Solstice opened in 2021, rebranded from its former incarnation of being ‘Kenny’s cafe’ on the decision of Kenny Atkinson to make it a continuum and next chapter of House of Tides. By all accounts this was a serious menu and the details of my menu experienced are as follows:  

SMOKED EEL – this was a brandade, with crème fraiche, smoked eel, compressed granny apple and N25 hybrid caviar, served chicken skin crackers. This had a beautiful balance of the salt from the eel and caviar combined with the softening creme fraiche and acidity of the gel.   

BEETROOT – a crusade with chewy beetroot cooked in salt crust for 4-5 hours and seasoned with diced, dehydrated beetroot (having cooked in beef fat), cumin, elderberry pickled from last year, horseradish creme fraiche, carroway, and lightly pickled beetroot. This was good, with a chewy, salty texture and lovely crunch of the crustade. 

DUCK – chicken liver parfait with Pedro Ximanez sherry, pain d’epiese, fermented plum, dill and fresh flowers served in a spring roll pastry, parcel.  This was frankly outstanding – the perfect texture of the parfait also had real liver depth and was balanced with the supporting plum and dill gave the sweet and lightness it needed, all combined in the beautifully brittle pastry for texture – wonderfully enjoyable.

PORK – this course consisted of two elements, a dumpling and a broth.  The dumpling, pork shoulder, was made with dashi, cooked in pork fat, black bean paste, ginger,  pickled daicon, yuzu ponzu and trout roe – a lot of elements and a nice result with a very light batter and softened pork flavour.  The broth of pork collar was made with shiitake mushrooms, ceps, ginger seasoned with ponzu and miso oil. This was a very dark broth and quite salty.

LOBSTER – cooked in its own oil and served with sancho pepper, fresh red currents, yuzu gel, yuzu caramel, yuzu butter cream sauce and lobster head oil on top. Although the lobster piece was only just warm, the small piece had good sweetness and texture and overall lovely combinations of cream and citrus combined.

SASHIMI – a ‘palate cleanser’ which came with sea bass, cured in sake brine, rolled in black radish, blanched, finger lime, dill and ponzu, aged mirin, infused with shiitake and kombu, seasoned with bergamot, zest and toasted sesame oil.  This was aromatic to the last, complex and light. All the aramats worked well together and was good to have some vegetables in the mix for the meal.  

PARMESAN – a cheese mousse from 35 day macadamia nuts, glazed with Lea & Perrin sauce, gold dust, truffle, Parmesan sauce and South of France truffles from truffle company Wiltshire truffles.  This was absolutely delightful. I was grinning as a genuine dopamine moment from the first moment of this course.  Overall it had the perfect seasoning in amongst the aerated cheese with the truffle and  – beautifully done, showing real skill.

CATCH OF THE DAY – Monkfish from Hodgson Fish of Cornwall was dry-aged for texture, served with melody blossom, apple marigold and a smoked creamed sauce using Craster kippers. This was probably one of the best Monkfish I have ever had (they can so often be too chewy, but this was perfectly supple and smokey in flavour with amazing sauces, all washed down with a wonderful Riesling whilst listening to Simply Red For your Babies playing as the restaurant music in the background – I was utterly happy in this moment with everything.

SQUAB PIGEON – from Anjou, near Lyon.  The pigeon breast was served with a cherry glaze, cherry juice, miso, sake, sugar, seasoned with pink peppercorn, salt baked celeriac, topped with puree of celeriac, yeast, black garlic, cherry gel, butterfly sorrel and parsley.  The sauce was made using the carcasses of the pigeon wings and chicken with Madeira wine, chopped truffle, Parker house brioche brushed with chicken fat.  The pigeon was absolutely spot on with a lovely, deep sauce that had a delightful hint of aniseed touch in the sauce.  Beautifully made milk bread was provided to soak up all of the sauce possible and this was used to the maximum level possible. 

PEAR – a picturesque pre-dessert of goats yoghurt and goats milk crémeux came with horseradish jam, mashed pears, pear sorbet and a tuille (from pear pulp) with a final drizzle of pear and sage juice with sage oil. This was refreshing and lovely. Done. 

