Earl of March - Delicious food review!

It’s not often being gluten free that you can head out for dinner and head to somewhere unique. Unfortunately these days it seems to be the chain restaurants that are heading up the allergy free food. However not you’ll be happy to know if you live in Sussex!

The Earl of March is a beautiful country pub restaurant with views over the gorgeous South Downs and Goodwood. In fact one my favourite poems – Jerusalem was written by William Blake sitting in the rooms looking out over these gorgeous views.  It’s easy to see what inspired him!

The views alone require a visit I think but just wait until you’ve sampled the food. I was happily assured by their staff that the chef wouldn’t need any prior warning and could make whatever I ordered up gluten free on the day. The Earl of March was taken over by Giles Thompson in 2007 (former executive head chef at the Ritz) and his dishes shine through with talent. Simple but amazingly scrumptious they are full of flavour and beautifully presented.

Incredibly family friendly we turned up with our two boys and were greeted with smiles all evening by the staff and fellow customers. Immediately they bought out bread to starve off their hunger and were quick on the ordering. Determined to try the full range we all ordered something different and in all honestly were swept away at each mouthful – boys included. Their meals were simple but perfect! They chose from the mini gastronauts fabulous tasting sausages with mash or Chicken breasts with chips. Wonderfully delicious and perfect sizing for growing boys!

We however decide to choose their set menu (£19.50 for 2 courses of 3 for £21.50) and started off with Pork Rillettes. Beautiful done with red wine poached pears, celeriac & cornichons and topped with toasted hazelnuts each mouthful was full of flavour. Incredibly tasty it was the perfect way to start.

My husband then went for mussels and I went for the Roast Pave of Local Cod, with bacon parsley & corn crumb with a warm samphire & potato salad. The mussels were amazing, in a beautiful sauce accompanied with chips and bread to soak up the sauce I think I might just revisit for these alone! 

The cod was cooked to perfection and melted in your mouth. Cooked to perfection it flaked under fork and the added flavours just tipped it over. Perfect and of course gluten free!

Dessert next and we both went for the crumble. Pear, blackberry & almond crumble with Lemon sorbet. Rather than a boring oat topping for my gluten free dessert they produced a beautiful nut topping which tasted divine against the fruits and lemon sorbet just stopped it being too rich.

A stunningly simple but gorgeous meal every bite had been cooked to perfection. The beautiful food aside the staff was fabulous, double checking the allergies for us at every turn, they were great with boys who were never left to get bored and the clientele were great too.  I also noticed as were leaving around the corner towards the bar they had cushy seats with a range of books to borrow while you ate there or popped in. 

We will most definitely be back whether it’s for a light snack or a just because meal! The prices were reasonable especially when you consider who the chef was, lovely service and wonderful food. An all-round fantastic gluten free friendly restaurant! 5 stars!