Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons

[Scott]

even though it was expensive and there was one sauce that was well below par for me, i still loved it. but i think the beautiful weather and charming service really pushed it over the edge.

also, i know even less than moby about wine, so i didn't even look at the list.

compared to, say, sketch, where i just felt like i had hemmorhaged cash, it was a relative bargain.

Tarka,

You went for dinner at sketch and lunch at Le Manoir.

I did it the other way round and found Sketch better value for money.

Neither seems too concerned with relative value for money.

[Bapi]

"Well if you have the langoustine canelloni, I'll have the foie but then what can we do about the spring vegetable risotto appetiser?

Aaaah, the Langoustine cannelloni, I ate that dish three times on the trot on a stay there for our anniversary in 2002! ! We haven't been back since, but I would like to as we had some stellar meals there. A wonderful Roast squab cooked in salt crust lingers in the memory……..

Gary- I don't agree that is a place solely for the super rich and not for foodies. (They let me in, and I am firmly in the latter category !!) Trust me matey, you would like it. That said, Scott's experience re the wine would make by blood boil.

Granted it is a two star and with that in mind, the pricing is aggressive, but on balance no more so that RHR/ Waterside et Inn( I know they are 3 stars) . But I think the whole experience is one that should be tried. Granted I would much rather eat more innovative and more reasonably priced food as at the Two star Hibiscus. Incidentally, that reminds me of a funny story Claire Bosi (Hibiscus) told me about their trip to Manoir a few years back and which I hope they wont mind me sharing.

They had stayed the night and had a very nice meal. The following morning Claude was presented with the bill, when checking out. He glanced at it and a look of horror crossed his face and so he turned to Claire and asked - "What wine did you order last night?". It transpires that there had been another Mr Bosi staying there, but that Mr Bosi had been a resident for about 10 nights, hence the disparity in their bills!! Having stayed there I can only imagine what the other chaps bill must have been. I think I would have cried had it been me

[Gary Marshall]

Gary-  I don't agree that is a place solely for the super rich and not for foodies. (They let me in, and I am firmly in the latter category !!) Trust me matey, you would like it. That said, Scott's experience re the wine would make by blood boil.

i know what you're saying but if i got my passport and oxygen and left yorkshire for oxfordshire for the day and spent hundreds excluding room, and it wasn't spot on i'd just be hell to be around.

it just seems a bit inconsistent, i'm sure on a good day i'd love it but just can't take the risk, especially when as you say there's so many other places to try, or go to hibiscus twice for the same money

gary

[jimbob]

Could anyone give a comparison of Le Manoir compared with similar but French exaples (such as Marc Meneau and Troisgros).

I always fancied it but frequent trips to France make mw wonder if it is worth it?

[tony h]

Its like a mini-Michel Gerard - not nearly as grand

[Suzi Edwards]

Neither seems too concerned with relative value for money.

Good point. These things are always relative though, aren't they? When you get to that 250gbp per head level I think I think value for money goes out of the window.

Does that sound completely terrible?

[Scott]

Neither seems too concerned with relative value for money.

Good point. These things are always relative though, aren't they? When you get to that 250gbp per head level I think I think value for money goes out of the window.

Does that sound completely terrible?

No it just sounds like we should spend more time at lunch, and more evenings in Nandos.

Edited July 14, 2004 by Scott (log)

[Stigand]

At Le Manoir in 1987 - the room we had was kind of a step or two above comfy cabin at Four Seasons prices. Perhaps that has changed after all these years. I would hope so.

It sounds like the rooms have got better since 1987. I've stayed at Le Manoir a couple of times in the last few years and I've always been very impressed by the rooms (both inside the house itself and in the outbuildings) - both luxurious and extremely characterful.

On the subject of the prices (of both rooms and food):

I'd agree with everyone else that the Manoir is expensive compared to other posh restaurants with rooms/hotels in the UK countryside. But I wonder if it's really fair to compare the Manoir's prices with, say, those of somewhere in Devon or Scotland. Londoners can leave their offices on a Friday evening and, after a leisurely crawl through the traffic on the M40, make it to Le Manoir in time for Friday dinner. This isn't really the case for Gidleigh Park or Inverlochie Castle, which I assume are more reliant on a combination of local trade and tourists visiting the area or making a longer stay at the restaurant.

So Le Manoir can charge more simply because lots of Londoners are willing to pay for a micro-break country house experience but don't have time to go further afield.

[sarah w]

Hasnt Manoir now got alot of competition now in terms of accomodation now you have Whatley Manor, Babington, Cowley Manor etc.. Maybe more youthful & not the foodie destination but all are lovely properties with stylish rooms,spas etc.

We won a stay,champagne and dinner at manoir 3 years ago, Our suite was amazing,huge..called Provence. It had a hallway, living area, massive bedroom,walk in shower & dressing room. I think it would cost over £795-875 a night

We really enjoyed ourselves (i guess it being free helped) but i did think that if we had stayed in a small/er room it wouldnt have been so great as there is nothing to do at the hotel other than walk round the gardens, have a drink or eat..

