it’s a trip that is well worth making. award winning chef tom kerridge has created a food lovers oasis here! put it on your list.

hands and flowers in south east england is the wonderful restaurant i was there with friends and enjoyed and fun their the food was delicious and mouth watering and my favorite is the dessert part

really wonderful place you know it beats my usual at morrison's at lunchtime and it's very accessible for someone tired the doors swing open with no effort at all like i haven't even eaten here but it just goes to show how bad this app really is if anyone can post a review like this without any confirmation of being there like jeeez 😂😂

the meals out for my birthday week continued thick and fast, with a visit to tom kerridge’s hand & flower’s pub in marlow my next destination. booking a table here has become a complete nightmare ever since they got their 2nd star, with tables booked up as far as 9 months in advance. the problem with my job is that i actually do not know what my rota will be like in 6 months and hence, for a while i had just completely given up on ever dining here. thankfully, the restaurant saw some sense, scrapping the old reservation policy for one where you book 3 months in advance, much like you would at gordon ramsay or fat duck. in addition, they frequently advertise any late table availability (last minute cancellations) online and that was how i managed to snag a table here for a weekday lunch. for this visit, i would be joined by one of the ‘pies’ who had also been wanting to dine here for ages.

all i can say is out of this world
atmosphere and food to die for
the food for me stood out every course was spot on flawless great execution and flavours
will def be back to enjoy another amazing time

the final leg of my wonderful foodie birthday tour took me to the hand & flowers in marlow, the only 2 starred ‘gastro-pub’ in the michelin guide, and my first foray into dining above a 1 star level. i decided on the hand and flowers as my brother and sister-in-law had given me a £50 voucher for my 29th birthday and by the time i got round to making the reservation (march 2014) this was the first weekend that a dinner reservation was available.

a restaurant with so much hype can easily disappoint, but in this case, it lived up to everything it had promised.  the food and service was exceptional.  as a coeliac, they catered for me perfectly with plenty of advice on the menu and options.  the service was friendly yet professional.  towards the end it was a little lax but the restaurant was very busy. the beef was a stand out on the main menu, so to was the duck.  desserts were rich and delectable but not too big given the generous portions of starters and mains. the only reason for the slightly imperfect score is the cost.  although very good, the experience is expensive.

over the easter weekend, p surprised me with a booking at the 2 michelin star pub in marlow, the hand and flowers. owned by tom kerridge, one of p’s favourite chefs, and who i had become familiar with since moving to the uk from his appearances on sunday brunch and the great british menu, it was fair to say we were both more than a bit excited to score a table. and after our good friday feast, it was easy to see why this was the first pub to receive two stars in the michelin guide.

the hand and flowers can’t be a pub because it’s nobody’s local. sure, it looks like a pub. it has low, uneven ceilings, and even lower beams – the type that require a sign of caution – and a few ale pumps standing to attention, pricked like a set of hare’s ears, ready to maintain the pubby frontage with every pull of a pint. but it isn’t a pub. it’s a high-end restaurant in boozy drag, one that’s bloody difficult to get into.

...he has become the nations favourite chef through cooking gutsy, flavoursome food that you know will taste good.

the hand and flowers is the only pub in the united kingdom that has 2 michelin stars (awarded in 2011). it is located in marlow and first opened in march 2005. it is owned by chefs tom and beth kerridge and the hand and flowers is currently voted the number one uk restaurant by restaurant magazine. needless to say all these awards have made it really hard to book and i booked a table at the hand and flowers in december 2013 for august 2014 and i could not even get a saturday and sunday and had to settle for a late lunch on friday. the hand and flowers serves “ unpretentious modern british flavours as well as rustic french dishes”.   marlow is a very charming town and the hand and flowers is located in a small very charming house. they recently extended it and now it is bigger. there is a casual bar when you enter and as you go further in, the restaurant.

the hand and flowers pub in marlow is one of those restaurants that is defying what the current definition of michelin starred means. for a very long time there has been a trend in the restaurant market to make everything, for lack of a better word, fancy-pants. these restaurants more often than not have tiny portions and are striving for sensory-overload and molecular gastronomy. however, tom kerridge, a big, exuberant man that i'm hoping one day to meet, is changing all of that. he runs the world's only 2 michelin star pub. the only other restaurant i know of with as many stars that isn't stuck-up is heston's dinner. both the hand and flowers and dinner provide excellent, no exceptional, everyday food, done in a way that no weekend home chef could ever possibly do. they incorporate the greatest cooking techniques with the simplest of ingredients. take for instance, my starter: soft and raw white asparagus with roasted cep and hazelnuts, topped with parmesan and lardo. at first glance