The Wild Hare, Tintern

The Wild Hare restaurant is in The Royal George Inn in Tintern. Where you can find the famous Tintern Abbey. The Wild Hare is not part of a chain, which means the owners have the freedom to showcase the best ingredients and some of their favourite drinks.

Our visit started when we pulled into the car park. It’s not the biggest but we found a space and walked to the entrance. We had to enter our car details at the front desk to stop us getting a automated ticket. So if you visit make sure you do the same. We were welcomed by the owner and shown to our table. There was a very pleasant atmosphere buzzing in the restaurant. A nice mix of family’s and couples, old and young. Our server bought our drinks over and told us about the specials that were on that evening.

After a short wait our entree arrived. Mushroom and soughdough and the course country terrine. The terrine came with a simply stunning homemade spiced plum chutney. The mushrooms cooked in a lovely tasty white wine and garlic sauce. My only issue with the entree‘s was they butter. It appeared to have came straight form the fridge, meaning you couldn’t spread it on the bread with ease. Luckily we were sat next a radiator so let the butter melt a little. The entree’s were outstanding and would return just for them.

Next on to the mains. Ordered the buttermilk chicken burger and the smoked salmon and horseradish fishcakes. The fishcake is served with a poached egg on top, accompanied by new potatoes and salad. The plate looked a bit busy due to the amount of salad on the plate. Taste wise the fish cake was packed with flavour, giving a nice hit from the horseradish but not overpowering or distracting from the salmon. The potatoes were cooked to perfection. Not under done like you can sometimes find.

Now onto the buttermilk chicken burger which was served with a lightly toasted brioche bun and a slaw. On the side was a good helping of chunky triple cooked chips (fries for my America friends). When the plate was bought to the table, at first glance the chicken looked over cooked. However once I took a bite from the burger it certainly didn’t taste overcooked. If you do have this burger just be aware (like a lot of burgers) there was some dripping of the slaw from the bun. Saying that the addition of the slaw in the burger gave a nice partnership with the buttermilk chicken. I was looking forward to the chunky chips and they didn’t disappoint. Not to crispy and not to soft. There was also a small pot of BBQ sauce with the meal. Overall the meals were extremely good and very enjoyable.

I do have to say the gin my wife had was one of the best have ever had. It was the Wye Valley Gin and I highly recommend you try it either here or order a bottle and enjoy at home.

A downside that we encountered was we felt a little ignored, I believe this was because of where our table was situated behind a small wall and we wasn’t in the servers eye line. The table next to us. A table of four women were getting a lot (compared to us) of attention. Don’t let this put you off though.

In conclusion, you will have an amazing time at The Wild Hare and enjoy some very good locally sourced food.