Langford Fivehead – Lower Swell Somerset
Less a restaurant with rooms than an upmarket B&B which
offers a table d’hôte. Langford Fivehead warrants inclusion for its superb food
and gorgeous accommodation. Communal dining isn’t for everyone, but those who
book into Peter Steggall and Orlando Murrin’s 15th-century manor
know that they’re letting themselves in for. And guests are happy to get to
know their fellow overnighters while enjoying Murrin’s stunning seasonal
cooking. “Somerset has always had a great tradition of food production,” Murrin
tells me. “And we’re lucky there are so many excellent suppliers close by.”
Langford Fivehead
– Lower Swell Somerset
Langford Fivehead is a medieval building, and the décor is a
blend of Dark Ages chic – flagstone floors, hog-sized fireplaces, heavy
tapestries – and modern boutique style. My bedroom, “10 July 1645”, has a
enormous canopied bed, a honeyed colour scheme and elegant, French-style
furniture. My bathroom is spacious and serene, with witty cherub tiles. The
combination works because the whole place feels like a personality-filled home.
Sitting room
My fellow guests and I take out seats at 8pm sharp for a
pumpkin, leek and blue-cheese risotto. Murrin, a former editor at BBC Good
Food, talks us through each course, and he puts up an impassioned defence of
British veal before serving us just that – pink and tender as a rose,
accompanied by garlicky gratin dauphinois. Steggall gives an engaging
mini-lecture on a selection of West Country cheeses before a dessert of pear
frangipani tart with tonka-bean ice cream is brought out to finish.
Breakfast
The dishes may not have the gloss of those in a top
restaurant, but it doesn’t matter. Murrin’s cooking is masterful, and the sense
is of being at a smart house party with friends – albeit one where you are not
expected to help with the washing-up.
Lower Swell, Somerset (01460 281159; www.langfordfivehead.co). Doubles
from $195 B&B. Dinner (Fri and Sat only) $75 per person without wine.
Rocksalt – Folkestone Kent
Rocksalt –
Folkestone Kent
The views from Rocksalt are fabulous. Who’d have thought the
ferry port of Folkestone could look so enticing when framed in floor-to-ceiling
windows? Gordon Ramsay protégé Mark Sargeant opened the restaurant last summer,
and its combination of Kentish food and Scandinavian-style design – dark-toned
leather furniture, warm wood, linear patterns – is as much of a draw for
Folkestonians as it is for itinerant foodies.
Restaurant at the Rocksalt
– Folkestone Kent
Although upmarket, the restaurant serves local food for
local people – and at reasonable prices, too. Sargeant’s inventive take on the
cuisine of his home country can be seen throughout the extensive menu, and my
starter of dressed crab with harissa is bold and confident. The piquant
oiliness of the sauce goes very well with the tender crabmeat, and I have soon
cleared my plate. My main course, stir-fried whelks with crispy noodles, gives
the local favourite an Asian twist, infusing the rubbery flesh with honey and
ginger. My dessert of gypsy tart evokes nostalgic memories of school dinners,
though its butterscotch filling is as light as a soufflé.
“The ethos at Rocksalt is seasonality, simplicity and
local.” Sargeant tells me. “We source the best local ingredients, allowing the
products to speak for themselves with little fuss”
a pre lunch Rocksalt
at Rocksalt – Folkestone Kent
The bedrooms, which are above sister restaurant The
Smokehouse, just along the quay, also update the raw materials at their
disposal with panache. The four cool but cosy chambers have been hewn from a
red-brick Victorian structure in which dabs and bloaters were once smoked. The
exposed brickwork that surrounds my antique iron bed is a stylish reminder of
the building’s past: a state-of-the-art wet room, oversized lamp and stark,
floral-print wallpaper are contemporary elements. And the gentle sounds of
lapping water and muffled gull-caw prove as soporific as any nightcap in
Rocksalt’s cocktail bar.
4 – 5 Fishmarket, Folkestone Kent (01303 212070;
rocksaltfolkestone.co.uk). Doubles from $115 B&B. Dinner about $100 for two
without wine
