Scott Paton moved to Boringdon Hall in 2016 having moved from the Horn of Plenty in Tavistock.  He oversaw the transition in 2018 of Àclèaf taking over the former Gallery restaurant and has thankfully managed to survive the significant turmoil since 2020.  The meal started with three intricate canapes with well crafted home made breads and butters.  The Iberian charcuterie had a deep, smokey flavour with good salt content; the mini celeriac pickle tart held superb pastry and pleasing Japanese pear, hazelnut pickled celeriac and truffle oil and the mini black pudding beignet was warming.  Home made  baguette and brown breads came with salted butter from Normandy and a wonderfully judged goats milk butter with truffle honey on top, proving a very good combination.  Goat’s milk is not to everyone’s palette, but when balanced like this (i.e. made less potent but still with inherent flavour), it shows a high, quality skill level.

Whilst we’re on this, I actually enjoy the canapes and breads probably the most in all my meals as it can very often serve as a very good indicator for the quality line and calibre of the restaurant – if the effort is there to make the ‘smaller’ things wonderful, it shows a very good advertisement to how much care goes in to the main elements and therefore the meal as a whole. As an aside, it was also gratifying to see Gusbourne served by the glass on the wine list as well (one of the more punchy of English Sparkling wines I have enjoyed visiting in Kent).

My starter choice was the chicken liver parfait.  This was gorgeously smooth and had a wonderful touch with the Pedro Ximénez and equally well-done brioche to accompany.  Next was the very pretty crab dish from a large, 2kg Red King crab served with a curry emulsion.  This was fabulous – excellent, sweet white crab with garden herbs,  absolutely fresh, a lovely combination with just the right amount of curry.  I upgraded my main to the Highland wagyu which was another, very good dish.  The Highland beef rump was braised with hen of woods mushroom beef jus, served with celeriac fondant and puree with ox tongue bone marrow.  There was rich intensity here without being too much and was a strong main. 

Pre-dessert was creative.  At the beginning of the meal I was asked to simply nominate my preferences on a cryptic piece of paper showing different shapes and colours – I felt like I was about to enter the eating phase of Squid Game.  What it was actually used for was to decide which type of pre-dessert I had a subconscious bias towards; turns out my opted colours and shapes were aligned most to the sharper based lemon-based optiont.  This was good news for me as the whole point of a pre-dessert is to serve as a palette cleanse from savoury to sweet and lemon handled correctly, does this probably better than anything.  A lemon mousse, lemon posset and lemon curd pre-dessert was nicely balanced (not too sharp), visually pleasing and just the right portion size.

My actual dessert was the duck egg brûlée, the eggs coming from the local Newlands farm.  Duck egg is underused in my opinion and wonderfully rich so careful treatment is required – thankfully this was done yet again. Cinnamon cream, dusted puff pastry, French financiers, cranberry compote with cranberry ice cream all came together beautifully, the cranberry cutting through the rich egg perfectly and this was frankly a stunning dessert. Handmade petit fours were served in the hidden bar for a change of scene to finish and included tonka bean with cherry glaze, Mirabelle plum and single origin chocolate which were all good.

There was virtually nothing I didn’t enjoy about this meal and it is amazing what happens sometimes when one moves further out of London, you can find some lovely gems.  I would definitely say this is one of them.

Food Grade: 85%

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%

White onion bread came with mussel butter and the almost earthiness of the mussel butter worked very well with bread I thought although some more bread offerings is always good to see as are canapes whenever posssible.  An amuse bouche of saffron bisque with prawns, mussels, clams and tomatoes had a a delightful broth that was creamy and light at same time with a very good saffron flavour and vibrant seafood, although it is always never nice to bite in to a hefty piece of grit which I unfortunately had in one of my mussles.  

Fennel cured Loch Duart Salmon with piccalilli mayonnaise, crispy salmon skin, cucumber and lemon, chive flowers was next.  This was an utterly succulent salmon, with gorgeous pickling and the salty crunch of the salmon skin was a lovely touch.  Bass was served with smoked mackerel dumpling, fennel & tomato dressing salami and tomato herb emulsion, tomato and sardine ketchup sturgeon leaf – beautiful fish, all worked beautifully with rich emulsion and a salty salami which were relieved by the fresh tomato and smoky ketchup.  The fish incidentally came from Walrus fisheries.

Cod was served with Lundy crab, Lundy lobster tortellini, bisque, orange and basil.  The meaty cod was delicately cooked with an excellent tortellini, a workable broth and what was an unexpectedly nice combination was the crab going together with the cod at the same time.  At the start of the meal I honestly thought the price of the menu looked a little steep, bordering on expensive London prices, but then I understood better when I saw the quantity of lobster that made this one dish as an example.