HONEY – the main dessert was a celebration of honey from the Northumberland Honey Company made from heather honey, parfait bergamot, fresh bee pollen, ice cream from grain.  The honey parfait was delicious with good texture and the ice cream with a pleasantly contrasting (nutty) toasted cereal flavour.  It was in effect an absolute showcase of honey as a dessert and one of the best honey desserts I’ve ever had. 

An array of petit fours was presented with coffee.  A cranberry tart crémeux with cinnamon, orange, cranberry gel, mascarpone; Granny Smith Apple financier creme patissiere  (lovely apple crumble feel to it); Manjeri chocolate with 64% cacao (not overly bitter, and nicely smoked sea salt complement); blood orange pate de fruit (fruit paste), infused blood orange, cardamon, Madagascan pepper (very good mix of spice and sweetness) and finally a tonca bean petit four of single origin Manjari 70% Valrhona chocolate, filled with tamarind gel and chilli ganache with chilli coconut – once again, very good handling of spice, heat and sweetness.

This was a very impressive menu and the consistency I enjoyed that pretty much every single course had a degree of freshness in amongst the sometimes complex mix of elements without confusing the overall result.  The atmosphere of the restaurant was charming with the lovely touch of the kitchen team bringing out and explaining the dishes themselves.  There is real care and pride in the work here and rightly so.  I thought this was Kenny Atkinson at his absolute best and certainly the most intricate and impressive menu I have enjoyed of his yet. I will wager that Solstice is very much the flagship beacon of the brand now, even if it is a more recent addition.

I have yet to have a bad meal in any way on any of my visits to Kenny Atkinson’s venues – they have strong consistency and based on this meal, Solstice is highly recommended as a result.

Food Grade: 87%

A series of well-prepared canapés began the meal.  ‘Uncle Juan’s rosti’ came with  sour cream & pickled onions and was a superb start. Next, for the meat eaters, ham, egg & Berkswell crumpet (just the egg for the vegetarian version) which was appealing, followed by an Oxtail & Thyme custard, bone marrow cordyceps and tarragon bite (minus the beef elements for the vegetarian option) – all fine.

The amuse bouche was Umbellifers (flowers) cooked in allium broth with ricotta, thyme and ramson (a form of wild garlic flower); this was deep and beautifully done.  Home made bread and whipped, salted butter were very well done.  Onion, onion, onion, mint was the name of the next course that comprised of onions cooked in dashi and celery, served with ricotta, onion crisp, thyme leaves and oxalis petals.

The first of the mains were corn fed roasted crown of chicken served with a herb rosti, honey glazed alliums, smoked aubergine and a white onion puree.  This included thyme, tarragon, pickled carrot, sour cream and ramson oil for the chicken and the seabass pescatarian version.  The sauces for these had good depth and worked with both dishes with another superb rosti to go with the mains.

The dessert was a delight and reminded me of Norwegian Rødgrød – a sweet composite of plum and damson served with goat’s milk, marigold oil, brown butter/sugar crunch on top.  Some at the table felt this was too sweet, but I thought fine when balanced with the goats milk and loved the texture of the butter and sugar crunch.  There will have one or two calories in this dish for sure, but I thought very good.

Redbank coffee was served with petit fours of buttermilk custard madeleines, sea buckthorn pastiles and chocolate grenache, all of which were good.  It completed a meal that was satisfying, clean cut and well presented.  The next time I am passing I will be delighted to come back in and try a freshly made sausage roll from Kevin Tickle’s team with a beer in their pub area – for around £10, I predict that will be one of the best purchases available.

Food Grade: 81%

St Barts is under the helmsmanship of head chef Johnnie Crowe who is formerly of The Harwood Arms (when under Alex Harper) and Nest in East London.  Our meal started with House made soda bread with slices of pancetta from the loin of Mangalaci, a breed of pig specific to Hungry and widely thought of as the ‘Kobe beef’ of pig.  This was indeed very good and a simple and quality start.