We didnt find the food lived up to its reputation, nothing wrong just nothing inspiring.

x

[Gary Marshall]

So Le Manoir can charge more simply because lots of Londoners are willing to pay for a micro-break country house experience but don't have time to go further afield.

whilst proximity to london is undoubtedly a factor in the prices, i also think they can charge the rates due to my view of it being 'touristy' i reckon it is probably one of the most famous restaurants in the UK.

anyone with a vague interest in food will know of le manoir whereas the lesser known 2 & 3 stars require at least a bit of digging in a michelin to uncover, and thus can't charge the prices, and don't have the show-off cachet.

if on monday morning you say to your colleagues 'i've been to le manoir, raymond blanc's place', you get knowing looks. Say you've been to germain schwab's winteringham fields or michael caines gidleigh park and you'll undoubtedly get blank stares!

from my own experience it was a place i wanted to go to a few years ago due to its reputation, and i'm not closed to the idea, but think there's plenty more higher up the list to try first.

gary

[Suzi Edwards]

i didn't realise that at all gary. right, am off to conduct a straw poll and see who had heard of it.

[tony h]

if on monday morning you say to your colleagues 'i've been to le manoir, raymond blanc's place', you get knowing looks. Say you've been to germain schwab's winteringham fields or michael caines gidleigh park and you'll undoubtedly get blank stares!

more likely get beaten up for being a pansy

[robyn]

Could anyone give a comparison of Le Manoir compared with similar but French exaples (such as Marc Meneau and Troisgros).

I always fancied it but frequent trips to France make mw wonder if it is worth it?

I was at Le Manoir and Troisgros at about the same period of time (same decade ). Assuming that they're reasonably the same these days (with the rooms at Manoir having nicer furnishings) - this is the difference. Manoir is more like the castle/stately home places in the Loire. They are trying to be "grand" in terms of the food and the rooms and the grounds and the general atmosphere (of course some succeed and some don't). Troisgros is a relatively modest establishment in a very modest not very interesting town that just happens to serve spectacular food (or at least it used to). And the rooms when I stayed there were a hoot. Vintage Playboy fantasy. Very dark - circular staircase. Someone's idea of a "fashionable room" (but that someone had never opened a design magazine). But you stayed in the rooms for the same reason you went to the town - to dine at Troisgros. Everything else was secondary. Robyn

[Marlyn4k]

Les Crayeres in Reims felt quite similar to Le Manoir.

Very funny Blind Lemon Higgins...people can be so foodiest

Although I agree with Gary, if you're into bragging rights then Le Manoir is generally most known out of the better places.

Personally, I've not been back to Le Manoir since I went for a Saturday lunch expecting to have the set menu and found they'd gone Carte only on Saturdays (all day)....very expensive lunch

[nimzo]

My best memory of the Manoir was finding a maggot in a dish of morels. No problem for me but massive panic amongst the staff culminating with Raymond appearing and asking if it was live or dead.Numerous freebies followed together with some fine old cognacs and a distinct lack of a bill. I have always found it relaxing and apart from the maggot could never fault the food although it sometimes lacks the passion of others and seems a little impersonal.

[MobyP]

culminating with Raymond appearing and asking if it was live or dead.

Of course - if the Morel had been cooked properly, the little blighter would've been dead! So we see what Raymond was really concerned with.

[balex]

Manoir is more like the castle/stately home places in the Loire. They are trying to be "grand" in terms of the food and the rooms and the grounds and the general atmosphere (of course some succeed and some don't).

Le Manoir is grand. The last but one time I went there, the Queen mum (gawd bless 'er) was at the next table.

[tony h]

Le Manoir is grand. The last but one time I went there, the Queen mum (gawd bless 'er) was at the next table.

all I got was Ken Brannagh - mind you I did have a painful lunch with Mike Leigh once - buts thats anothe story

[Gareth]

We went to the Manoir for a joint birthday celebration last Saturday.

We had a great day – the weather held, the gardens were delightful, the food was excellent. We arrived at one and finally left about five-thirty !

Of particular note were the vegetables. Vegetable risotto was bitingly fresh, and the crushed minted peas nestling under the best end of lamb were also a bit revelatory. My top tip is, that if you order the vegetable risotto, then your amuse, rather than being a chilled shot of (first rate) gaspacho, becomes a knock-out dish of courgette flowers, stuffed with taboulah and with a balsamic dressing. Both fish and meat (monkfish; lamb; sucking pig; beef) were done very nicely. One niggling criticism would be that the beef was not desperately flavoursome. However, it was textured perfectly and when combined with the mushrooms, smoked mash and fois gras the total worked well.

Overall, I rated it a notch below GR@RHR but with daylight between it and Gidleigh Park. It was favourably on a par with my last ‘two-star’ in France (Hautes de la Loire) My Dad is more generous to Gidleigh and has it and the Manoir neck and neck. Both offer a similar overall experience (food+setting).

Both do not offer a similar price experience. I seriously recommend that before you go to Oxford you put your wallet through some high-altitude acclimatisation training. Maybe start with a with a haircut at Nicky Clark, progress to a scarf at Hermes, maybe purchase a trinket or two at Garrards, before plunging into Le Manoir.

