The pretty Dorset harbour town of Lyme Regis might be more famed for fossils than food, but that’s set to change with the recent opening of Robin Wylde – a new provenance-driven British restaurant from chef Harriet Mansell.
Following formative work with Mark Hix, a stage at Noma and time cooking on superyachts, Mansell launched Robin Wylde – the pseudonym evoking both wild countryside and archaic English charm – as a pop-up in Lyme Regis in 2019. Its sell-out success saw her invited to compete on this year’s edition of Great British Menu, and plans for a permanent restaurant followed soon after.
Robin Wylde’s food is driven by local produce / Image: Matt Austin
The 32-seat restaurant offers a nine-course tasting menu, plus accompanying low-intervention and West Country wines – taking in plenty of coastal produce, brilliant seafood and a host of pickled, preserved, fermented and raw ingredients. All in, it’s an approach that places Robin Wylde square in the new school of hyper-local regional restaurants alongside Merlin Labron-Johnson’s Osip in Somerset, and Will Devlin’s The Smallholding in Kent – and is a truly exciting addition to the Dorset food scene.
Here, Mansell gives us her insider tips for other exemplary eats in and around Lyme Regis.
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