Next up came Jersey beef Denver carpaccio (known for its marbling) which had 100 days aging and was swerved with horseradish perilla flower (within the shiso family).  This had a lovely coating of oil and bite from the perilla which were pitched very nicely.  Next came buttered mushrooms on set custard with mushroom stock, cep, shitake, caramelised yeast butter sourdough croutons and pickled foam – I thought this was cracking with punchy mushroom and indulgent textures and accompanying flavours.

Squash ‘risotto’, was next and was diced squash, puree pumpkin seed, praline and foam from pickled squash juice.  This was indeed carefully prepared and executed but my mind could not help reflect on simpler and more powerful versions of pumpkin or butternut squash as experienced at 2 Michelin starred Kichisen in Kyoto.  Peking duck from Yorkshire was aged two weeks in house to get rid of moisture in skin and served with pickled lingonberries, duck fat and berry compote dressing.  Home made milk bread (very good) was on the side along with a mashed potato side as well.

An additional cheese course was opted for which included Yarlington, Baron Bigod, Beauvale, Sinodun Hill and Lincolnshire poacher, served with Buchanons Oatcakes, spelt sour dough crackers and fruit bread.  All of these were hugely enjoyable and it was also very good to have such good condiments as well which included Medlar and onion chutney and quince.

The dessert was black apple with puffed wheat, black barley cake apple compote, black apple tuile and sour dough ice cream which was a good dessert however I probably enjoyed the flavour of the excellent sour dough ice cream the most – a lovely balance of sweet and slightly savoury, expertly done to accompany the rather bitter apple remainder, which did not perhaps feel like the main component.  Tea came from the Rare Tea Company and Nespresso for the coffee and the petit fours were a skilful couple of chocolate tarlets made with koji, miso and caramel – whilst these were pleasant with well-executed pastry tartlets, normal ganache would have been more enjoyable in a tartlet as my preference if there was a choice. 

In summary, there were some fine aspects to the produce sourcing here, with a very hospitable team and engaging and articulate chef on meeting and speaking with him.  The restaurant is a beautiful place and I was pleased to have experienced it.

Food Grade: 72%

The meal started with a series of canapés including crab tacos with mayonnaise and Granny Smith apple and pale ale crustades with a delightful Berkswell cheese and onion ketchup inside.  Whilst the sourdough was more brown breadlike in its boule form, it was a good vehicle for the sensational butter that was subsequently hoovered up very quickly.

The table tried as many dishes as possible.  First up on the starters was Chalk Stream trout, golden beetroot tartare with an elderflower and sour cream on top which was a great, new combination not had before and worked very well.  The Devon smoked eel and tenderstem broccoli had a delightfully light preserved lemon foam around and the eel held a very good balance of saltiness.  

The aged striploin tartare was another very good starter served with red pepper, orange and a glorious pine nut oil with a few pine nuts as well; this was a brilliant version of tartare for flavour combinations and nicely diced.  Monkfish came with cocoa pod glaze, a lovely Jamón butter sauce and maitake mushroom – the Monkfish itself was cooked perfectly with a lovely, crisp exterior.  In short I thought all starters were actually all knock out and a very good intro to the meal.  An interlude course of Sea bass came with a smoked Espelette butter sauce and cocoa bean cassoulet which was very enjoyable, with quite a strong kick of espellette for two of the diners; perhaps if this was toned down even more it may be even more of a delicate dish.

The mains chosen were very tender Iberico pressa, artichoke, king oyster mushroom.  The meat was melt in the mouth and the accompanying jus was deep and rich. Guinea hen, with thin and crispy skin, parsnip, black truffle likewise came with a superb jus that made the dish.  Hereford cote de boeuf for two, came with a Béarnaise sauce, oak leaf and Lollo Rosso salad which was a very welcome bit of veg that was also a lovely salad with dill and garlic cream and dried onion sprinkled on top.  The beef itself didn’t create fireworks in comparison to other cuts enjoyed at other options experienced at places such as Smith and Wollensky or The Cut at 45 Park Lane, but was cooked perfectly and came with a very generous helping of béarnaise.  All was served with boulangère potatoes to share which is always a lovely touch for a table and looked very pretty.  No skimming on the portion size here and the caramelised onions provided much sweetness.  

