‘A worthy evolution of Robin Wylde’: Harriet Mansell to launch new dining space

Chef Harriet Mansell is to launch a new dining space at her Lilac restaurant in Lyme Regis, Dorset, this June.

Garden Table will offer a plant-forward tasting menu for 14 diners in an intimate table in the woodland courtyard hidden behind the main restaurant, which opened in August 2021.

The wild and foraged food menu will officially launch on 24 June and has been confirmed to run until October, with tentative plans in place to “make it year round”.

Dishes will feature pine, spruce, larch, summer flowers, and a selection of wild fish and meat, while the menus themselves will showcase Mansell’s hand-crafted designs.

The chef has also collaborated with Anna Wardrop, who was responsible for the garden design of the River Café in London’s Hammersmith and Shoreditch House in east London, to create the dinner setting for Garden Table.

The launch comes after the closure of Mansell's first Lyme Regis restaurant, Robin Wylde, in April last year.

Mansell revealed she has long-term plans to secure a location for a “future restaurant with rooms and education space”.

She said: “The entire menu is representative of a desire to honour processes that take time, and to work on doing things with care and attention. By learning skills and handcrafting as many elements as possible, which I am currently doing, (woodcutting and calligraphy to name a couple!) it imbues the entire project, from my perspective, with a slow and calm level of care and attention to detail.

“I am hoping that this will elevate the project sufficiently to become a worthy evolution of Robin Wylde. I am excited and can’t wait to share this with people. It’s everything I believe in and love.”