RESTAURANT REVIEW: Crockers, Tring

One of my favourite local restaurants is Crockers, which opened in my hometown of Tring in 2018. Since then, they’ve expanded to a second location in Henley and grown their Tring restaurant, adding an informal dining room option and a downstairs bar. They even launched some dine at home options in lockdown – their bottled cocktails were next level, the 2020 Christmas specials were incredible. 

It’s a real asset to the town. Tring is small, but has steadily grown more and more foodie since we’ve moved there. The high street is full of independent restaurants (I’ve reviewed a few of them before on here, including my faves The Akeman and Olive Limes), and it’s such a treat knowing there’s somewhere you can have a really special meal within walking distance of where you live. 

I’ve been to Crockers a few times, because I’m a lucky little sausage. Matt and I went a few months after they opened, and then we tried the Dining Room downstairs for his birthday the following year when I was pregnant. And once we were able to start having the occasional meal out post lockdowns and post baby, we treated ourselves to lunch there for my birthday last year. The midweek lunch menu is really great value – more than half the cost of going in the evening, but you get most of the same food. £55 a head for tons of different Michelin standard courses is pretty amazing. They don’t have a star yet, but they are in the Michelin Guide and I’ve always assumed the star is on its way. It really is one of the best places I’ve ever been.

When we went for my birthday last year, my mum said she’d never had this kind of food before, and I resolved to take her along with me as soon as I could. In the end, I bought her a voucher for Christmas and we booked in a couple of weeks ago. I was really excited to treat her to the Crocker’s experience. They only have room for 12 diners upstairs for the Chef’s Table. We all sit in a horseshoe and the food is prepared in front of you, giving you a chance to chat with the chef (Scott Barnard, seen a little while back on Masterchef: The Professionals) and the incredibly friendly waiting staff. It was quite quiet when we went – just us and one other couple – but part of the beauty of the layout is that you’re encouraged to chat and socialise with other diners. And my mum and I LOVE to chat.

 Although it’s a set menu, because it’s all served fresh they are pretty flexible – with a couple of weeks notice they’ll happily cater for special requests like yours truly who is a backwards pescatarian (I like meat but no fish please) and my mum who eats everything except rare beef. I had a few things swapped out for the veggie options, but that just means you get more pretty pictures. I always want to know if there is some kind of course you can go on to learn how to beautifully plate food, because some of these plates are really works of art. Almost a shame to eat them. Almost.

 To start we had a Westcombe Cheddar cookie, made with IPB beer. This was the only dish that remained on the menu since my birthday last July, and I was very happy to see it again – it’s a light, crispy cookie with a gooey cheese centre, and it’s spectacular.

Next on the regular menu was a smoked haddock doughnut with dill – it looks amazing, and I’m assured it was delicious. I had the veggie option, which was a crispy cone filled with goat’s cheese curd and topped with a flutter of truffles. It was so good – I love goat’s cheese and the truffles went perfectly, just the right amount.

Next up was the bread course, which maybe doesn’t sound exciting, but has always been a highlight every time I've visited. We shared a small loaf of bread cooked with beer from the nearby Tring Brewery, served with cultured butter. I was a little sad to see the whipped marmite butter was off the menu now, but the cultured butter was AMAZING. It’s made with specially fermented cream, which gives it this incredibly intense buttery flavour and, honestly, I could happily eat that warm bread and butter for every meal for the rest of my life. YUM.

 

The next course – I think the starter, officially, but who’s counting – was steamed cod, with mussels, cauliflower and chicken butter sauce. It looks so beautiful, and mum loved it.

 I have to admit that I wasn’t too excited by my next course – potato cooked in seaweed butter, vichyssoise and baby leeks. Was I proved wrong? Damn straight. It may have been my favourite course – it was such an incredible combination. The sauce was creamy and salty, the potatoes were fluffy and buttery and the crunchy baby leeks and crispy seaweed all just WORKED. We had a little bread left and you’d better believe I did some major mopping of that delicious sauce – it was so great.

The next course was Herdwick hogget, which I have to admit I had no idea what it was. Turns out it’s teenage lamb, served pink, with feta, broccoli, lemon and almond. 

It was lovely – I adore rare meat, especially lamb, and although it’s not my mum’s favourite thing, she admitted it was cooked perfectly, pink but not bloody, and it went really well with the feta and lemon and some kind of delicious jus.

I’m still going – honestly, there are so many courses here, but that’s part of the fun! There’s an optional cheese course here which we all ended up skipping. We did have it on my birthday though, and it was amazing – we had melty Baron Bigod with a drizzle of maple syrup and the most incredible dessert wine (I highly recommend the wine pairing if you can – sadly mum and I both needed to drive later!).

Pudding was a light chocolate mousse with dabs of passion fruit puree and banana ice cream. I don’t love banana, but the taste was really delicate and it went beautifully with the chocolate. And then dessert just kept coming – next we had some sweets. The jellies looked like Turkish Delight but were lighter and without that perfumed taste I’m not fond of, and the other option was cherry chocolate fudge which was amazing. And then finally, we had what looks like a little scotch egg, but was actually filled with lemon meringue, topped with meringue sticks and lemony cream. The perfect way to end a special meal, in my opinion.

Crockers is one of those places I would recommend to anyone. I really enjoy the set menu – it’s fun to put yourself in someone else’s hands for a meal and see what delicious flavour combos they come up with, and it encourages you to try something new. It’s so important to protect your local independent restaurants, especially when they’re as great as this, and if it means that I have to keep coming back again and again, I’m down with it. And mum loved it too – she described the dishes as exquisite works of art, which they very much are.

  

Crockers Tring is at 74 High Street, Tring HP23 4AF. I was not compensated for this honest review.