The desserts were a pleasant mix. Coffee and Manjari delice with macadamia and coffee liqueur was a creative dish with snow-like textures.  I thought the miso and brown sugar brulee was sensational made with mandarin and excellent gingerbread pieces.  The custard was beautifully set with delicate sugar roof and a wonderful flavour combination with the miso and the lightly gingered bread pieces.  The Colston Bassett, Pink Lady apple tarte tatin with lemon verbena was a fun dish to combine blue cheese with a dessert albeit being a little out of kilter.  Cheese will always be good with a selection of sweet chutneys, fruit or sauterne jelly, so no issues with the two being together, but it was a little unclear whether they were to be combined fully or had separately (the blue cheese being quite overpowering for the available sweet) however, it was a fun and new dish. 

Petit fours included passion fruit and misu macron along with hazelnut and chocolate chocolates.  Such is the family orientated homeliness of Hampton Manor, we were ushered to having these by the fire in the main Manor drawing room which is also where we enjoyed a lovely welcome glass of sparkling wine when we arrived for staying over.  This is such a simple and effective touch.  Smoke is a short walk away from the Manor House, as is Grace and Favour, the latter having its own accommodation.

All in all, Smoke is a lovely and originally rustic restaurant with some quality dishes.  I would recommend staying over at Hampton Manor if you are driving a distance to get to the restaurant as this is likewise a lovely place to stay as well – a spot of electric charging wouldn’t go a miss for a 5 star hotel, but then again I would say this driving one! I will be very happy to come back and try Smoke again in a different season.

Food Grade: 74%

The meal started at the bar downstairs where the amuse bouche was offered: Gambret (thigh) from Aquitaine pigs was served as Charcuterie (from SW France), fed on acorns, similar to Belota pigs from East Spain (Iberia).  Mixed vegetable and herb bouquet was offered to be brushed in an asparagus vinaigrette with koji which had a very gentle and aromatic aroma and taste. The butters were wonderful – burnt leak, cultured and chicken butter served with spelt rye sour dough.  Serious effort had gone in to these small, introductions which is always a very good sign and sets the tone frankly for the whole establishment.

Moving upstairs, to the kitchen, I was introduced to the head chef, Theo Clench who introduced me to the first bite of aged blue fin tuna Otoro (deliberately 9 days of ageing as opposed the longer times of 40 days) from Spain on heated Himalayan salt with a ponzu sauce.  The fresh wasabi was from Japan, giving a lovely and more gentle spice, with umami from the aged foie gras from Londe and melted for extra fat with shiso flower and a cherry blossom vinegar juice to finish. All very delicate and a very nice presentation to be given in the kitchen.

Once sat in the illustrious, private dining area I was able to look at the wine list which is strongly influenced from the biodynamic and organic echolocation of wine making.  What was also very pleasant to see was 171st edition cuvee of Krug (based on the 2016 vintage) served by the glass at £49 which was a no brainer.  Not many places will serve Krug or Dom Perignon by the glass because of the risk of losing the remaining content obviously, but it is lovely to see when this is done and especially when I believe exactly the same stratosphere of Krug is served by the glass for £90 in Raffles, London for example.  The premium Rosi Schuster, Grüner Veltliner from Burgenland, Austria at £25 for the glass was a fairly pleasing option, but in retrospect, I should have bought a bottle of more normal champagne and offer what I wouldn’t be able to  finish / other half of that to the staff.  My sommelier kindly arranged a number of tastings however, to try and gain the best match without any frustration, which is another sign of a quality restaurant. 

Back on to the parade of canapés: a 36 month Comte and pickled walnut canapé was lovely, with just the right hint of vinegar to balance the fatty and slightly chewy, warm Comte. Raw hamachi (yellowtail tuna) came with sweet and sour pear and sesame which had an umami, fatty and lovely sesame finish.  Duck liver and red pepper was an absolute knock out moment with superb, brittle crispy outer shell and deep flavour – beautifully done. 

