Menuwatch: Farmyard, Norwich

He says: "I had worked in London and it's a bubble – everything comes in from all over the world: the chefs, the produce, the customers. None of it feels like it's grounded in anything, it's suspended in mid-air and, as exciting as that is, when I was trying to define the concept of what I wanted to do, I wanted it to be something that had real context.

"We want to showcase the suppliers and the region so that the restaurant exists in a time and space that's relevant to us as chefs, to our customers and to where we are in the country."

Farmyard's stripped-back interiors belie the levels of service and technique on display, with Jones making a conscious effort to let what's on the plate do the talking. He says: "This is a bistro. There's no tablecloths or anything, but that's because we spend our time and effort on the techniques and on sourcing great wines, so the value is on the plate. We really hope people appreciate that."

Each dish on the à la carte menu is centred around a piece of Norfolk produce, be it meat, fish or vegetable. A dish of Norfolk sirloin (£28) is bred on a farm with its own butchery, cut and hung for 35-days to the restaurant's specifications. It is split down the middle to create almost a "double sirloin chop", which Jones says holds up really well when cooked over charcoal on the Bertha oven that takes centre stage in the kitchen.

Sat alongside the sirloin is a Roscoff onion cooked in dashi, the centre of which is puréed with soy, rice wine vinegar and mirin. Aztec broccoli comes from a tiny producer just down the road and sits alongside shiitake mushrooms pickled in soy, rice wine vinegar and a bit of truffle oil. A Bordelaise sauce finished with the smoked fat trimmed from the sirloins is the final element added to the plate.

Jones says: "That sirloin dish really represents what we do. It can only be produced in this restaurant because of the relationships we have with our suppliers, the understanding we have of how that produce works and the techniques we use. It reads simply on the menu, but an awful lot goes into it."

Similarly, a pork belly starter (£12) uses pigs reared by a specialised producer and butcher, who prepares the meat to the chef's specifications. Once it arrives in the restaurant it's a five-day process to the plate, during which time the pork will be boiled and the skin scraped down before it is cured, air-dried and slow-cooked, with the final touch to crisp the skin. It's currently served with a blackberry ketchup, pickled blackberries, fennel pollen, sage emulsion and crispy sage leaves.

"It's absolutely seasonal right now," says Jones. "When I walk the dog in the morning, I walk past the blackberry bushes and the last of the wild fennel and I pick the buds. It really is a dish very specific to now, very specific to here."

Since its conception in 2017 three items have remained on the menu: a snack of goats' cheese and olive bon bons (£4), which Jones describes as "simply delicious"; a 1kg cote de boeuf (£75) and the chocolate bar dessert (£10).

Jones says: "They've been on the menu every service since we opened and it's really important to me that they stay there because it grounds the menu in that concept and in that bistro idea. The chocolate bar has evolved. When we started it was really simple: it was a slab of ganache and we piped on miso caramel, dressed it with peanuts and put a scoop of milk sorbet on there and people loved it. Over lockdown we reworked it and it's now a more elegant version, but with the same flavours."

As Jones adds: "There's no reason to change something if it works and it's delicious."

From the menu

Starters

• Smoked Gressingham duck, pomegranate, baby gem, coriander, dukkah £11
• Moroccan barbecue seabass, courgette flower, yogurt £10
• Heirloom tomatoes, tomato essence, basil, Norfolk White Lady snow £8

Main courses

• Coley, barbecue hispi, cucumber, lemon crumb, beurre blanc £22
• Jerk chicken, corn salsa, tenderstem broccoli, mango £23

Desserts

• Cointreau crème brûlée, chocolate, orange sorbet £9
• Caramelised white chocolate mousse, Chambord, raspberry feuillatine, raspberry sorbet £9

23 St Benedicts Street, Norwich NR2 4PF

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