The same can be said rgearding the surf and turf dish as I was presented with two slabs of Fillet beef with crispy, breaded oyster and oyster béarnaise.  The beef was succulent, well cooked and with reasonable flavour and with a béarnaise that seemed to have tarragon notch turned even higher with the extra tang of the oyster béarnaise.  Unfortunately I was approaching full capacity so I couldn’t finish it.  I did actuallu think whether the addition of something lighter on the plate in addition to turning the quantity of beef and price tag both down at the same time may have perhaps helped here.  

Chocolate tart with cherry, pistachio and a yoghurt sorbet was the first sweet and this was a superb chocolate dessert – silkly smooth and luxurious, offset by the yoghurt and given a kick from the cherry. Summer berries with champagne, elderflower and vanilla cheesecake purée was a very pleasant mix.  I thought the berries and champagne jelly was the star here and a treat to mix with the lemon and cheesecake purée.  Again, this was quite full as whole and perhaps one or two less heavy aspects off the plate may have made this more refined.  One other thought I had was that I would have opted to have the desserts the other way round and finish on the heavier one last following a lighter introduction (rather than the other way round) like one enjoys within journeys of wine and cheese for example, but that may be just me.

All in all this was a pleasant way to finish off the day and the team could not have been more accommodating for squeezing me in at such short notice and dealing with my punctuality issues which I was very grateful for.  This is a very close-nit team and it is evident this is the flag ship neighbouhood restaurant, who I have no doubt will keep on attracting regulars from the community for many more seasons to come.

Food Grade: 69%

A greeting of a ‘bouquet’ of garden flowers with fennel vinegar was brought to each and was a refreshingly healthy way to start the meal with some pleasant produce munched.  The clever thing about this starter is that it resembles any cook’s best friend used in a huge collection of dishes, a bouquet garni, so this was nice to have an actual edible one.

Carrot soup came with an egg sabayon which was delightfully aerated, yet well-flavoured and came with bread to mop up the remnants, of which there were utterly none.  A carrot canape made with Westcombe red cheese was dissolve in the mouth light, sweet and very good.

The bread was another lovely touch – focaccia with a good olive oil content was also fluffy with a salty crust and with the duck duck charcuterie on top, this made a superb combination not had before.  The butter whip made with wild garlic and herbs locally sourced from Dreamers Farm was another absolute hit – so well balanced and the sort that becomes the main reason to order more bread if possible.

Lamb with chargrilled asparagus and yoghurt sauce had a small piece from the leg and another from the loin.  The lamb came from Castle Cary butchers, The Thoroughly Wild Meat Company and was handled brilliantly by Osip.  The fat was rendered well, the skin crisp and the lamb flavour bang on.  What was even more of a complimentary joy was the reduction which had taken 48 hours to prepare and was just fantastic, tempered well by the small addition of yoghurt.  It doesn’t need to be much more complicated than this and this was absolutely spot on.

As the meal was going so well the offer of an additional Cheese profiterole course course for additional £10 was an absolute no brainer.  The choux pastry had a cheddar cheese ‘custard’ with onion jam and dried mushroom powder and it’s safe to say the hit of umami was as good as that sounds.  The pastry itself was a little harder than expected, but presumably this was to keep all creamier contents in place.  If it was a fraction softer, I would view it as the perfect creation.

Within the dessert, Ice cream made with potato skins was another combination I hadn’t had in quite a while and the starch-like effect actually worked quite well I thought and was a good compliment to the strawberries, strawberry jus, meringue, white chocolate and crème fraiche.  This all worked very well and was over in seconds.  Coffee was from Roundhill Coffee and were served with two, delightful chocolate canelés which were super.

Flavour wise, there really wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this meal.  If I had one criticism, it is the portion sizes felt a little on the meagre side.  It’s not a cost factor as I think I would have been happier paying a bit extra for more of the same to make more complete, but then again, everyone has different appetites.  I would be very happy coming back here again.

Food Grade: 82%

Let me start with the cost, as this is probably the first thing you may be wondering.  £410 is quite expensive for a lunch granted, but this is aboard a luxury train and was the Golden Age of Travel by Steam, using the original steam-pulled train.  Such is the attraction of this locomotive,  photographers and train enthusiasts alike were gathered all along Platform 2 at Victoria Station just to have a look before setting off and on return.  You can also get a 10% discount as we did if you are a member of The Luxury Restaurant Guide (LRG) whose annual fee was actually covered for in full for the savings of 4 people enjoying this experience at over £160 in savings! I do not have shares with the LRG, but is genuinely useful as an option to consider if you dine a lot like myself for the benefits it brings.

