St John Hotel – London
Fergus Henderson made his name with the nose-to-tail eating
concept he pioneered at St John Bar & Restaurant, and the success oh his
offal-dominated menus has led to several spin-offs. The latest, the St John
Hotel, opened off Leicester Square in spring 2011 and provides a handy West End
location for visitors who might be reluctant to venture to St John’s more
easterly outposts.
St John Hotel –
London
How much you like the hotel’s design depends on where you
stand on Spartan décor. Although this works well in the restaurant and bar,
where bare walls and simple furniture put the focus firmly on food and drink
and give the spaces a cool, functional feel, it’s less successful in the
bedrooms. My top-floor Long Room with its white walls and bizarre,
green-Perspex floor, feels a little like being shut in a squash court. It isn’t
somewhere I want to linger.
Restaurant at St
John Hotel – London
I feel more comfortable in the small, ground-floor
restaurant, where head chef Tom Harris adheres to the St John brand by
producing stunning, no-nonsense. Modern British food in an open kitchen. My
Dorset crab starter comes with a fascinating chervil twist that gives it real
bite, and my main course of grilled Middle White chop is served with
deliciously tender Jersey Royal potatoes that taste as though they’ve been
marinated in soft, slippery butter. For dessert, I have a slice of egg-custard
tart that seems to defy the laws of physics. It holds its shape solidly, yet
pools into delicately spices liquid as soon as it enters my mouth. This is
assured food that has evolved stylistically over several years; perhaps the
hotel needs more time to do the same.
1 Leicester Square, London WC2 (020 3301 8020; www.stjohnhotellondon.com). Doubles
from $225. Breakfast about $23 per person. Dinner menus from $33 for three
courses.
The Yorke Arms – Ramsgill-in-Nidderdale, North Yorkshire
The Yorke Arms –
Ramsgill-in-Nidderdale, North Yorkshire
“Do you like the bedrooms?” asks chef Frances Atkins,
standing over me as I sit on a sofa in the bar of her renowned Dales
restaurant, I do. My split-level Superior Courtyard apartment – of which there
are four, in a separate building from the main house, set beside a tinkling
brook – is elegant and tasteful, I say. It has the ambience of an upmarket
hotel room rather than a functional, post-dinner crash-pad. ‘”Oh good,” says
Atkins. “I designed them myself. You’re not the first to say that, either. One
of our regulars, Alan Bennett, has been most complimentary.
I’m impressed. Alan Bennett is akin to royalty in these
parts and, as a Yorkshireman, I feel honoured to be dining at the same table.
The Yorke Arms earned a Michelin star in 2003 for its inspired use of seasonal,
local ingredients and has kept the standard up ever since. Unlike some of the
more starchy establishments in the guide, however, Atkins’s restaurant is welcoming,
cosy and relatively informal. With its low-beamed ceilings, creaking
floorboards and dark-wood paneling, it feels like a traditional Dales inn.
The Yorke Arms:
'Magnificent in every regard'
The food, however, couldn’t be more different. Although Atkins
insists her menus offer “food for everybody, from gourmands to locals who come
here for a treat,” her cuisine is unapologetically high-end. My starter of
Whitby crab, dressed with a hint of lemon zest, is matched with a stunning soup
of shellfish and salt cod in which flavours stand out but never overwhelm each
other. The main course – a slow-cooked leg of have served with pink medallions
of loin, quince, pearl barley and fine-textured black pudding – is as
fascinating as it is delicious. This is Yorkshire food reinvented as something
delicate, witty and beautiful. It’s the culinary equivalent of Bennett’s prose.
Ramsgill-in-Nidderdale, Pateley Bridge, North Yorkshire
(01423 755243; www.yorke-arms.co.uk).
Doubles from $390 including three-course à la carte dinner and breakfast.
