Hotel/inn, great food near London

[yvonne johnson]

End of July-beginning of August we are visiting Winchester, London, and Cambridge seeing chums and family.  Consort and I are thinking of taking a short spell on our own, and staying at hotel/inn with top-notch food (and we're willing to splash out price-wise).  Accommodations need not be luxurious.  On this trip Ludlow is a bit too far, I think.   Wilfrid’s report on Le Poussin leads to it being a possibility.  

My question is:

Within, say, 2-3 hours' drive-radius of the places mentioned above where would you recommend?

[yvonne johnson]

Thanks for all the tips. To hell with the lot of you.

Only joshing. Not because of the dearth of suggestions, but by chance, last night, we watched a trashy tv prog in which Dawn French goes to Paris with an old flame and eats a ton of chocolates at the Hotel du Louvre. Hey, I thought, that’s where we stayed years ago. Instead of the English countryside, let’s hop on the train and go to Paris instead. So, that’s it settled.

[Andy Lynes]

I'd like to try John Campbells food at The Vineyard . Ludlow is less than 3 hours drive from london BTW.

[tim young]

John Campbell's food at the Vineyard is excellent.   He has brought the savoury ice creams with him from Upper Slaughter (sic): beef with bourguignon ice cream, a pudding of pear with roquefort (or is it parsnip) ice cream and so on.  The combination of tastes is very well done tho' not cheap.   Lunchtime (including Sunday) is a good deal.   Service is attentive.   The whole experience is an enjoyable one from the valet parking and the burning brands in the ornamental lake to the wrought iron bookcases stuffed with the owner's Californian wines (far too expensive to try).   We had an excellent dinner there in March and a good-value lunch there two Sundays ago.

[AdamLawrence]

There's always the Manoir (interesting interview with RB in the Observer food magazine yesterday BTW), but the accommodation is eye-watering - I think the cheapest room is over two hundred and fifty quid.

cheers

Adam

[Scottf]

How about Hotel Du Vin in Royal Tunbridge Wells? About an hours drive, or 40 mins by train from London, and a pretty historic town to boot.

The Bistro in the hotel is not too bad either. Scott and I have eaten there a couple of times and keep trying to get there again. There is another restaurant close by called Thackerays which is also getting quite good reviews. (So good infact we have'nt managed to get a booking yet, and we're locals!

EDIT DISCLOSURE - This is Sam, not Scott - when will he stop messing with my PC

[Jon Tseng]

Tim, do give us more details about your expeditions to the Vineyard; also how get to-able is it from london?

cheerio

j

[countess]

For Winchester I'd consider Lainston House Hotel - just outside.  It is really beautiful and has an excellent restaurant with good food and lovely views.  You could either stay there (fab bathrooms!) or just have a meal.

Hotel du Vin is also in Winchester.

[macrosan]

It's years since I stayed there, but the most exceptional "Country House Hotel and Dining" experience I have ever had was at Mallory Court near Leamington Spa.

The accommodation was superb. I stayed in the Wellington Suite which had a bathroom with two baths and two showers, fabulous bed, superb furniture, and was HUGE. The attention to detail in the room was exceptional. For example, there was a huge bowl of fresh fruit in the room. On our first day, we ate all the apricots, plums and cherries. Next day there was an additional bowl of just apricots, plums and cherries.

Public rooms were also first class, and the service was the best I've ever experienced in a hotel. Altogether, the long weekend we spent there felt like being a guest in someone's splendid country house.

The restaurant matched the hotel. The food was very rich, maybe a little too fancy for my taste, but it was superbly presented and prepared.

My geography isn't up to whether or not this location matches your requirements, Yvonne. But if you do go, please let me know how you fare --- I might try it again myself.

[AdamLawrence]

Valentine's day last year we spent two nights at Combe House just outside Honiton in Devon. Combe House

Possibly too far for you - though I dare say it wouldn't be that bad a drive from Winchester, or you could go by train to Exeter - but a beautiful spot with excellent food, good wine and great hospitality. Pricey too, but worth it. Honiton is pretty and has interesting antique shops and galleries, Exeter is a beautiful old city, with a nicely-restored dockside district, and the countryside around there is fab.

Adam

[yvonne johnson]

Sam, as I was looking up Hotel du Vin in Tunbridge Wells I noticed the Hotel du Vin in Winchester. We and the in-laws had a very good meal in their Bistro a few years back and it had slipped my mind. We may well go back there on this trip. Thanks for the reminder

http://www.hotelduvin.com/winchester/default.asp

You weren't joking were you, Adam, when you suggested the rates at Le Manoir were hefy. 245-825 pounds. http://www.manoir.com/le-manoir_accommodation.htm

This is how fickle the household is at the mo. After doing the rounds in England the plan is maybe a night on our own and then--Paris, now no. Venice, yes.

Thanks everyone for the ideas.