Lewes (pronounced Lewis) is the charming historic County Town of East Sussex, just a few miles from Brighton.  The town is probably best known for its huge and spectacular bonfire celebrations on 5th November, enacted to remember the Protestant “Sussex Martyrs”. Until just recently the town was not known for its food, but in October 2021 a new restaurant opened with a mind to change that.  Fork is a cosy restaurant in an old town house just moments from Lewes train station.  Chef Andrew Wilson uses high quality, very local and seasonal produce, so the menu changes frequently.  I first became aware of Fork through Instagram, and I liked the dishes I saw, and wanted to go there.  Mr A and I had dinner at Fork on the second Tuesday of February 2022 (beating the Valentine’s Day rush) and we were the first guests to arrive for a 6.45pm booking.  Booking through their website I had a choice between a standard table or the kitchen counter, and even though their website didn’t talk about the counter, that’s what I booked because Mr A and I love to see as much of the food as possible, and we like to be able to talk with the chefs.

Because the counter was relatively high, we had a better view of the chefs in action than we usually get.  However the counter stools are not padded and have a small diameter, so they are not that comfortable for a boney, flat arse like mine.  But as it happens I didn’t have any issues.  One thing you always notice from the counter is that the majority of work, the “prep” or “mise en place” in French, happens in advance, so that putting dishes together mainly consists of some reheating and assemblage.  And so it seemed like only moments after being seated that we were offered an amuse bouche of smoked fish arancini, topped with a beetroot gel.

The arancini were very good; crispy on the outside, moist and flavoursome inside. 8/10

The menu was suitably short, with a choice of four each of starters, mains and desserts, and you can choose to have 2 or 3 courses. We selected the latter at £45 each.  The wine list is also very short, but it carries a decent selection, including wines from Sussex, with the majority available by the glass.  With Mr A driving, drinking by the glass was ideal for me, so I started with a local sparkling wine at £9.50

I had chosen organic cauliflower soup with Sussex Blue Cloud (a cheese), hazelnuts, scallions and beignets, which were a very tasty and lighter version of croutons.  This was a pleasant enough soup; well executed, tasty, but no ‘wow factor’. 6/10. Mr A’s starter of “crispy Asian sticky cod” was a good 9/10 though, and later chef Andrew told us it was their most popular starter.

My main course was “Ashdown forest saddle of venison” which was served with tender stem broccoli, roasted garlic, celeriac puree, fondant potato and a jus.  This was a very good plate of well balanced seasonal food, centred around a superbly tender and flavoursome piece of venison.  My only criticism was that the portion could have been larger; it was more akin to the size of a main course in a multi-course tasting menu.  8/10

We shared a side portion of honey glazed heritage carrots, at £4, which were lovely and soft.

On our visit only chef Andrew and his sous chef were in the kitchen, as their pastry chef had a night off. But Andrew was still able to serve me a very good dessert indeed, called “Rhubarb and custard”.  There was a thick disc of compressed rhubarb, topped with creme diplomat, a meringue, rhubarb gel and pistachio pieces.  The flavours and textures were delicious and the rhubarb had been prepared perfectly (no ‘stringiness’). This dish was not too sweet either, which always gets a bonus mark from (diabetic) me.  9/10

Even in the depths of winter chef Andrew and Fork can get hold of some stunning ingredients locally (I had no idea Sussex produced forced rhubarb in February, I thought it only came from the “Yorkshire Triangle”!).  The food was tasty, the chefs were friendly and informative, and, overall I thought our total bill of £134 represented very good value.  Fork describes itself as a “neighbourhood restaurant”, a term I love because it makes me think of local people coming together for good value food.  At about 5 miles away from my house, it might be just outside my neighbourhood, but I shall definitely return, possibly quite regularly.  Overall 8/10