Circa

Inside the four walls of a historical Grade II-listed building in Totnes, light work is made of contemporary cooking using unusual ingredients.

Chef-director Rob Weeks has a firm grasp on seasonal food and flavours, favouring organic ingredients wherever possible.

Midweek dishes are all about small plates, with an emphasis on sharing cuts and ferments. The kitchen crew also favour cooking over open flame, which takes grilled foods next-level – especially Sundays’ sharing-cut roasts.

The team are constantly looking to improve their zero-waste systems and are working towards being entirely self-sufficient. A market garden is flourishing, while ongoing developments include a mushroom grow-room and a dry store to expand the busy pickling and fermenting operation.

The aim? To guarantee wholesome and full-flavoured produce for standout dishes. Try such innovations as the lion’s mane kebab of homemade sourdough flatbread, pan-roasted Dartington lion’s mane mushrooms, hay butter, cider, spent-coffee glaze and shiitake mushroom served three ways (a decadent foam, preserved and raw).

More veggie wonders include fermented kalibos cabbage cooked in celeriac-skin oil and served with homemade gorse-flower crème fraîche, salt-baked and raw kohlrabi, a spruce emulsion, shiso leaf from The Husbandry School and fig-leaf oil.

Trencherman’s tip

Got a friend who’s a ‘shroom fan? Champignon concoctions can be found across the menu, including in desserts such as lion’s mane fudge.