The Walnut Tree

Press Reviews (6)

• Zoe Williams (24th June 2010)
  8.75/10
  
  This is a restaurant of long standing whose modern-day reputation precedes it. Fortunately, it turns out that “the reputation is deserved – it's a beautiful place”.
• Jasper Gerard (2nd November 2009)
  4/5
  
  Shaun Hill’s “whitewashed roadside coaching stop” seems “a modest affair for such an immodest reputation, notes the critic… But this has been a foodie destination since 1963 when Franco and Ann Taruschio ran an Italian restaurant celebrated throughout Wales”. Hill tells the critic he offers “basically the same food I did at Gidleigh Park, just without the expensive rooms”, and – from the ubeat tone of the review – it seems that the latter rather agrees.
• Giles Coren (20th July 2009)
  9/10
  
  The critic drives through the “glorious scenery” of the Brecon Beacons to reach Shaun Hill’s famous restaurant. In an “[e]legant” room he tries some “impressive” food from the “[c]racking menu”, and pronounces it his “[b]est meal in yonks.”
• Matthew Norman (26th March 2008)
  9.75/10
  
  A “very slightly slanting table” – that’s all the critic can find to fault at Shaun Hill’s relaunch of this famous Monmouthshire restaurant. “From the divine bread rolls at the start to the dinky macaroons at the end, [this was] one of those meals that has you scrambling around looking for quarter-points to dock from the score on account of such serious failings as imperfectly planed wooden furniture”.
• Tracey MacLeod (19th February 2008)
  Food rating: 4/5 stars
  
  “The combination of wonderful food, a happy atmosphere and an underlying sense of quiet good taste is less rare now than it was when the Taruschios set up here in 1963”, says the critic, but Shaun Hill’s re-launch of this famous rural restaurant gets a bit thumbs-up from the critic nonetheless.
• Nick Lander (22nd January 2008)
  
  “The Walnut Tree burns brightly once more”. The FT’s man has a great time at the famous restaurant which is the new perch of Shaun Hill (the Merchant House chef who ‘made’ Ludlow).