BBQ eel from Devon came with a warm cucumber sauce, herb oil and N25 caviar – this was a variation from oyster and had a wonderful amount of umami, salty creaminess and sweet from the buerre blanc with very well sourced caviar (one of the best suppliers).  Beremeal, sourdough was a take on soba noodles made with a rare wheat only grown on the Orkney Islands for thousands of years. The broth from all sour dough, chive, hazelnut and roe was not my favourite initially in its graininess, but enjoyable as something different nonetheless less.

Confit scallop (from the Isle of Skye) came with tomato, Myoga (type of Japanese ginger),  confit in wagyu, fermented tomatoes, shellfish sauce, roe of scallop powder on top.  A lovely, foam sauce decorated this scallop. Turbot from an 8Kg Brixham fish came with lettuce, sake lettuce sauce, fish bone and caramel sauce.  This was one of the prettiest and clean-cut dishes I have seen for turbot and the sauces went superbly together without drowning the magnificent piece of turbot that it was, all able to be mopped up with a beautifully light, mini white loaf on the side.

Hereford beef was 70 day aged and served with a sea buckthorn, preserved winter truffle (from Australia), BBQ Maitake mushroom was frankly a masterclass of umami beef dish in every way.  There was nothing to not love here and the surrounding elements complimented the beef superbly.

A pre-dessert of apple, olive oil and shiso pre-dessert was an extremely good palette cleanser – fresh, vibrant and the way it should be done.  The actual dessert was a 70% Chocolate tart with raspberry sorbet in the form of an aerated and mousse like chocolate on pastry with an intense and smooth raspberry sorbet.  I thought these worked very well together.  Petit fours were likewise very well presented with a lovely canelé with brown butter mousse (superb), a fermented raspberry fudge sandwich (fine) and an agreeable 30% Dark chocolate Bon Bon.  All came with Difference coffee, again, one of the best suppliers in their field.

The bill with premium drinks by the glass came to £315 which can be toned down from the wine selection. Be prepared to pay upfront to gain your seat here and you will have a very good return on skill, ingredient sourcing and flavours.  The price tag perhaps prohibits going for date night here each week for most (including me!), as each outing would probably be £600 for the host of two, but I think is worth it for pushing the boat out if you desire well-executed dishes of quality that in the main create some serious moments.

Food Grade: 87%

First up, the interior is a converted pub in tasteful and very homely decor.  On entering, my group felt right at home, the feel was utterly unpretentious and I was delighted to discover it is a husband and wife team (Tim in the kitchen literally on his own with Kitchen Porter assistant) and his wife on front of house and in the restaurant.  Amazingly, they were able to accommodate my group of 8 guests after the British Open being held in Liverpool for 2023.

The set lunch meal was a staggering £45 per head for this special, no choice menu for this size of group, but the normal menu is still an incredible £42.50 for 3 courses.  This is frankly outstanding value for money when having food of the quality.  When I return (which I am already planning), I will definitely be staying over somewhere so that I/we can enjoy the full tasting menu at £95.

Our meal started with some of the best focaccia I have ever had in my life and dare I say, I think it even may be a fraction better than the beloved Sportsman, in its outstanding lightness and crust appeal made with its own butter.  Next came a construction of tomatoes with tomato consommé with yuzu sourdough, Parmesan and Iberica ham.  The consommé was utterly transparent, light, with good flavour to compliment the  sumptuous, peeled tomatoes and the lightly cooked sour dough had the perfect crunch (not too oily) with befitting parmesan and ham to accompany all.  Cornish cod was next which came with aerated eel dashi, horseradish, a lovely, smoked Pike roe and nori seaweed.  This all came together beautifully, the roe not too salty, the dish again light in feel and went down extremely quickly.

The meat here comes from the nearby Butcher Fowl Emporium and the meat dish was a maple toffee pork with English peas, truffle ‘snow’ and puffed potatoes.  Delicate is not the word.  The whole table was again blown away how the wonderful pork had been cooked and balanced with the maple sweetness which was not too sticky or sweet as can very often be the case, but at the perfect level.  My group of Singaporean dining companions are somewhat used to meat with an Asian twist, to the extent that anything less than excellent is immediately picked up on – the entire table gave this dish a resounding thumbs up on its handling and wonderful flavour (as did I, especially the sublime texture of the pork) which is probably the biggest compliment to gain from the tough dining crowd.

