Great food at country-house hotels

Falling for great food at two country-house hotels

It’s been several years since I last stayed at Co worth Park (1). the hotel had just opened and was wonderful, but I was heavily pregnant and feeling a bit mad. With the bump now a spirited six-year-old, eva, we wanted to return to Co worth, in Ascot, as a family for a cosy winter overnight.

Considering its grandeur – the large Georgian mansion is a member of the Dorchester hotel group–Co worth is very friendly and relaxed. eva skips through the lobby and up to our air y first-floor suite overlooking landscaped gardens and a wild-flower meadow, like it’s home. she only stops skipping to kick off her shoes and leap on to our majestic four-poster bed.

It’s lunchtime, so we amble through the grounds to the barn, the hotel’ s brass erie-style restaurant, with its flagstone floors, rustic wooden tables and relaxed familial chatter. With everything from Ascot-ale-battered haddock, fat chips and minted peas to sharing platters of tomahawk steak on the menu, this is superior comfort food. Later, we bob about in Coworth’s heated pool for a while, then before we know it the nice st babysitter in the world is putting eva to bed and my husband, Chris ty, and I are heading downstairs for G&ts by the fire.

six years ago, the main restaurant was exceptional, so the recently recruited executive chef Adam smith (one to watch, accord i ng to Michel Roux snr) has a lot to live up to. thankfully, he does not let us down, and our seven-course tasting menu–paired with interesting wines – is a triumph. From the light, crunchy beetroot macaroon to a two-part game dish featuring grouse, wild mallard and partridge, it’ s all bur sting with flavour. When we’ve finished, a kind waiter rust les me up a blanket to drape around my shoulders so we can stroll around the moonlit gardens before bed.

the next day, we each have our dream morning. After gourmet full englishes all round, eva heads off to the kid’s club to tie-dye t-shirts, I visit the grass-roofed spa for a Co worth Park signature treatment( a Kers tin Florian facial and a truly blissful scalp and back massage) – and Christy slopes back to bed.

Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa (2) A Palladian mansion set wit hin 500 acres of parkland near bath, this elegant hotel is home to the Park, a Michelin-starred organic restaurant using local and garden-grown produce, headed up by Hywel Jones. there’s also a more relaxed brasserie in the brilliant spa, with a wood-burning stove and outdoor tables in summer; and a cookery school offering classes in ever y thing from street food and gluten-free dishes to Michelin-starred cooking.

Stately and homely it’s ‘gourmet full Englishes all round’ at coworth Park