We booked a last-minute meal with my other half's family for Mother's Day. They managed to seat 10 of us with only booking that morning - great start!
We had the 6-course tasting menu (which was more like a 9-course - no complaints!) and it was really lovely. From what I understand, the tasting menu changes slightly day-to-day depending on the produce they have and the season. The menu we sampled is not the one currently on the website, but it was brilliant nonetheless.
The first course of the menu beings with 4 small tastings which could be a course in its own right in my opinion. The menu we sampled began with beremeal, turnip & curry before a St. Andrew's cheddar doughnut & winter truffle (literally cheese in a doughnut!), a crab taco and and ox cheek & celeriac bowl. All 4 courses were lovely and, needless to say, quite filling on their own!
The following course was a winter salad with fermented and raw vegetables which was very refreshing. Third course was scallops with kohlrabi, fennel & a green sauce which was also very refreshing. I'm not usually one who would order scallops, but it was cooked beautifully. For the fourth course, there was a choice between duck and pork. The pork dish came with shoulder of pork and also pork cheek, both of which were melt-in-the-mouth, albeit a bit salty for my taste. Still a lovely dish.
The fifth course was the first of the sweet dishes. We had the most gorgeous blood orange marmalade - a small sphere of ice cream(??) and a marmalade centre. I could've eaten a whole bowl of those and be quite happy! The last and final course was the second sweet dish - a 70% dark chocolate with olive oil and almond. This one, I was not overly keen on. It came with an olive oil sorbet which tasted more like garlic, which was really off-putting for me personally. I didn't feel it went well with the dark chocolate or the almond. I happily ate around the sorbet though, as the rest of the dish was pleasant.
There is also the option to order a cheese board or a cheese toastie between the fourth course (duck/pork in our case) and the first of the sweet dishes. We were all struggling by the fourth course, so we passed on both cheese board and cheese toastie!
A lot of work went in to creating and producing the dishes on the tasting menu and it is quite obvious. This is the first tasting menu I have ever tried in a restaurant and I'd happily try another after this experience. I wasn't overly sure that to expect, but was pleasantly surprised albeit beyond full!
I'd definitely recommend The Newport to anyone who asks. Just be wary that the restaurant is accessible either through the bar or round the back, down the stairs through the glass doors - we got lost trying to find out way in to the building! I'm not sure how accessible this would be with a wheelchair, but I imagine staff would do everything they can to accommodate, as they were fantastic on our visit where there were also two young children under 5.