Cumbrian Duck came with fermented cherries, Scottish girolles, green pepper and sweetcorn.  I was initially concerned about the use of sweetcorn as can sometimes be almost too sweet when combined with other sweet aspects, but again, the fermented cherry had toned this down and the portion size of sweetcorn and all to accompany the superb duck was just right.  Another, carefully conceived and executed dish, gaining empty plates across the board.

The dessert was a triumph.  Lemken Strawberries were served with a vanilla ‘fresher’, garden lemon verbena and meringue shards that resembled the delicacy of my dessert at 3 Michelin starred Zen in Singapore.  This was perfectly light, sweet, refreshing and gorgeous in one.  In a final twist, as the chef knew that we had been enjoying the golf at the British open, the lemon verbena soft cream sphere was presented as a golf ball in a lovely touch for the group. A stunning dessert.

If that wasn’t enough, I was delighted to see that coffee was sourced from Difference coffee, one of the finest coffee producers in the world that only supply their coffee to chosen venues (the Yellow Bourbon being wonderfully full in body but lightly citrusy at the same time) and was the perfect finish with chocolate truffles that were pure velvet inside.  The conclusion was that everyone was sated yet not bloated and frankly, there was nothing that everyone did not enjoy – a huge hit rate.

As mentioned, I cannot speak more highly of this venue and for all the reasons above it is my firm recommendation that you try this venue if you are passing through anywhere near Liverpool or the surrounding counties.  This was the best meal from Tim Allen I have had to date, is easily one of the strongest 1 Michelin starred venues I have enjoyed.  I am frankly excited for the potential of where this could go.

Food Grade: 86%

The meal started with squid ink biscuits with taramasalata, lemon, cucumber, gold leaf, jelly and Avruga caviar (from producer Flying Fish).  This was quite salty, but with lovely texture and offset with the sweet and vinegar notes of the jelly.  A croustade with mango, curry, skyr yoghurt was beautifully fresh and light as a croustade canapé. Finally, a snack of local, Stinking Bishop cheese, pear and chive provided a good ‘hit’ as a fullsome canapé. Sourdough was home made and well donee and served with pleasant Bungay Cultured Butter and COS Extra Virgin Olive Oil. A good start. 

The first dish was Cornish day boat plaice served with nori, cauliflower and fennel. This had a fantastic mousse, with a sumptuous cream and herb oil sauce giving a good balance of sweet with seaweed and beautiful fish.  This was a superb dish all round that utterly worked together.  Next came 40-day aged Mount Grace Farm Belted Galloway with hispi cabbage, dill, Australian black truffle which had a great mix of pickle in the mushroom, umami in the potato and with quality beef. A very good dish again. 

Dessert was an Oakchurch raspberry pastry dish, served with apricot, duck egg and caramelised filo pastry.  This had a lovely, rich duck egg crème brûlée offset by sharp raspberry and apricot gel. The filo was beautifully crisp and light, all working well together harmoniously.  Coffee was Nespresso which is ok for consistency, but served with an array of carefully designed petit fours.

There really wasn’t much not to like here at Lumiere and had I not been driving I would have opted for wines naturally, but as ever, where the restaurant has a wine list, I have added this as a link in the summary box to the right – it shows a mix of wines from across the world and one of the rare wine lists that actually describes each choice giving insight to the grape and region as something I have not come across in many restaurants at all and is another lovely touch.

I would recommend visiting Lumiere for the very good return and value for money for the care and attention to detail provided and I have no doubt it will continue to do well.

Food Grade: 79%

Grace and Savour gained its Michelin star in the 2022 guide, just one year after opening and provides a clean and well-judged menu using British produce.  The menus are naturally better value at lunch, for which ours was £90 per person for the 8 course lunch menu with a 15 course tasting menu also available for £155.  In the grand scheme of things, this actually represents good value for money when considering the surroundings, clear investment in the huge development cleverly bathed in light and overlooking a listed Walled Garden which holds its herbarium and vegetable garden. 

