Restaurant in Plungar, United Kingdom
Four hours, 20 courses, book well ahead.
A 20-course surprise tasting menu on a working Nottinghamshire farm, open Thursday to Saturday only. Chef Richard Stevens holds a Michelin Plate and ranks in OAD's top 320 European restaurants. Book six to eight weeks out minimum. The format demands full commitment — four hours, no à la carte — but delivers some of the most place-specific cooking in the East Midlands.
If you've already eaten at Jericho once, the question isn't whether to return — it's whether you're ready to surrender another four hours to a 20-course tasting menu in a converted farmstead outside Nottingham. The answer, for most people who made the first trip, is yes. Richard and Grace Stevens have built something in the Vale of Belvoir that earns its Michelin Plate and back-to-back Opinionated About Dining rankings (320th in Europe in 2025, 314th in 2024) not through spectacle but through a specific, deeply considered point of view about food, place, and pace. Return visitors should know: the surprise format means you won't get the same menu twice, and the seasonal shift between visits is pronounced enough to feel like a genuinely different restaurant.
The physical experience at Jericho is part of the argument for going. The dining room occupies two buildings assembled largely from reclaimed farm materials, and the result is a space that is expansive without feeling anonymous: dark and light tones in contrast, plentiful windows, a kitchen bench for watching the cooks work. A Japanese-style moss wall sits alongside displays of agricultural implements , details that could read as affected in another context but here feel grounded because this is, literally, the farm where the chef grew up. Outside, a pair of tepees handle overnight guests, which changes the calculus considerably if you're travelling from London (roughly two hours by car) or don't want to factor in a driver. For return visitors, the counter seats are worth requesting , the kitchen bench gives you a different read on the pacing and preparation than the main room.
The format is fixed: a 20-course surprise tasting menu, Thursday through Saturday evenings only (7–11pm), closed Sunday through Wednesday. There is no abbreviated version and no à la carte. If that commitment suits you , and it will suit regulars more than first-timers , what you get in return is cooking that treats the farm's surroundings as a genuine creative constraint rather than a marketing position. Game and kitchen-garden vegetables dominate, with charcoal and wood-fire doing significant structural work across the menu. Documented dishes from previous menus include a mutton croquette with quince paste, a blackberry-glazed pork belly skewer, partridge leg in pear coating, lamb with turnips in a lamb fat and walnut oil dressing, and a mixed-pedigree sirloin with Jerusalem artichoke foam and black garlic purée. On the sweeter end, parsnip custard with honeycomb and Bramley apple cooked in Marmite butter with clotted cream give a fair sense of how far the kitchen is willing to push. The 'whole crop silage' ice cream pre-dessert is an acquired taste by the restaurant's own admission. The balance across 20 courses is not always perfect , documented criticism notes that some accompaniments (Granny Smith apple, sloe jam) have tipped toward excessive astringency , but that kind of considered risk-taking is the point. This is not a safe kitchen.
Editorial angle here is worth being direct about: Jericho does not make sense as a takeout or delivery proposition, and there is no indication it operates as one. The cooking depends on live fire, precise sequencing across 20 courses, and the physical context of the space itself. A mutton croquette cooked over coals is a different object in a box on your doorstep. For this category of Modern British tasting menu , see also Kitchen Table in London or Evelyn's Table , the experience is inextricably spatial. The meal is the room, the sequence, and the time. If you are looking for a restaurant in this price tier where the food can travel or where a shorter format is available, Jericho is the wrong call. If you can commit to the full sit, it is the right one.
