A five star trip
I’ve mentioned before how the current COVID restrictions made it essential to make advance bookings for just about everything we did whilst we were away. That didn’t phase us; we are the kind of people who are happy to commit in advance and to reserve a spot, especially if it’s something we really want to do. Having made a booking, we always follow it through as well and would never dream of changing long term plans without an unavoidable reason. In the run up to our road trip, then, we found ourselves with everything planned, including - most importantly - where we were going to eat.
We’ve joked about tailoring our trips around restaurants and of counting the nights to make sure we’ve time to visit all of our favourites in a particular place. I think this trip was a first, however, because we chose where to stay on the basis of the restaurants we wanted to visit.
Our first overnight was at The Gilpin in the Lake District, where we had a booking for dinner in the Michelin starred HRiSHi restaurant. True to form, we opted for the tasting menu with the wine pairing and really enjoyed the imaginatively spiced dishes - everything here was out of the ordinary and we were delighted to get off to such a brilliant start.
My Hero declared his favourite to be the Lancashire Farm Cauliflower which was particularly surprising, since never before has that vegetable been anywhere near top of his list. For me, it couldn’t possibly be anything but the peanut dessert course which was nothing but spectacular!
That little unassuming brown sphere behind the sorbet was a delicious peanut semifreddo and combined with everything else on the plate finished our meal off perfectly - well, the late harvest South African Riesling might have helped in that respect 😉
One star down and the second night at Gleneagles, when we had a booking for the two-star Andrew Fairlie restaurant.
Yes, of course we opted for the tasting menu again, with wine too since we had only to make our way upstairs and didn’t have far to go!
Here, the flavours were more conventional and I was pleased that the menu reflected some local flavours. Above are a couple of the amuses-bouches, which were stunning and sadly not on the menu so I can’t say exactly what they are. All I can remember is that the crispy wafer was filled with a variation of Caesar salad flavours and I think the breadcrumbed sphere was filled with a cheese fondue. Both were, of course, utterly delicious! As is often the case in these things, the simple description, Perthshire Strawberries, for example, belied the reality which was in every case some complex assortment of texture and flavours which I as an amateur cook could never hope to achieve. The element of surprise and delight was all part of the show, needless to say.
Unfortunately - or not - the rest of the meal was so terrific that we both neglected to take further pictures, except for the brand of delicious local gin which we enjoyed in our G&T aperitif that night.
I mentioned in my previous post that we were lucky to have two reservations here during our stay at Gleneagles, so two nights later, we returned and spent a while deciding whether we wanted to repeat the Dégustation experience or choose our favourites from that menu and exercise a little restraint, which is what we decided to do. This also gave my hero the opportunity to choose a platter of cheese instead of dessert - and oh my word, what a cheese platter it was!
Another two Michelin stars to add to the one from HRiSHi then, and on down to Yorkshire where two nights later we had a booking at the Black Swan in Oldstead another Michelin starred restaurant not too far from Harome, where we were staying.
We’ve enjoyed several of the “Made in Oldstead” boxes over the lockdown, each one being a flavour-filled delight with imaginative combinations and unusual home-grown ingredients. After the comfortable elegance of the Andrew Fairlie restaurant, the somewhat sparse and rather informal room upstairs was a real contrast.
One thing to note here: The chairs were mostly placed at an angle to the tables, as can be seen in the photo above. We didn’t notice it whilst there, but it may well explain the casual approach of our fellow guests, most of whom didn’t really “sit up to the table” and seemed to spend much of their time with a phone in one hand an a fork or a glass in the other. Table manners? That concept seemed to have flown out of the window here. Or are we old and stuffy? (don’t answer that)
The only option on offer here was the tasting menu, to be ordered and paid for (!) in advance, £125 per person. My Hero was driving, so it was just me enjoying the wine pairing on this occasion, sadly.
Another variation on the caesar salad crisp with the amuses-bouches, which were good though unfortunately the rest of the menu failed to impress. Was it the casual atmosphere that destroyed the sense of occasion? Was it that we were expecting something special, having enjoyed the flavours and imaginative combinations of the Made in Oldstead boxes? On this occasion, the reality matched the menu with, for example, the Sweet Cecily being a dry iced crumb on top of a ramekin with blackcurrants and yoghurt. Nice, but Michelin starred quality? Hmm….or perhaps we were just “dined out” ?! Who knows. Whatever the reason, we left feeling underwhelmed and somewhat disappointed with our first “rock star chef” experience.
Thankfully, we had dinner at The Star to look forward to on our last night away. A familiar favourite - we think this was our fifth visit - we felt confident of good cooking and hearty flavour here and we were far from disappointed.
Tempting though it was to go for another tasting menu - especially since this one was £30 cheaper than last night’s - we resisted that temptation in favour of simply choosing our favourites from the a la carte menu. We watched as the couple at the adjacent table worked their way through the many small courses though and might just have regretted our decision!
Never mind, when you’re at The Star, the Black Pudding and Foie Gras is a must…
not to mention the North Sea Wild Halibut - the fillet steak of fish, according to my Mum.
If there’s a souffle on the menu, that’s got to be dessert, then - even if “parma violet ice cream” sounded a little risky (it wasn’t - it was yum!)
Adding the star from The Black Swan and the one from here at The Star to the three we’ve already eaten this week (!) made for a five star dining experience all round. Quite a treat really and definitely not something to take for granted.
We both agreed on one thing however. Much as we enjoyed the experience of dining each of these four restaurants - ok, with some reservations - our favourite local restaurant Lumiere in Cheltenham remains top of our list for style, substance and most importantly, flavour, and it doesn’t have a star at all! We are so lucky to have it (almost) on our doorstep (maybe a good thing that its not closer!) and whilst the tequila-lime slammer remains on the menu, it will be unbeatable :-)
