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The Crooked Billet Review

An immaculately thatched pub in Newton Longville, a quiet village within easy reach of Milton Keynes, the Crooked Billet still feels a bit like a well-tended local hostelry - although the menus and wine list tell a different story. This place has come on by leaps and bounds since it was taken over some years ago by award-winning sommelier John Gilchrist and well-travelled chef Emma Gilchrist.

Lunches are served in the traditional beamed bar, where the repertoire runs from up-market sandwiches and things 'on toast' to pub classics (smoked haddock fishcakes, rump steak and kidney pie) and restaurant-style dishes such as seared yellowfin tuna with tatsoi, sesame and soy dressing or saddle of rabbit with prune and pistachio stuffing, pea purée and a mini shepherd's pie made from the leg meat.

The restaurant opens for more ambitious evening meals that extend the kitchen's eclectic repertoire to - say - pan-fried scallops with cauliflower purée and English sweet-and-sour dressing, slow-cooked cod with creamed corn, chicken wings and lemongrass or beef fillet with boudin blanc, foie gras, ceps and mash.

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