Shropshire Magazine

Jugs Restaurant in Llansantffraid

Review: Neil Thomas

Pictures: Mike Hayward

It’s a bizarre thing when you can walk into a restaurant on the Shropshire/Mid Wales border and eat a dish taken straight from the menu at New York’s famous Four Seasons, served by a man who once owned Israel’s restaurant of the year.

It is, as they say, a small world.

Norman Rose, colourful proprietor of Jugs Restaurant at Llansantffraid, near Oswestry, has recently returned from a trip to the ‘Big Apple’ to celebrate his brother’s birthday.

After 35 years in the business, Norman knows a trick or two and is certainly switched on to the art of ‘borrowing’ a dish that hits the spot.

He’s not alone there. The history of professional cooking is a catalogue of recipes bought, borrowed and embellished.

Pan-fried wild sea bass and crayfish ravioli, walnuts, salsify.

August Escoffier is a hero of modern chefs but he, in turn, was inspired by compatriot Antonin Careme who, a century earlier, invented haute cuisine, becoming a celebrity in early 19th-century Paris.

Arguably the most famous cookery writer of them all, Isabella Beeton, plagiarised many of the 900 recipes in her Book of Household Management, sifting them from cookbooks some of which were centuries old.

Norman, himself, has seen a little of the world and picked up a few recipes along the way.

He spent 15 years in Elat – the southernmost town in Israel, a port on the Gulf of Aqaba and an arm of the Red Sea – where he was able to indulge his love of fresh seafood.

“It was an enjoyable and fascinating time,” he recalls. “In fact while out there we won Israel’s restaurant of the year, although some might argue that does not take a great deal of doing.”

The New York dish now appearing as a Jugs speciality starter is crab ravioli in a walnut oil dressing. After Norman had given it the big build-up, my wife Vanessa couldn’t resist. It was simply delicious and the portion – presumably on the basis that you can’t have too much of a good thing – was enormous.

Roast chump of Bishop’s Castle lamb, fondant potato, sauté wild mushrooms and spinach, port jus

Jugs describes itself as Wales’s leading fish-and-seafood restaurant and there can be little question that it is among the best, despite being further from the sea than a great many dining establishments in the principality.

This excellence reflects Norman’s passion for seafood, a subject on which he talks with enthusiasm and authority.

Jugs backs up the rhetoric with a range of superbly prepared dishes, from starters like Bantry Bay mussels in garlic, king prawn tikka with chilli salsa, and crayfish and split-pea risotto with Parma ham, to mains such as poached lemon sole, tandoori halibut, baked smoked haddock and pan-fried wild salmon.

Jugs simply does seafood superbly; Vanessa is an avid fish fan and I assumed I’d rack up a few marital brownie points by treating her to an evening out there.

Naturally, she chose steak.

However, you don’t go far wrong there, either. All the restaurant’s beef is bought from local co-operative farms and matured for a minimum of 21 days. Vanessa’s Welsh Black fillet was cooked rare to perfection. Black outside, pink within and superbly tender. And, because it’s well matured, there isn’t the macabre sight, that occasionally accompanies undercooked meat, of vegetables swimming in animal blood.

Vanessa certainly enthused about it while I enjoyed my brief taste. Greater authorities than we two have also granted their approval. Jugs is one of the first restaurants in the region to be awarded membership of the prestigious Scotch Beef Club. It has joined the likes of celebrity chef Brian Turner’s restaurants and other top establishments in membership of the club, with its coveted tartan membership plate.

Assiette of desserts to include crème brulée, chocolate fondant, champagne jelly and sticky toffee pudding.

So fish, or beef, it seems that Jugs has it covered.

Still, what is the point in visiting a renowned seafood restaurant and not eating fish? My smoked haddock and chorizo chowder was a wonderful fusion of salty, smoky flavours, with slivers of fish to give it body and an accompaniment of cheese on toasted fresh bread to add yet more texture.

My main of tandoori salmon with fricassee of noodles, pak choi and bean sprouts with a ginger broth was utterly superb, the salmon more than holding its own against strong Asian spices. It came with an excellent stir-fry.

Vanessa’s steak was accompanied by home-made chips which would bring a tear of nostalgia to the eye of anyone who remembers with fondness the pre-health-police days when mum never took the chipper off the stove. To balance this, on the well-being front, there was a veritable mountain of fresh vegetables, broccoli and carrots bursting with antioxidants. If only the stomach was large enough to cope.

There’s a fine selection of wines, too, and our bottle of Sarget De Gruaud-Larose 2001 Saint Julien proved an excellent vintage, a ripe and succulent Bordeaux, with a crisp flavour of plum and cassis fruit.

The bill, which came in at just under £90, represented excellent value.

Norman might be the driving force behind Jugs’ growing success but his decision to hire chef Simon Hough two-and-a-half years ago was inspirational. Simon started working in his uncle’s patisserie at the age of 14 and intended to train as a pastry chef. However, he yearned to cook what he describes as ‘real food’.

He was classically trained and learned his trade in rosette restaurants including a Michelin-starred establishment in Oxford.

Fish is his passion, fusion dishes his speciality and scallops and black pudding his favourite dish. At 25 he seems to be at the top of his game.

So that’s why it’s called Jugs . . .

His chef might be an inspired investment but Norman Rose has also injected plenty of cash into his project. Some £150,000 to be precise. He has thoroughly modernised the interior with new tables and chairs, going for chic dark leather and wood to provide a streamlined, minimalist feel that would not look out of place in London’s more fashionable restaurants.

And then of course there’s the collection of 4,200-plus pottery jugs, built up by the previous owners, that hang from the ceiling and line the walls and are a talking point for everyone visiting for the first time.

Well, how did you think the restaurant got its name . . .?

• Jugs Restaurant, Llansantffraid, Powys SY22 6SU. Telephone 01691 828324. www.jugsrestaurant.co.uk