In the twilight of 2025, we returned to Osip, a farm to table restaurant in deepest Somerset that we last visited in 2023.

I keep a list of restaurants that I want to visit on Google Maps with notes. Osip sat at the top of my list. I subscribe to their newsletter and read about the renovations of this 16/17th century coaching in-turned-pub reborn with a lived in, English countryside chic.

On entering I instantly had some regrets that we did not book on of the four rooms above the restaurant; a regret amplified when it also dawned on me that we had not booked a return taxi to Frome because Osip is isolated. So much so that on the winding journey here I accepted that no one would ever find our bodies if it came to it.

The reception room is cozy. There is a short pile of newspapers in a basket; both the logs and decorative pillows are hand-chopped, the latter as if by protocol. It all looks thrown together in that deeply considered, designer way. An indoor fire exudes warmth and a flickering glow that softly whispers, “Stay a while, drink red wine and throw on some thick socks.”

Versus our last visit, Osip’s dishes are intense, studious and bold. Two years ago, the cooking felt displayed rather than harnessed — admired, rather than realised. Now, Merlin decants flavour by coaxing what’s delicious from places we know instinctively, then assembles disparate elements as if they were always meant to sit together. The kitchen plumbs flavour depths with a finesse that feels intuitive and honed.

Take the Orkney scallops, lacquered in sticky roasted-chicken jus beneath a ten-tog duvet of Jerusalem artichoke purée, those crispy tubers and a dusting of cep powder. It’s a modern surf-and-turf by which others should be judged.

Osip is now a local hero turned world class restaurant but for one caveat, and that’s the service. It’s fine. It’s professional and well-informed, but it is under powered. The food invites you to lean in while the hospitality keeps you at arms’ length.

Read more about Osip on EatGoSee or my Substack. Both links are in my profile.

📍 Osip, 25 Kingsettle Hill, Bruton, Somerset, BA10 0LN.

#itsliamcollens #osip #foodwriter

Would you go? Less