The Willow Tree

So. After a long time coming, I made it to the Willow Tree last night. It was the final restaurant in Taunton that I hadn’t been to, so I was excited as well as disappointed that I’d gone through them all.
We had a warm welcome in there and we were shown to our table right away. We were a table of six — four chefs and two publicans. It’s tiny in here, but that really adds to the ambience and charm of the place. I’d imagine that I’d feel a bit self conscious if I was on a date with a hot lady, the tables seem pretty close. An awkward silence would be noticed by all the other diners.
As for the food though, it was really good. I had a game terrine to start. Roast duck with dauphinoise for mains and a sticky chocolate cake for pud. We had a measly bit of delicious home made bread as well, I like to be in charge of my own bread, not be offered one slice, however delicious is it. We went on a Wednesday, so it was under £30 for three courses. That’s great value if you think about it. A duck breast would cost maybe £16−17 elsewhere, then split the other two courses between the rest. We spent a fortune, but we had lots of wine.
All in all a very nice place, and something Taunton needs to hang on to before it is totally overrun with faux Italian joints. I’ll go again for sure.
Cheers.

Arrived in the rain… with some help from the iphone map. walked through the door and were greeted by a friendly waiter. how did he know we had walked through the door?
the place is small but well decorated, it has the feeling of a french mason, med villa and english eating room. the dinning room has seating for about 20 people served by 2 people and a matron. the service was good, friendly. if you are pretentious about service, pretty waitresses (it is waiters) and the london style then this service will probably not match your style.
the menu is set with a range of about 8 options for each courses. the food was beautiful, and well balanced flavours and tastes. the wine was good and the bill was came in under estimate. £45 head including tip, drink, 3 courses and port.
I will be returning.

Firstly the food was ok which as a group of 4 we felt was a fair assessment due to the following reasons.
The menu is set, very small and limited. We also found being charged an extra £7.00 per person as it was Saturday night a little annoying.
When you add a further £3.50 supplement if you choose to have cheese (as two of us did) it added an extra £35.00 to our bill.
Secondly the meat and sauces were quite bland. I had wild duck for which I expected a dark rich red breast with extreme gamey flavour. What I got was a very light pinky breast which had no flavour and a sauce that was very watery. My three companions all believed their different main courses also had no exceptional flavour.
There were two main issues with the ambiance. The first is that the tables are very close together so unless you speak in hushed tones you find the people next to you listening into your conversations and passing comment on them to each other.
Secondly due to the close nature of the tables and hushed tones it is extremely quiet and with no background music the whole experience was like sitting in a silent sanctuary that made you nervous to talk to each other for fear of disturbing those next to you with your interesting conversation and sparkling repartee.
Nouvelle quisine is much in evidence so do not go expecting a large meal and stock up on the home made bread which was lovely.
Extensive wine list and although some of the more classic wines are priced a little too expensively it offered a good choice.
Finally the staff are very young but we must give them credit as they were very nice and tried really hard to please.
In all we will not be rushing to go back but if your looking for a very quiet place to have a nice meal and dont mind paying extra if you choose to go at the weekend this is the place.

An excellent restaurant — off the beaten track. The menu is limited but exceptional and very good friendly service. A brilliant place for smaller groups or romantic couples.