I was also very pleased and somewhat relieved with the value for money of the wine list onboard which included numerous hitters including Dom Perignon 2010 for £200 which would actually cost £180 in Waitrose and therefore is not the normal, hideous mark-up that it can be of being at least twice as expensive retail in retail, far more in lavish restaurants.  Veuve Clicquot was also provided to everyone as well on being seated and a £45 voucher to my group of four for spending on any wine included in the price.  We obviously used this pretty quickly, but from these to the gin and tonics at £10, I was actually expecting it to be a lot scarier price-wise on the booze, being trapped on board with no other bar options.  So this was better than expected.

The head chef onboard the Pullman has been in situ for the past twenty plus years and takes care of the seasonal menus all year round with the periodic guest-chef occasions for menus from Michel Roux Jr (Le Gavroche), Tom Kerridge (The Hand and Flowers) and the eponymous James Martin among others.  For this 5 course menu from the resident head chef (which included coffee and petit four) we began the meal with canapes of some very good blue cheese mousse and fig bites (the blue cheese mousse being well-judged) and vibrant, tomato and asparagus blinis.  The crab starter was served with avruga caviar, and spicy mango chutney and again, I was pleasantly surprised at the well-judged acidity and quantity of the chutney to spruce up the sweet crab meat.  Thin, white sourdough shards and samphire gave an additional, pleasant crunch and texture.

Next came pea and mint soup with crispy shallots and summer truffle oil.  I did not establish whether this was genuine truffle oil or whether this was oil using the very common 2,4-dithiapentane (which is actually a synthetic compound).  However, the resultant effect was everyone immediately enjoying each mouthful as the soup itself was beautifully rich, viscous with a pleasant truffle-like aroma and lovely complimentary crunch from the shallots.  Nothing rocket science level about this, but a very pleasing effect regardless.

The main course on this June occasion was salt marsh from Romney served with charred baby fennel, wild rocket puree, potato and caper croquette and a Kentish wine reduction.  All in all, this was a pleasing main but the only disappointment was the lamb being a little tough and not as pink as advertised and therefore hoped.  The large croquettes with its caper were a welcome addition with a pleasant breadcrumb shell, all held together with a particularly good jus.  But this was the moment that for me that resembled something a little dangerously close to a Business class flight offering.

The cheese consisted of Oxford blue, Costa cheddar and Somerset Brie all served with a very agreeable pineapple chutney with its dialled down vinegar content and this was followed by a Devonshire clotted cream summer pudding made with Angus raspberries, and an elderflower cheesecake.  Nothing to sing about on the dessert, but a harmlessly suitable sweet addition.  Surprisingly the handmade truffle petit fours were more notable than the dessert and better than most restaurant petit fours and this accompanied tea from Tregothnan and Coffee by Drury.

As we pulled into Victoria there was a bit of a hold-up and we were delayed and the train management kindly offered another glass of Veuve to keep everyone occupied during the wait.  On return to Platform 2, I think I can safely say that everyone was in a state that was entirely happy with the experience and stumbling into a taxi was the next and final hurdle to overcome.

My summary is that this is a wonderful celebration activity to do with definitely pleasing food for the journey.  It will always be difficult to get high-end dishes for the multitude of covers in the numerous carriages from one, small carriage kitchen, but it was a non-fussy and well-considered to please as a menu selection, ableit with a little dip in the lamb and an adequate dessert.  Was it worth £410 (£360 with Luxury restaurant Guide Discount)? I’d say yes with the discount based on what was had yes (including the original drinks offer which can be toned down) and the overall impact the day had.  It’s not something you will do every day and inevitably you will end up wanting to splash out more when onboard which, the prestige and glamour of the train will no doubt keep ensuring happens to the many willing future passengers to come.

Food Grade: 62%

After arriving in the afternoon and enjoying their mini burger menu in the Hook’s beautiful lounge, benefitting from the Luxury Restaurant Guide Offer of a drink (well worth a look if you dine frequently).  Later, we had our main meal at Hook.  Bread was brought in from Fine Foods in Broadway and the sourdough was served with seaweed butter.  The bread was actually extremely hard to pull crust apart and whilst not stale, it had clearly been out for a while.

