Orin Ridge — wood-fired kitchen and counter

When we cook

Three services, one fire

The oven is lit at seven in the morning and goes out when the last plate leaves. What changes through the week is how the room is run.

Tue–Fri12:00 – 14:30

Counter lunch

Walk-in only, twelve seats facing the pass. A plate of the day, bread from the morning bake and one pudding. Most guests are in and out inside the hour.
Wed–Sat17:30 – 21:30

Evening service

Full menu, tables of two to six. Last orders for the fire go in at 21:00 because the oven needs the time more than we do.
SundayOne sitting, 13:00

The hearth sitting

Everyone eats together from one menu, served to the middle of the table. Whatever the fire was built around that week decides the courses.
MondayClosed

Prep and the growers’ run

No service. The kitchen bakes, butchers and drives out to the farms, which is why Tuesday’s menu is usually the most interesting one.

From the fire

Cooked directly over oak or in the mouth of the oven. Shared well between two.

Whole leeks, hazelnut, aged curdVeg £11
Burnt outside, sweet through the middle, dressed while still hot.
Day-boat fish, fennel, brown butter £24
Whichever fish came up that morning; the board by the pass says which.
Hogget shoulder, quince, bitter leaves £27
Six hours in the cooling oven overnight, finished hard over the coals.
Embered onions, smoked cream, rye crumbVeg £10
Buried in ash until collapsing, then peeled at the pass.

From the field

Raw, pickled or barely touched. These change the fastest.

Late tomatoes, basil stalk oilVegan £9
The last of the glasshouse crop, salted an hour before service.
Chicory, walnut, sheep’s cheeseVeg £9
Bitter on purpose. Ask for it after the fire plates, not before.
Morning bread, cultured butterVeg £5
Baked in the falling heat of yesterday’s oven. One loaf per table.
Pickles from the back shelfVegan £6
Whatever the summer left us with, cut and plated cold.

To finish

Three puddings, no more. The oven is usually too busy for a fourth.

Baked plums, oat creamVeg £8
Roasted whole in their own juice with a spoon of toasted oats.
Burnt honey tart £8
Set soft, served at room temperature, cut thin for a reason.
Chocolate, olive oil, sea saltVegan £7
Dense, cold from the larder, finished with coarse salt.

Counter lunch is a shorter affair — one fire plate, bread and a pudding for £22, plus whatever the field section is running that day. The hearth sitting on Sunday is a single set menu at £46 a head, announced on the Thursday before.

Field notes

Why the menu is this short

We buy from four growers and one boat. That is the whole supply chain, and it decides more about dinner than we do.

A short menu means the oven stays full of things that genuinely want heat, and nothing sits in a fridge waiting for a dish that only sells twice a week. It also means the kitchen can break a dish apart on a Thursday and rewrite it by Friday lunch without wasting a crate of anything.

If something reads unfamiliar, ask the cook in front of you. The counter exists so that the person who charred it can tell you what it is.

We would rather serve nine things properly than twenty things carefully. Orin Ridge kitchen

Crates of freshly harvested vegetables and herbs delivered to a kitchen door

Groups of seven and over

The private table

The back room holds one long table. It is the only part of the restaurant we hold in advance, because feeding a group from a single fire takes planning.

Seats seven to sixteen, served family style from the middle of the table.
One menu for the group, written with you in the week before the date.
Available on evening service and for the Sunday sitting.
Dietary needs are cooked, not substituted — tell us early and the menu is built around them.

A long timber table set for a group in a quiet back dining room

Before you come

Questions we get asked

Can you cook around an allergy?

Yes, and we would rather know before the day than at the table. Tell us in the enquiry or at the counter when you sit down. Nuts, dairy and gluten are all present in the kitchen, so we will be honest with you if a dish cannot be made safe rather than guessing.

Is there enough here if I don’t eat meat?

Most of the fire section and all of the field section are vegetable-led, and the tags on the menu mark what is vegetarian or vegan as written. For the Sunday sitting and the private table, the kitchen writes a separate menu rather than removing components from the main one.

Do you take bookings for normal service?

Lunch is walk-in only — the counter turns quickly and a queue of two or three is normal at the start of service. Evening tables of two to six are kept largely for walk-ins as well, with the quietest window usually mid-week before seven. Only the private table is held in advance.

Are children welcome?

At lunch and at the Sunday sitting, yes, and the kitchen will plate a smaller portion of whatever is on the fire. The counter is high and the evening room is dim and quite loud, so later service suits older children better.

What happens if we need to change a private table date?

Let us know as early as you can and we will move the date if the diary allows it. Within a week of the booking, produce for your menu has usually already been ordered from the growers, so a late change may mean the original menu cannot follow you to the new date.

Can we bring our own wine?

For the private table, yes — bring one or two bottles that matter to you and we will serve them properly alongside the list. During counter lunch and evening service we stick to our own short list, which is chosen to sit with smoke rather than against it.

Everything here meets the fire first.

Three services, one fire

Counter lunch

Evening service

The hearth sitting

Prep and the growers’ run

The menu