Booking difficulty is rated hard, and that tracks with both the restaurant's awards profile and its limited operating hours. Open just four evenings a week (Thursday to Saturday, 7–11pm), with a small dining room, demand consistently outpaces availability. Plan a minimum of six to eight weeks out for a weekend table; midweek Thursday slots occasionally surface on shorter notice. The price range sits at ££££, which at this format and duration represents a full-evening commitment , drinks pairings are the sensible choice given the wine list's depth in natural, organic, and biodynamic labels, but most diners will be navigating Pét-Nat, Hungarian rosé, and Muscat de Rivesaltes territory rather than a conventional pairing format. Factor in travel: Plungar is not a restaurant you stumble into. The address is Orchard Farm, Plungar, NG13 0JA , you will need a car or a prearranged transfer from Nottingham or Grantham. The overnight tepees make a strong case for a two-day itinerary if distance is a factor. Check our full Plungar hotels guide for alternatives nearby. For more on what else is happening in the area, see our full Plungar restaurants guide, our full Plungar bars guide, and our full Plungar experiences guide.
Within the Modern British tasting menu category, Jericho sits in a specific and growing cohort of destination farm restaurants that put provenance at the centre of the format. It is closer in spirit to L'Enclume in Cartmel or Moor Hall in Aughton than to a London tasting room. If you are comparing it to CORE by Clare Smyth , also ££££, also Modern British , the difference is one of register: CORE is technically tighter and more urban in sensibility; Jericho is more visceral and place-specific. For a rural experience with comparable ambition, The Fat Duck in Bray and Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton are the obvious reference points in terms of destination dining, though both carry more institutional weight and higher booking difficulty. Midsummer House in Cambridge and Opheem in Birmingham are worth considering as Midlands-adjacent alternatives if the Plungar drive is too far. The Google rating of 4.9 across 50 reviews is consistent with a restaurant where almost everyone who makes it there is already bought in , a useful signal, with the caveat that low review volume reflects the limited capacity and remote location rather than footfall.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Jericho | ££££ | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | ££££ | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | ££££ | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | ££££ | — |
| The Ledbury | ££££ | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | ££££ | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Yes, provided the occasion suits a four-hour, 20-course commitment. The format is immersive rather than flexible: a fixed surprise tasting menu, no à la carte option, and Thursday through Saturday evenings only. It holds a Michelin Plate and ranked #320 in Opinionated About Dining's Top Restaurants in Europe for 2025, which gives it genuine credibility for a milestone dinner. If your group needs flexibility on timing or dietary control, this is not the right call.
Book as early as possible — weeks or months out, not days. Jericho opens just four evenings a week (Thursday to Saturday, plus Friday), which means the total weekly cover count is small. The combination of OAD recognition, Michelin acknowledgement, and a single-sitting format makes last-minute availability unlikely. Check the website directly and move fast once you have a date confirmed.
At ££££ for a 20-course tasting menu with drinks pairings, the value case depends on what you're comparing it to. Within UK destination farm restaurants, Jericho's OAD ranking and Michelin Plate put it ahead of most competitors at similar price points. The four-hour format, the farm provenance, and the wood-fire cooking are part of what you're paying for. If you want a shorter, more conventional fine dining experience, the price-to-format ratio won't feel right.
For guests who want provenance-led, produce-driven cooking with a strong sense of place, yes. The 20-course format is not a formality — dishes are generous and the pacing is unhurried, with game and kitchen-garden vegetables at the centre. The drinks pairing is the practical choice given the biodynamic-heavy list. If surprise menus or long tasting formats aren't your preference, this specific experience won't convert you.
There are no direct competitors in Plungar itself — this is a destination restaurant in a rural Nottinghamshire hamlet. For comparable UK farm-to-table tasting experiences, look at The Ledbury in London or CORE by Clare Smyth if you want Michelin-starred precision with similar produce focus, though both operate at higher price points and in urban settings. If the farm-restaurant format is the draw, Jericho has few true equivalents at its price range in the East Midlands.
The menu is a surprise — you will not choose your courses, and the format runs around four hours. Service is Thursday to Saturday, 7–11pm only, so plan travel and accommodation accordingly (there are tepees on site for overnight stays). Dress expectations are not formally documented, but the reclaimed-materials farmstead setting suggests informal rather than black-tie. Commit to the drinks pairing: the wine list is biodynamic and low-intervention, and navigating it solo is harder than it sounds.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
