Sharp Shooter

KATHERINE MACALISTER sets her sights on a new venture in an old haunt.

It was like a scene from a John Wayne movie – walking into a bar, finger on the trigger, waiting to see who would shoot first.

Or so it felt when arriving at Trinity. Because Trinity is a new incarnation of The Old Chapel, which opened with much aplomb in Bicester last year, and shut down a few months later, mainly I assume because the awful food coming out of the kitchen had stunned even the most ardent of diners.

My review said as much, and there has been silence in No Man’s Land ever since.

Until an email appeared saying that Trinity was opening in its place, and would we like to come and take a peek?

“Have you read my previous review?” I asked. “No”, “then you’d better do so and ring me back”.

And so you can understand my trepidation when we got the go-ahead. Would we be ambushed and pushed into the back of a car, have arsenic added to our Bloody Mary’s, or ground up glass mixed into the soup?

Luckily the new gang at Trinity, have nothing to do with the old lot, and have arrived down from London, enthusiastic and desperate to make a go of this Bicester site.

This savvy trio know they’re on to a goldmine if they can get the kitchen sorted out, because Bicester desperately needs a good place to eat out, and Trinity is bursting with potential. There are three owners, hence the name Trinity, two Andys at front of house and Jane Smyth in the kitchens. So far so good.

So how was it? Well the bar and restaurant have now been lumped together, meaning the main area is much more lively, and packed on the Saturday night we visited - amazing, considering it’s only been open a few weeks. And the decor is fab. Thanks to a healthy facebook and twitter following, Trinity already has a loyal clientele (trinity-uk.com) and organises regular events and gigs, so they don’t have any of the usual worries about filling the place.

A great cocktail menu was a good start and the place was buzzing by the time we were seated. The menu is a cracker as well, full of old favourites with a twist. Sea scallops (£8.50) came with cauliflower purée and port reduction and were eaten in an awed silence. The generous portion of chicken liver and foie gras paté (£6.50) came with a delicious grape chutney and country toast, while the salad of gem lettuce, buffalo mozzarella, salted almonds and fennel cream (£5.75) was a wonderful mix of textures and tastes.

Next up came the Hereford Cross ribyeye (£16.50) complete with curried onion rings and garlic butter, and the Wild stone seabass (£16.50) was beautifully cooked with mediterranean veg.

And then came the culinary clanger, just in sight of the finishing line, when a really rubbish plate of stodgy pasta landed on our table, which at £9.95 was an insult to Italians. It was the dining equivalent of tucking your skirt into your pants.

But let’s gloss over that small pebble of discontent in an otherwise smooth millpond of a meal and go straight to dessert.

We had it all, the baked custard tart and rhubarb (£4.75), the deconstructed jaffa cake (£5.50), the chocolate and caramel nougatine (£5.50) and the hot raspberry souffle, with peach compote and vanilla anglaise (£4.75), and they all delivered, as did the meltingly wonderful cheesboard (£6.75).

So there we go – a huge thumbs up, give or take the one black sheep of a dish. Trinity is a breath of fresh air and somewhere that local residents should be fighting to get in.

I don’t mean actual fighting of course, an orderly queue would be fine.

Trinity is open for brunch and tea in the tea room, and lunch and dinner in the restaurant.