The kitchen's are currently closed and will reopen on the 8th July 2019.
Attractively updated in recent times, this rambling red-brick Victorian pub still plays the part of a village watering hole while offering “top-notch food in a rustic setting”. The kitchen is “creative” in its approach, with plenty of locally sourced ingredients on show, lots of ambitious ideas and the kind of presentation “that you don’t always see outside London”. Starters of lamb’s sweetbreads with Scottish girolles, broad beans and mint could give way to spiced Peterhead cod with cauliflower, pied bleu mushrooms, mango and a smoked haddock Scotch egg or seared Gressingham duck breast with black cherry gel, camomile, thyme polenta, Amaretto and almond. Drinks range from interesting real ales (Tirrell’s Hermit, Old Golden Hen) and wines by the glass to a prodigious array of spirits: gin-heads could literally sample a different brand every week of the year. The Hermit manages to tick all the boxes, although “fantastic staff really make it”.