People interested in things gastronomic in Oxfordshire are likely to have heard of Kieron Daniels. Once a chef at Oxford's Le Petit Blanc, he went on to run a succession of foodie pubs, all in the south of the county. From the Lord Nelson at Brightwell Baldwin, he moved first to the Half Moon at Cuxham, near Watlington, and then to The Three Tuns on Henley's Market Square. This lovely old building was transformed under his stewardship into what he styled the Three Tuns Foodhouse and earned high praise from the various guides and, indeed, from me, when I reviewed the operation in 2003.

A founder member of the Campaign for Real Food, Kieron is passionate about the origin of the ingredients used in his dishes. He uses a combination of local suppliers, and produce bought on regular trips to the main London markets. This policy was noted with approval in the 2006 edition of the Good Food Guide, which also commented on the quirky and eclectic feel of the place, and the fact - perhaps a tad off-putting - that it used to be a mortuary.

In the 2007 edition of the GFG, which came out a couple of weeks ago, the Three Tuns Foodhouse has disappeared from the listings. This is one of the very few changes in what always seems to me a somewhat static survey of the county's restaurant scene. (Without naming names, I can think of half a dozen places more worthy of mention than some of the recommended establishments.) The one new entry for the county, outside Oxford, is The Fox and Hounds at Christmas Common - which just happens to be run by Kieron, too.

I say 'too', but in fact this is no longer the mot juste, since he is no longer the licensee of the Three Tuns. He was ceasing to be so, I discovered later, at precisely the moment I was making my first acquaintance with his operation at the Fox and Hounds a couple of Fridays ago. I wondered why he wasn't at work in the kitchen, which opens on to the main dining room. It turns out he was in Henley, in the final stages of the hand-over to a new tenant.

It is one of the unfortunate consequences of the anonymous inspections that I carry out for The Oxford Times that I can't bank on meeting the chef, since my arrival must be unannounced. I was sorry to miss Kieron, and have said we will return soon. This will give me a chance to sample something I'd hoped to find on our visit - venison, grouse or other examples of the new season's game. With the boss away, our choices had been rather more limited.

Actually, Rosemarie had been chuntering about this as we drove home. After I'd snaffled the main course of wild Atlantic red bream with peas, broad beans and Little Gem lettuce, and her mum had bagged the bangers, there wasn't much else she fancied. I'd had the Falmouth mackerel with slow-roasted red peppers, which came in two portion sizes, as a starter (and found it as fresh and expertly cooked as the bream). This left her with a choice between rib-eye steak, smoked salmon and green bean salad (another two-size dish) and Gressingham duck.

She settled on the duck, not one of her favourite meats, but which was prettily served here in pink, fat-free slices, with a mash of root vegetables and Shiraz gravy. To start, she had a pastry tart filled with roast butternut squash, red onions and three cheeses, which she switched to at the last moment having first thought to try the unusual combination of charcuterie - goose salami, duck speck and artisan chorizo. She finished with a gooey-centred hot chocolate fondant - a trademark Raymond Blanc dish and part, presumably, of Kieron's Petit Blanc heritage.

Olive began with a square of smooth chicken liver parfait, with onion gravy and toast, continued with the excellent sausages - supplied by the Gabriel Machin butcher's shop on Henley's Market Square - and competed her meal with a generous portion of treacle tart with Jersey cream.