The UK's tastiest places to stay
Pig out at The Pig
The Pig’s collection of hip country hotels have long been a hit amongst foodies, thanks to their picturesque kitchen gardens where nearly everything on the menu is sourced. The newest addition to the piggy litter is just outside Canterbury in Kent – a stone’s throw from SW London. The Pig-at Bridge Place is a large red brick building with a rock-n-roll past and plenty of period features, plus gorgeous bedrooms, family-friendly lodges, and unique ‘Kentish Hop Pickers’ Huts’ that sit on stilts alongside a river in the grounds. The menu revolves entirely around seasonal produce, and what the hotel can’t grow or rear itself it sources locally, creating what it describes as a ‘25-mile menu’. Until the end of this month you can experience ‘the whole hog’ at either The Pig-near Bath or The Pig-at Combe in Devon with the ‘Veg & Bed’ break, which includes a three-course dinner, bed and breakfast.
The Pig at Bridge Place opens end of May. Room rates start from £145 for a Cosy Room (room only). Veg & Bed available Mon-Thurs until 27 June thepighotel.com
Country pursuits
The new(ish) and painfully cool Heckfield Place is the place to be seen this summer, especially after Harry and Megan were recently said to have ‘babymooned’ there. Nestled in Hampshire countryside, this eco-friendly estate and Georgian family home have been meticulously restored and now offer beautiful rooms and delicious food. Renowned chef Skye Gyngell (of Petersham Nurseries and Spring fame) is responsible for the hotel’s’ two impressive restaurants; Marle, which uses produce sourced from the hotel’s farm and gardens (you can sign up for a tour of the farm while you’re there), and Hearth which specialises in fireside cooking, where you can feast a five-course flame-grilled tasting menu cooked in front of you on an open fire. Pre or post dinner, head to the Moon Bar for imaginative cocktails inspired by the lunar phases, naturally...
Room rates start from £350 for a ‘Friends’ double room on a B&B basis heckfieldplace.com
Be a New Forest foodie
A stay at chic, five-star New Forest hotel Lime Wood is a must for any gastronome. The hotel’s restaurant, Hartnett Holder & Co, is run by one of the most high-profile female chefs in the restaurant world, Angela Hartnett, and Luke Holder, who together create locally sourced Italian-inspired dishes with a pleasing nod to the seasons. If you have a thirst (or should I say hunger?) for cookery knowledge, then this summer you can head behind the kitchen scenes with the hotel’s cookery school chef Iain and learn how to cook the ultimate ‘Long Italian Lunch’, featuring some of Angela’s famous recipes, before swimming off the tiramisu in the hotel’s luxurious Herb House spa.
From £395 per night (room only). Long Italian Lunch class 19 June & 31 July £195pp limewoodhotel.co.uk
Georgian splendour
Tucked in the middle of the world-famous Georgian terraced row is The Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa, which is rather excitingly the only landmark building in the world that you can stay in. The décor oozes Georgian splendor and modern elegance in equal measure, whilst the hotel’s 3 AA rosette award-winning Dower House restaurant is overseen by the England rugby team’s former head chef David Campbell. The tasting menu is an unforgettable treat, as is the vast wine list, and in the summer months all meals can be enjoyed al fresco in the hotel’s beautiful gardens. The hotel’s ‘Indulge Your Senses’ Diner’s Delight package is a must for foodies, as it includes not only a two-night stay but pre-dinner canapés with a glass of Taittinger Champagne, a 6-course tasting menu, afternoon tea, and a full English breakfast on both mornings. Best to arrive hungry…
Room rates start from £330 for a Double Deluxe room on a B&B basis. The Diner’s Delight package starts at £415 per room per night royalcrescent.co.uk
Seafood & eat it
Love seafood? Then Cornwall is a must. I was lucky enough to spend a recent weekend in the picturesque fishing port of Padstow where I stayed in a gorgeous room above Rick and Jill Stein’s renowned Seafood Restaurant, and spent a terrific day learning how to cook lobster and crab in their nearby cookery school, overlooking the Camel Estuary. There’s no denying that Padstow is indeed ‘Padstein’ – from the swish Seafood Restaurant and Rick’s more informal café nearby, to his impressive seafood bar and neighbouring fish and chip shop, the locally landed deliciousness never ends. This summer you can indulge in a special ‘Food Lovers’ break, which includes a one-night bed and breakfast stay in one of Stein’s stylish Padstow properties, with a 3-course dinner at The Seafood Restaurant and a hamper of tasty treats to take home.
Rooms at The Seafood start from £165 for a double room on a B&B basis (rooms in Rick Stein’s other Padstow properties start at £125). The Food Lovers’ break starts at £356 for two people in the summer rickstein.com
For the gin-trepid traveller
Love gin? Well then a trip to the south coast may well be in order. A small boutique hotel in Cornwall has recently laid claim to being the first in the county to commission its own single estate gin, no less. Talland Bay No. 1 is the delicious result of a collaboration with Cornwall’s first plough-to-bottle gin distillery, Colwith Farm. Where most craft gin distilleries buy their base spirit, Colwith is the first distillery in Cornwall, and one of only a handful in the country, to bring the entire production process under one roof. They make a deliciously smooth, award-winning vodka, Aval Dor (which means potato in Cornish), using the farm’s King Edward potatoes and then use that same spirit as a base for several gins. Talland Bay Hotel’s concoction is made using a unique mixture of botanicals including a selection foraged from the hotel’s coastal gardens, which provide distinctive notes of pine, citrus and peppermint. The gin is carefully blended in a traditional copper still before being bottled on site and then driven the 17 miles to Talland Bay. During your stay you can go on a distillery tour and tasting at Colwith Farm, before working your way through the impressive selection of over 100 gins found behind the hotel’s bar. Along with its gins and panoramic sea views, the Talland Bay Hotel also boasts a 2 AA rosette fine dining restaurant which also recently scooped Gold in the Taste of the West Awards and Silver in the Restaurant of the Year category at the Cornwall Tourism Awards 2018/19. Sounds like a recipe for a rather delicious holiday, doesn’t it?
Rooms start at £160 per night on a bed and breakfast basis. A 50cl bottle of Talland Bay No. 1 Gin can be dispatched by post from £40 per bottle including p&p. tallandbayhotel.co.uk
Other tasty trips
If you want to splash some cash, then dinner and a stay at Raymond Blanc’s two Michelin star Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Oxfordshire is hard to beat. Next month it celebrates its 35th birthday with a lavish garden party. belmond.com
North Cornwall’s Coombeshead Farm is the joint venture of chef Tom Adams of Pitt Cue fame and April Bloomfield of The Spotted Pig in New York. Expect 5 stylish farmhouse bedrooms combined with a delicious menu brimming with freshly foraged, pickled and harvested produce. coombesheadfarm.co.uk
The Anchor Inn on the beach at Seatown in Dorset is a multiple award-winning gastropub serving British classics done very well. Enjoy fresh, local produce from both land and sea before drifting off to the sound of waves in one of the three boutique bedrooms upstairs. theanchorinnseatown.co.uk
Taking place on Alex James of Blur fame’s Cotswolds farm over August Bank Holiday weekend, The Big Feastival is a 3-day extravaganza of live music, family fun and plenty of food. Chefs announced for this year include Raymond Blanc, Gennaro Contaldo, Prue Leith, and Cornerstone’s Tom Brown, with more tba. Tickets on sale now. thebigfeastival.com
Published in the June 2019 issues of The Chiswick Magazine, The Barnes Magazine, The Richmond Magazine and The Wandsworth Magazine, and online at Essential Surrey and SW London