It was not quite as expensive as the three starts I have been to in Paris. But it was signifcantly more so than GR@RHR and Auberge De L’ill (or Hautes de la Loire). My veg risotto was fabulous but at £32 for a ladleful it bloody should have been (especially since they didn’t even have to buy the veg…!) When I start to rationalise it at £20 per hour, then my heart slowly starts to edge back below a couple of hundred beats per minute (or about tuppence a beat in Manoir money…). But even so, if I had one criticism it was that I could never quite escape the pervading sense everyone was seeking to charge me handsomely for their wonderful hospitality.

[Suzi Edwards]

Both do not offer a similar price experience. I seriously recommend that before you go to Oxford you put your wallet through some high-altitude acclimatisation training. Maybe start with a with a haircut at Nicky Clark, progress to a scarf at Hermes, maybe purchase a trinket or two at Garrards, before plunging into Le Manoir.

this is so true. i actually had a call from my credit card company on the monday morning after my visit to the manoir "to check some abnormal spending patterns on my account"

[Marlyn4k]

I had an invite to the Le Petit Blanc special evening, to thank their mailing list of regular punters, before they shut down for renovation...Raymond was cooking in the kitchen with the help of some of his team from Le Manoir, it was memorably good and a bargain. :

The reason for the post is he came round for a chat with each table and we asked him what his proudest food achievement was, to which he replied inventing the chocolate fondant. Can this be true?

[Matthew Grant]

No - I think the general consensus is that it was Michel Bras who invented the fondant, hence the poster you receive of the fondant when you stay there!

[Jon Tseng]

These is a chocolate fondant recipe in RB's Blanc Mange book from the early 90's (doesn't claim to have invented it) - though judging from the date of publication it still seems likely MB got there first

J

[Matthew Grant]

I believe that the Michel Bras Coulant was first created in 1981!

Edited July 27, 2004 by Matthew Grant (log)

[tony h]

Last minute suggestion from the ball & chain – Sunday lunch at Le Manoir. Got a table no problem. Friend also came along.

I won’t go into to the details – much has already been said about the idyll that is Le Manoir.

Amuses were up to their usual standard – of note: a wonderful mini-tart filled with cheese custard – knock out; a slither of bread with possibly the best guacamole you’re ever had; cylinder of cucumber hollowed out & filled with seriously smoked salmon; there were a few others beside this.

Menu was difficult to choose from – so much sounded so good.

Pre starter – small glass cup of gazpacco. By contrast to last week’s offering from The Champignon Sauvage which was thick & delicious, here is was an essence of the ingredients – the juices that are gathered from squeezing the vegetables involved. Stunning – so fresh & vibrant and certainly woke the palate up for what was to come. This was accompanied with a lovely little skinned tomato and a thin drizzle of tapenade. Great.

Starters – I went for scallop, langoustine & crab with mango & coconut. This was so beautifully presented. A single scallop with a disc of coconut; two langoustine split down the middle, griddles & arranged cross plate; a couple of mini cannelloni-like things filled with the sweetest crab meat. On reflect, I think the cannelloni may have been made with slithers of mango. Deeply mango flavoured sauce – sauce isn’t really good enough it describe this – more a semi-solid emulsion packed with flavour – this harmonised all of the ingredients. Also sprinkled around the plate was a wonderful selection of herbs and greenery. I suspect that M Blanc has started send his troupes to graphic arts classes – either that or he’s been eating at Tom Aikens at lot recently.

The others had – tian of crab wrapped in jacket of cucumber with seafood bisque – full of flavour & happiness. Our friend had the lobster ravioli with seafood bisques scented with lemon verbena. I did get a chance to sample the ravioli, our friend, the human vacuum clear, inhaled this way too quickly (still trying to teach her about savouring the moment AND SHARING!). Anyway – suitable signs if approval were echoed by both.

Mains – lamb three ways for me: loin; mini-shank & sweetbreads. All nested upon a variety of peas, beans, spinach and related greenness – each little mound treated slightly differently. One slight glitch – I had already finished the sweetbread when the waiter retuned with my sauce. Oh, well.

Others – grouse – a stunning arrangement of the different meats, blackberries; square of potato dauphinoise and a whole host of other yummy vegetables. Really good red wine reduction - very pleasant smokiness to the sauce. The other main was beef fillet on a bed of to die for mash with asparagus, salsify and other goodies. Excellent sauce.

Desserts – always high point. I went for a orange & lemon parfait wrapped in a biscuit sitting one bed of warm cherries. This came with a lovely sugar sculpture of a flower. Quite amazing – great cherries. The ball & chain went for the chocolate tasting – chocolate sorbet (breathtaking); chocolate ice cream & sickle shaped biscuit-thing and old faithful – the cake that’s liquid in the middle. Any would have made me very happy. Our friend had eaten so much bread at this stage she could face dessert so she got her multitude of vitamin pills out of her bad started consuming them. Fresh waster was thoughtfully brought to the table for her – as was some lemon sorbet so she didn’t feel left out.

A much better experience than my last trip there last year – I feel they were just going through the motions – but today everything was virtually flawless. A perfect way to spend Sunday bank holiday. cheers!.