The menu at Adam Byatt's recently re-opened Trinity is the kind where all the dishes sound so good that you just don't know where to start: crispy pig's trotter with a mayonnaise-style sauce, crackling and topped with a fried quail's egg; mini pasta shells with tender chunks of hare; partridge terrine with pear, pistachios and toasted brioche; and shoulder of hoggett with broccoli and, unexpectedly, anchovies (trust us, it works). Can we have it all, please?
Richard Corrigan’s restaurants – Bentley’s in Soho and Corrigan’s in Mayfair – have a big emphasis on seafood and game respectively. As long as the ingredients are available, there’ll always be game on the menu at Corrigan’s, with pan-roasted wood pigeon with black grapes and truffle, Dartmoor venison with braised kale, and roasted Yorkshire grouse with pearl barley and parsnip all on the menu this year until early February.
Wild venison bresaola with celeriac and pear remoulade, game scotch eggs... Verden's game feasting menu is making us drool. Combined with an incredible wine list that's packed with rarities, it makes this slick little Clapton restaurant is hard to resist – not to mention you get serious bang for your buck, starting at £30 per head.
Game done changed: no fancy white plates or redcurrant and port jus here – what you'll find at the Jugged Hare (and most other ETM Group venues, including the Botanist, One Canada Square, The Gun, Chiswell Street Dining Rooms, The Well, The White Swan and Ealing Park Tavern) this National Pheasant Week (yep, it's a thing) is a bucket of decadent Southern-fried pheasant, just like, er, mum made, served with chips and 'slaw. Plus, where else could you eat beautiful, seasonal British ingredients out of a bucket? Exactly.
For a truly decadent dinner this game season, head to the Michelin-starred Seven Park Place, where executive chef William Drabble has devised a menu that revolves around truffle and game. Marmite of game with black truffle, saddle of venison, pomme de terre Nino and black truffle jus, truffle ice cream with port reduction... is anyone else's belly rumbling?
The two-course game menu at Peter Joseph's Michelin-starred Tamarind has our mouth watering and our imagination well and truly captured: quintessential British game meats are used inventively in classic Indian dishes – achari tikka, pheasant marinated with raw mango and pickling spices and cooked in a tandoor, and red deer cutlets with tomato, mint and coriander leaves should give you an idea of what's in store – proving that when it comes to game, you don't have to stick to the tried-and-tested.
The trio of brothers behind Notting Hill's The Shed grew up on a farm. One became a farmer, one became a chef and one went into hospitality – which, they realised, could make them a restaurant powerhouse. Fast-forward a few years and they're dishing up venison cigars with their homemade mustard and grouse with nasturtium, and have just opened a sister restaurant, Rabbit, on the Kings Road.
Kudos to Amandine Chaignot, who worked with Alain Ducasse before starting at Rosewood London's Mirror Room. She's been there less than a year, but she hasn't wasted any time in whipping up a 'woodland' menu to showcase our emerald isle's best seasonal produce. We've got our eyes on the seared Scottish grouse carpaccio with smoked salsify and girolle purée.