There is counter dining available as well as private dining areas, with the normal tables directly overlooking the garden, along with a very comfortable and large bar area to enjoy some surprisingly good Cava at a reasonable price for aperitifs.  This was a good to see as a recommended option without the obligatory, overpriced and narrow selection of champagnes only.  There is a large, open kitchen for all to see on entering (where the counter dining is) and the husband and wife team (David and Anette) along with the staff make you feel very welcome from the off.

Head chef David began by introducing himself to all the tables and chatting with all in his rounds and I was most impressed by how genuinely welcoming (and seemingly rare) this was.  Our meal began with canapés of thin crackers with goat’s cheese and herbs.  The herbs and flower decoration were as fresh as they come and ultimately an agreeable beginning albeit in its relatively unexciting format.  The first course however, of good quality asparagus were served with one of the best hollandaise sauces I have ever had – a glorious hollandaise with miso, perfectly balanced in acidity, umami with a touch of sweetness and expertly beaten to just the right level of egg white ‘frothiness’ to feel slightly lighter in the mouth.  This was a master lesson for making a simple asparagus dish sing and there was no issue in spooning all remaining sauce away, long after the asparagus was dealt with.

Agnolotti pasta with chicken, cheese and garlic was next which I have to say was another belter.  Small in size but big on flavour, perfectly seasoned with good quality chicken, lovely chicken skin bits for texture and another cracker of a creamed sauce to accompany.  The trend of wonderful sauces continued with the Skate wing (from Plymouth), with droplets of herb oil and fresh sea vegetables including salty fingers for texture and seasoning.  I enjoyed this naturally, even if the dish was perhaps not the most innovative of fish courses. 

The home made sour dough, served beautifully warm and with an extremely good crust came with a superb, home whipped butter as the star of that show.  The beef fillet from Pembrokeshire was absolutely succulent and perfectly cooked.  One could almost cut this with a fork and the reduction to accompany was a quality jus, livened up with mustard seeds, but as an overall dish sat in the simple, pleasurable domain again.

The pre-dessert of honey-glazed ice cream and fruit sponge was a pleasing start of sweet richness with the main tart dessert being beautifully presented with fresh herb flowers and a magnificent custard within the thicker, biscuit-based case of the tart.  Almost a play on a cheesecake, this was very good on the eyes as a finalé and concluded just the right amount overall to finish feeling perfectly sated at the end of this smaller, tasting menu.  Therefore, a very well portioned sized and worked out menu for overall filling.

There’s no doubt this was an enjoyable meal with a good accompanying wine list, utterly friendly staff and a convivial atmosphere as I recall it was very well in the Manor House as well on my first visit here many moons ago now.  The meal itself was a mix of explosive parts and general offerings that were lesser in fireworks in today’s world, but pleasurable nevertheless.

The next on my hit list is the more casual restaurant in the other garden area of the estate called Smoke, headed by the winner of The Masterchef Professionals (2019), Stuart Deeley cooks over coals.  It will be a pleasure to revisit this hotel in general which I heartily recommend, especially as a whole stay over and reliable cooking having now seen the whole operation – for foodies, this would make a very good weekend stay and escape from it all indeed.

Food Grade: 76%

The restaurant is split between two levels with the ground floor affording seating for 20 covers to give an idea of space. Hospitality was immediately accommodating and each waiting staff were very knowledgeable on the dishes which is always a good sign in any restaurant.  I also liked the rather nice touch of simply scanning a QR code to gain wifi connection without a password (rather a bonus when dining on one’s own).  The stained glass that adorns the front of the dining room is rather impressive and was sorry to have run out of time to not have a peak at the upstairs on this visit – another reason to return.

On to the snacks, a savoury gougere with 60 month-aged Parmesan cheese, black garlic and honey  was a fantastic start.  The choux pastry was warm and with good crunch on the outside, bursting with lovely, soft cheese and had lovely texture and flavour all round.  Next up came a pale ale croustade with Brixham mackerel, pear, pear gel, shiso gel and shiso garnish.  The croustade had a delightfully light crunch in texture but I was not hugely convinced by the combination of the smoke (from part of the mackerel preparation) and pear as an unusual coupling.  I love pear and I love mackerel, but didn’t quite fit with their pairing (personally I have found mackerel to be better paired with rhubarb or fruits / lightly pickled vegetables but this may just be me).  