Mackerel was ok with fennel dill and creme fraiche but there were far too many bones for comfort and a little dry as good quality mackerel goes.  The octopus was actually good quality but the sauce was like a lake of salt in the olive and sausage broth.  It was essentially far too salty and without much other flavour.  The steak tartare was bizarrely white in colour, tasteless and I could not gain an actual answer from the staff of whether it was lightly cooked or from veal.

The cheese soufflé was quite dense and the surrounding area ended up being a moat of oil and melted butter which was not very pleasant to look at or appetising.  This was not exactly the sort of cheese souffle you can find at either Gavroche or Martin Wishart.  Liver parfait was good but the sense of port overwhelming, the cold pastry case was too thick to enjoy, and ultimately too busy and simply put, this was not a refined dish.  The blackberry ice cream dessert was fine.

Overall however, I was disappointed with the meal especially when I was looking forward to seeing Martin Burge’s new, casual concept menu.  Neither Martin nor the Head chef was in on my evening leaving a team of two junior chefs to look after a packed restaurant.  Whatever the reasons for this, it was evident the floor staff and whole team were overstretched and not well-rehearsed and I was sadly unimpressed with the dishes.  I can’t reset the clock and have the same dishes again and I won’t know how different they would be if the two key chefs were in, but sadly based on this experience, I have no alternative but to give this one of the lowest grades I have given in quite a while.  It is a great shame as the hotel is a novel concept (I would however recommend a tiny house as close to the main hotel however in case of poor weather – if it was raining, you are basically walking through a forest to get to dinner).

Food Grade: 49%

The restaurant is located in the basement area of the boutique Queensberry hotel and the restaurant is also the area breakfast is served to guests staying (or visiting in my case for a pop in breakfast previously).  Canapes of Tunworth cheese gougeres with Madeira gel and truffle and pork with pineapple gel and timut pepper were equally a very good way to start.  This was a decent advert of what was to come and it highlighted the importance of first impressions as this naurally raises the mood of the diner whenever this level of investment is placed in the initial greetings, no matter how small.

First of the five was smoked eel, golden beetroot, lovage and apple which had an absolutely superb oil and dressing base.  The apple was very well judged to add the acidity it needed and the flavours really worked here. A brilliant start.  Next came Ox tongue, Isle of Wight tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce and nasturtiums with the Ox being so slowly cooked that it almost reminded me of a childhood flavourite classic of corned beef hash but significantly upgraded.

It was a little bit of a suprise that the bread came only after the first two courses, so I can only imagine this was a little slip here, but on the good side, it was satisfying to have such good homemade rye & treacle bread with clotted cream butter.  Again, the little niceties do go a long way.  

Chalk stream trout (confit), mushroom ketchup, peas and morels was another lovely dish.  There’s almost never a bad time for morels and the mushroom ketchup was lovely as was the melt in the mouth texture of the trout; the only negative really being that the price for having such tender fish through confit cooking is that it practically loses most of its flavour and simply becomes a vehicle for these other parts.  Not that this is a huge issue as they were all lovely, but thankfully the caviar on top was there to rescue and boost the flavour from the sea.  

The lamb rump was fine and served in an innovative way with anchovies, lettuce, ewe’s curd and mint and again, I felt that it needed these as the lamb itself was quite plain as lamb goes.  Not the powerhouse of lamb flavour that can be gained from other cuts, but again, this was nicely presented with a very good reduction holding it all together well.

Elderflowers, gooseberries, vanilla meringue and sorrel was one of the desserts which had a lovely ‘jelly and ice cream’ factor to it which is always a pleasure.  A refreshing dessert here.  The dark chocolate mousse was thankfully thicker than the word indicates and was toned down nicely by an ultra smooth yoghurt ice cream (very good).  Olive oil with chocolate is not something new to me and does seem to work as an alternative to salted caramel or salted chocolate, but I did feel there was just too much of the this as the chocolate was practically bathing in it.  There doesn’t actually need to be very much olive oil to get the effect that this gives, but either way, taking only parts of it created a pleasant combination.  Coffee was from Du Monde and the petit fours chocolates were just right quantity for the food had.  

Overall, this was a well balanced menu with a superb beginning and generally pleasing dishes throughout the lunch.  Owing to the overall space in the restaurant and the fact that all tables for two guests appear to have to been placed on one side and barely a foot apart, the only negative here is being eavesdropped on if you have diners either side of you with not much to say to each other.  However, a down to earth and caring level of hospitality from the staff seemed to make up for this.  This was a very good advert for a visit and fits comfortably in the 1 Michelin starred family through my lens.