Now serving The autumn card, Wednesday to Sunday. Saturday evenings are tasting menu only after 19:00. Reserve a table
Opal Verge Hearth Kitchen
Menu
Warmly lit restaurant dining room at dusk with laid tables and pendant lights

Wood, coals, one small room

Everything here is cooked over fire, twice a day, by the people who bought it.

Opal Verge is a thirty-four cover dining room in the old glass works on the river bend. One card, changed when the growers change it, cooked at a single hearth you can see from every seat.

Reserve a table Read the menu

Wednesday – Sunday · Kitchen from 17:30 · Eight seats at the counter held back for walk-ins

Kitchen hours
Wednesday to Sunday, from 17:30. Lunch on Saturday and Sunday from midday.
The room
Thirty-four covers, eight of them at the counter facing the fire.
How we cook around you
Plant-based and gluten-free cards are cooked to order, not adapted at the table.

The kitchen

What a service here actually looks like

Service begins at four in the afternoon, when the fire is banked and the day's crates come through the side door. Whatever arrived decides the card. If the trout is good we write trout; if it is not, we do not serve it and nobody pretends otherwise. The board in the pass is chalk for that reason.

There is no second kitchen hidden at the back. One hearth, two cooks, a plancha and a bread oven that holds heat until closing. It means fewer dishes than you might expect and more attention on each of them.

The room is deliberately small. We would rather turn a table twice with care than build a second floor. Tables are yours for two and a half hours at dinner, three at the long Sunday lunch, and we will never rush your coffee to seat someone behind you.

Dress as you like. Come alone and sit at the counter — it is the best seat in the building and the cooks will talk to you between plates if the pass allows it.

Field notes

  • 01The card is rewritten on Tuesdays and again whenever a grower tells us something has finished for the year.
  • 02Bread, butter, vinegars and most ferments are made in house. The ferment room is under the stairs and it is not quiet.
  • 03Service charge is included in the prices you see. No cover charge, no charge for water, still or sparkling.
Plated main course finished over fire, with charred vegetables and pan juices

Sourcing

Six growers, one boat, and the hives on the ridge

We buy small and often. Nothing is held longer than it should be, which is why a dish can disappear between the time you read this and the night you sit down. If that happens, the cooks will tell you what took its place before you order.

  • VegetablesTwo market gardens within an hour of the bridge, delivered the morning they are cut.
  • FishOne day boat. Whatever it lands is what we write, and some nights that is nothing at all.
  • Meat and dairyWhole animals butchered here, which is why you will see shoulder and offal beside the familiar cuts.
  • Flour and honeyStoneground from the valley mill; honey from four hives we keep ourselves.

The week

What happens on each night

Service is not identical from one day to the next. Read this before you book — it answers most of what people write to ask us.

  1. Wednesday

    17:30 – 22:00

    A shorter card while the week's deliveries settle. Counter and small tables only; the best night to eat alone.

  2. Thursday

    17:30 – 22:30

    Full card. Tasting menu available for two or more. Eight counter seats kept for walk-ins from opening.

  3. Friday

    17:00 – 23:00

    Two sittings, 17:00 and 20:30. Full card, the late list, and bread until it runs out.

  4. Saturday

    12:00 – 15:00 · 17:00 – 23:00

    Lunch card at midday, à la carte early evening, then tasting menu only after 19:00 — the whole room eats together.

  5. Sunday

    12:00 – 17:00

    One long lunch, no dinner. A whole roast for the table, wine by the glass, and nobody moved on early.

  6. Monday & Tuesday

    Closed

    Prep, sourcing, butchery and training. Enquiries sent on these days are answered the following morning.

Last orders are thirty minutes before the kitchen closes. The room stays open a while after that, so a late table is not a rushed one.

Questions

Before you book

How far ahead should we book?

Friday and Saturday tables go two to three weeks out. Wednesday and Thursday are usually available in the same week, and Sunday lunch often has space for a larger group at short notice.

Do you keep anything back for walk-ins?

Eight counter seats are held from opening every night we are open, on a first-come basis. They are not bookable, and they are the only seats we release without notice.

Can you cook around allergies and intolerances?

Yes, and we would rather build the dish properly than remove something from a finished plate. Tell us in the notes when you book, ideally a day ahead, and the pass will write your plates separately. We handle nuts, gluten and shellfish daily, so we will be honest with you about what a shared kitchen can and cannot promise.

Does the tasting menu have to be for the whole table?

On Wednesday and Thursday we will cook it for two. On Friday it needs the full table, and after 19:00 on Saturday it is the only service, so every seat in the room is on it.

Is there real plant-based cooking or just a side dish?

There is a separate plant-based card of four to five plates, cooked over the same fire, plus a plant-based version of the tasting menu with notice. The coal-baked cauliflower on the main card is plant-based exactly as written.

Are children welcome?

Very much so at Saturday and Sunday lunch — smaller portions off the card, high chairs, and no fuss about noise. Evening service after 19:00 is a quiet room with open fire close to the tables, so we keep it for adults.

Reserve

Ask for a table

Send the date and the number of seats and we will confirm by email, usually the same evening. Nothing is charged to hold a table.

  • ·Parties of seven or more: tell us in the notes and we will look at the long table.
  • ·Tasting menu or plant-based cooking: mention it here so the pass can plan the crates.
  • ·Running late? The table is held twenty minutes, and longer if you let us know.
Guests seated at a restaurant counter in conversation during evening service

We reply here with a confirmation or the nearest night we can offer.

Requests are read when the kitchen is quiet, so an answer may arrive after service rather than during it.