The first amuse bouche of asparagus with a savoury custard, wild garlic oil, green asparagus from  Abington, Iberica ham and asparagus foam was an absolute knock out on the other hand.  I have lost count how many foams I have had that have had absolutely zero flavour, but this was one of the rare foams that actually did, with very good asparagus flavour. The warming, subtle, flavour and texture of the savoury custard combined with the delicate feel all round made this an outstanding introductory offering to enjoy.

Home made Brioche, laminated with 24 layers was extremely good and served with whipped cultured dairy butter from Ampersand in Oxfordshire with a chicken liver parfait.  The parfait  was deep with red wine in flavour and the butter was extremely good.  My only observation here was that it was quite butter intense even for me as a butter lover – as the brioche already had 24 layers of butter, I felt the menu could afford to have another or choice of a less buttery sour dough or simple grain roll to allow the butter to be enjoyed more fully without overdosing on butter, but this is a small point.

Another amuse bouche was afforded with Chalk Stream trout (a slightly less impressive fish to the heights of wild, Scottish salmon), ponzu and yuzu dressing, pickled cucumber balls, mooli radish, habanero, cucumber sorbet and coriander oil.  This was a fresh dish indeed but it packed a strong punch of the habanero which even the sorbet could not quite cool.  As nice as parts of the dish were, the overarching impression was the heat which dominated everything else, which was surprising.

The starter was Newlyn cod, brassicas, dill, anchovy; lightly cured and steamed, romanesco, purple spiriting broccoli, broccoli purée, crispy kale, mint and lemon gel, boquerones pieces (Spanish anchovies), dill and mustard beurre-blanc sauce with dill and seaweed oil drops. This had beautiful balance of sweet from the lemon gel and lightly pickled turnip (pickled in Chardonnay vinegar), to assist the rich sauce, dill and seaweed.  There was also a lovely touch and texture from the crispy kale and blow-torched romanesco. The tiny pieces of Spanish anchovies added pleasant seasoning of salt and seafood essence and these were all lovely elements to grace the simple cod which was also perfectly soft and flakey.

The main was 50 day salt-aged Waterford Farm beef (Sirloin and braised ox cheek) with asparagus from Great Abington again, (barbecued and then brushed with beef fat), celeriac purée and morels done three ways – diced, as a ketchup and as a powder; asparagus spears, sauce Bordelaise using  additional pickled mustard seeds and capers.  Now, this was a particularly good ox cheek and the dish had beautiful components all working well together, with the only aspect being not my favourite was the actual Sirloin which was quite tough and with a subtle flavour. The surrounding sauces, purees and additional elements were basically the highlights above the main component.

A pre-dessert of yoghurt sorbet topped with steamed Swiss (soft) meringue was hollowed with a elderflower jelly covered with a thin lemon jelly sheet of apple-marigold oil, Amalfi lemon and then decorated with almond granita.  This was certainly a palate cleanser no doubt with quite sharp tartness of lemon sorbet and large quantity of the granita.  The chocolate  dessert however was as smooth as they come.  This was a Valrhona Araguani, ganache (from Venezuela) with a hazelnut mousse, salted milk ice cream, frangipane base, caramelised banana gel in centre, mushroom infused shortbread and shaved Australian winter truffle on top.  This was an entirely elegant and silky, salted chocolate dessert and overall, very pleasant way to finish of the meal.  Although I did not have coffee, this appeared appealing from the Brew Project company along with choice petit fours which were boxed up for me in another very nice touch as I needed to hit the road.

There is a lot to like about this restaurant and I would say its craftsmanship is certainly at Michelin starred level however with one or two tweaks I would have wished for on this menu in terms of sourcing or dosage.  It is a homely and hospitable venue in a charming setting and the effort gone in to the menu is clear to see.  I will come back another time to try a fuller menu.