What was once considered fuddy-duddy is bang on trend now that we’re keeping our heads down, our wallets closed, our feet more firmly on the ground: a quick weekend at a restaurant-with-rooms squirreled away in the British countryside. Among the best of them is The Foxhunter, five miles south of Abergavenny in Monmouthshire.
I admit I visited begrudgingly. Wales, or anything bordering it, is to my mind too wet for anything resembling a holiday. And when I looked up The Foxhunter’s exact location, the best diversion – denoted by those ubiquitous brown signs for tourist attractions which line Britain’s motorways – was somewhere called “Big Pit” (a former coal mine offering, as it happens, a gripping exhibition on Thatcherism). You’re pretty much out on a limb here, with the next best diversion a good half-hour drive away in the Brecon Beacons, where foodies will want to make a lunch trip to The Walnut Tree Restaurant just east of Abergavenny.
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Still, I went with the recommendation, booking in for a four-night stay as a fully-paid guest. And I was right to. Once ensconced in the bosom of The Foxhunter, you immediately forget the slate skies, drumming rain and lure of a mineshaft.
This is because the food isn’t something you will easily come across at a restaurant in London. The Foxhunter’s cuisine belongs entirely to its location – slow-roasted Longhorn oozing hours of tender attention, root vegetables straight from the ground, braised organic mutton. Of course Smithfield meat market supplies the capital’s eateries with exceptionally fine raw materials, much of it, probably, from the very same farmers in these wild Welsh Marches. But there’s something about enjoying rigorously seasonal produce in its rural context which gives The Foxhunter a different kind of gravitas.
It’s as if the slow cooking, which is so much a part of chef-proprietor Matt Tebbutt’s approach, belongs to the quietness of this sleepy, hard-to-find locale. The suckling pig with mustard leeks and potato cake, the smoked eel, the pappardelle of ox-tail, the banana bread and chocolate pudding served with clotted cream – this is far more than posh pub grub. It is sophisticated modern British cooking, in the tradition of Mark Hix (formerly of Le Caprice) with a dash of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Trebutt, like Whittingstall, runs foraging courses throughout the year – a hot topic in these penny-pinching times. And it’s comforting, warming. Tebbutt’s large and unpretentious portions make perfect sense.
The homeliness of the cuisine fits like a glove with the “rooms” available for overnight guests. The accommodation, which is within 20 metres of the restaurant, consists of Foxhunter Cottage and The Old Stable. I stayed in the former, which has two bedrooms (a double and single) with a cosy downstairs sitting room with log-burning stove. Foxhunter Cottage has a small patio garden, which would be appealing in summer and helps make this the better house if you are here with children. The Old Stable features a mezzanine-level double bedroom. With both, the style is clean and simple: sisal floors, natural linen sofas, modern kitchens and bathrooms with steaming water. Nothing too fancy, but for £145 per house per night, it’s fair value. The fridge is stocked with some good quality breakfast ingredients; for lunch or dinner, you can self-cater, eat at The Foxhunter, or order “room service” from the restaurant kitchen. And with a three-course set menu costing £25 per head, excluding wine, the final bill isn’t so bad – an entire bed and dinner stay, in fact, costing the same as an average hotel in London.
www.thefoxhunter.com;
info@thefoxhunter.com;
tel +44 (0)1873 881 101
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Enjoy the food, stay the night
Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant in Padstow remains possibly the best fish restaurant west of Scott’s on London’s Mount Street. The celebrity chef certainly has the run of this small Cornish fishing village, where he also owns the six-suite St Edmunds House where restaurant diners can stay.
Even though it’s no bargain at £270 a night, St Edmunds is likeable, its small size making it feel private, with breakfast served at the busy main restaurant a two-minute walk down the hill (room service is available).
Suites feature four-posters, wooden floors and American-style shutters. Rooms on the ground floor have French windows opening on to a garden; those upstairs have views of the Camel Estuary.
www.rickstein.com; doubles £270
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| A bedroom at The Dartmoor Inn |
Food is by chef-proprietor Philip Burgess who follows the modern British rules of local, fresh and organic produce cooked simply while respecting the integrity of ingredients: potted pork with butter beans and crab apple jelly, escalope of Devon Ruby beef or sticky toffee pudding.
Upstairs are three doubles, all ensuite with feminine mock-French country gîte interiors featuring sofas in rosy damask.
www.dartmoorinn.com; doubles £120
The Abbots House in Charmouth has a centre-stage location within five minutes walk of West Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. You’re three miles from Lyme Regis. Charmouth itself is a one-horse town with a fish and chip shop, two pubs and a couple of hair salons. The Abbots House opened as a modest restaurant with rooms in May 2008. The four rooms feature light-filled “country contemporary” interiors – all different. While the restaurant doesn’t compete with the likes of Stein, nor is it trying to. This is a simple chef-run establishment born of passion, and therefore, there’s an attention to detail which makes it commendable – home-made biscuits when you get in from the beach, and a good English breakfast. Note the quirky model train in the garden.
www.theabbotshouse.co.uk; doubles £120-£160
