Oh, the food...

We had a good idea of the treats that awaited us at The Newt because last Summer, having cancelled our second booking we were able to come and have lunch in the Botanical Rooms. Very good it was too.

We had a restaurant booking for each of our three nights there - the first and last evening in the main hotel, in the Botanical Rooms again and the middle night in the newer, more casual Farmyard Kitchen. All menus featured locally sourced ingredients with produce from the garden and the charming staff introduced the dishes with enthusiasm. From the minute we first sat down, we knew we were in for a treat.

We’re always tempted by the tasting menu. After all, how lovely is it to simply sit down and be presented with a series of small, tasty dishes and have to make no decisions at all? If we can opt in for the wine pairing as well, then all the better and so all four of us agreed, we knew where we wanted to begin.

The modern style of menu writing doesn’t give a great deal away and that first course of “Cabbage, crab and seaweed” might not have been something I’d have expected to be quite the all round hit that it proved to be. With a glass of champagne in one hand and the tiniest cabbage leaf filled with a delicious crabby, seaweedy, nutty, spicy mixture in the other, dinner got off to the best start imaginable. Better still, we had a couple of these yummy morsels each - quite how did the chef pack quite as much flavour into that tiny mouthful?

We were all too busy eating and enjoying each others company to take many photos, but I think we all agreed the lamb was spectacular too.

A small feature throughout our stay was the crisp slice of blood orange which lay on the folded napkin of each table setting. This, it was explained, had been dried in some smoky atmosphere or other - my memory says by a volcano, but I have no idea where or how! (Note to self, pay more attention next time!) It was suggested that we add that orange slice to our water glass, where it would rehydrate and flavour the water with that slightly smoky, bitter orange taste. Curious and very distinctive.

The Botanical Rooms were the hub for breakfast too and we enjoyed both the same large table where we’d had dinner and a smaller, lighter one out in the garden room one morning. The routine was exactly the same however. A simple place setting, a bottle of water and a bottle of freshly squeezed blood orange juice, soon followed by a large sharing platter with croissants, pain au chocolat and glasses of fruit, yoghurt and granola to be going on with. For me, that was more than enough and probably exactly what I’d choose anyway. But for my family, well…

My hero’s delight at his choice of black pudding, poached eggs and a parsely vinaigrette dressing was enough to repeat the order on each morning of our stay! Edward and Amy spoke similarly well of the scrambled eggs and smoked trout, not to mention the “full English” which defeated them both. Again, plentiful tea and coffee and a comfortable, relaxed atmosphere made for a great start to the day.

I mentioned in my previous post that we’d arranged to meet Edward and Amy over there in at the glass fronted Garden Cafe for lunch, though upon hearing that lunch there was solely a two- or three-course affair, bearing in mind the breakfast we’d enjoyed just a short time before, we decided on an alternative. That consisted of a sausage roll each from the hot food counter, eaten outdoors with a mug of mulled cider. The food choices here are many and varied, the main thing being there is no way one could possibly go hungry!

There are two distinct areas to the hotel here. We were based in the main, Hadspen House part of the hotel, close to the gardens and all the other amenities. But about half a mile away, in another part of the estate is the Farmhouse, where there is accommodation, another spa and a restaurant, the Farmyard Kitchen. It was there where we had a booking for dinner and the reason for jumping in an electric buggy to drive the short distance through the fields and apple orchards to help ourselves to pre dinner drinks until our table was ready.

One aspect we very much appreciated about The Newt is the generosity of spirit that was apparent throughout the hotel. Those things that are chargeable - restaurant items, drinks in the main bar and spa treatments - are not cheap, I’ll admit. But where things are included, ie breakfast, pantry items and drinks in our room and drinks here in the Farmyard snug bar are plentiful and there are no little niggly charges for sundry bits and pieces.

Here in the Farmyard Kitchen, we left it to our capable server to bring a series of small plates according to what was good that night and her personal recommendations. It was terrific and we really could not have done better. All was washed down with a couple of bottles of Babylonstoren Shiraz from the sister property in South Africa and after another wonderful experience, we were glad of a buggy ride home.

We’ll remember our days at The Newt fondly and look forward to a return visit, without a doubt. Enjoyed as somewhat of an immersive experience for a few days like this, it’s a great place to escape and was, for us, far more successful in this respect than Gleneagles, where we’d hoped to do something similar last summer. We liked the small, low key atmosphere of the hotel and found that even with the day visitors around the garden, the need for membership meant that there was plenty of space. Whether that would be true in the height of Summer, who knows? But surely, the estate is large enough to offer a quiet space somewhere, however many people are here.

Oh, and there might be just one additional post - I couldn’t leave it here without mention of the art, including the needlepoint horse’s head! Coming soon…