Oh, what a night

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Going out for dinner should be just as much about having a good time as it is about enjoying good food. Luckily for me I have been to a few restaurants where I’ve sampled some delicious food – but only a handful have I walked out of and thought: “I’ve had a fabulous time tonight”. It’s as much about atmosphere as it is about anything else – and if you fancy a serving of that, then Bean Below restaurant in Twyford has plentiful supply.

By day a café – quenching the thirst of the local villagers – then three nights a week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) it turns into a cosy eatery with log burning stove, low ceilings, original beams and candlelight – the perfect cure to the effects of a chilly, damp November week night.

However the Bean Below is only a third of the story – the name gives away that the café/restaurant is in the basement of what is ‘Twyford Post Office and Stores’, situated on the corner of the village High Street. On ground level is the post office and shop and on the first floor is Ian James Hair and Beauty. It would appear just the one building in the village has all the amenities a small community would need under just the one roof. Simon Cooper, who has been at the Post Office and Stores for 20 years, along with business partner Richard Sellars, seems to have hit on the winning business formula – with each one of them a success.
Back to Bean Below. Small, but perfectly formed, the restaurant may seat only a few, but with its reputation they are guaranteed to be full every one of the three nights they are open. Thursday night, is live music night, and I have to admit, as we took our seats at the best table in the house (right in front of the fire) I was a little apprehensive when I saw just how close the microphone and speakers were and whether or not we were going to be able to hear ourselves speak. But as the night went on the tables filled with jolly diners, all of us willing to join in with Frank Sinatra’s Come Fly with Me.

The food turned out to be as good as the entertainment. The menu is neither too simple, nor fussy, and local too; with starters ranging from homemade vegetable soup to pheasant breast, smoked in Applewood and Gran Marnier with apricot conserve and main courses such as Hampshire rack of lamb or pan fried skate wing with lemon and dill butter. It all sounded delicious and we eventually decided on the vegetable soup: piping hot, thick, and with vegetables as fresh and tasty as those in my starter, the Italian potato and fine bean salad.
Onto the main course, and curiosity got the better of me when I saw the duck breast with sautéed potatoes and a red wine chocolate sauce on the menu. I had a suspicion that as strange as it sounded, the combination of red wine, chocolate and duck could really work. Thank goodness I wasn’t wrong – the sauce wonderfully complemented the rich tasting duck. The sirloin steak with fat chips and New Forest stilton sauce was just as delicious.
A blackboard filled with tempting desserts and we only managed to share a Baileys crème brulee and chocolate ice cream along with our coffees – and yes, it was as heavenly as it sounds.

9.30pm and the party sounded like it was only just getting going. At the fear of the possibility we may get persuaded to take to the microphone the longer we stayed, and with me having to be the sensible one so we could drive home, we decided to call it a night and looked forward to coming back for another fantastic evening.