The Lygon Arms Hotel, Worcestershire

With all the travelling North and then South to spend time with both our families over christmas, and then in anticipation of New Year's Eve with friends, we decided to spend some time relaxing by ourselves in the interim period. This of course meant booking into a beautiful 16th Century Cotswolds spa hotel (I hear the water in the region is incredibly reguvenative). Our search, inevitebaly led us to the picturesque village of Broadway (where, incidentally I once sampled the best rhubarb crumble ice cream), the 'jewel of the Cotswolds' and of course the famous Lygon Arms hotel.


Suffice to say, we ensured we sampled all the amenities available to us. This of course included the three course meal with wine we had booked for the first night. The restaurant is in the grand Old Hall, with it's blazing real fires and candle light providing a perfect and romantic dining experience.


We arrived and were immediately offered still warm, freshly bake rolls. This was swiftly followed by the amous bouche which was a satsifying hot carrot and lentil soup, perfectly balanced in flavours and seasoning.

My starter was the twice baked Souffle, Westcomb cheddar and parsnip, parmesan cream and apple and vanilla sauce. The flavours were very unusual, but the pairing of mature salty cheddar worked with the sweetness of the parsnip and vanilla. It looked very impressive.

 

Gipsy Spread opted for the sea trout and prawn, tartare, pomegranite and cucumber salsa, saffron mayonnaise. Again, art on a plate, which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Gipsy Spread opted for the supplementary rib eye of Baccleuch beef in a light pink peppercorn sauce, whilst I had the linguine, forest mushrooms, baby spinach and cashel blue, wild rocket and seeds - sans the cashel, I'm not a fan. My dish was incredibly creamy with a slight sweetness from the sauce. The mushrooms and spinach brought an earthy, woody element to the plate, with texture and nuttiness from the seeds. It was delicious, however far too large for me to finish after the previous courses.

We had  though come for the three course menu and I persevered and forged on to dessert! We were given both a dessert menu and the cheese menu, whilst the cheese offer looked delicious, we thought the sweet menu would be lighter.

 



I had the beautifully presented mandarin option which consisted of mandarin frangipan, satsuma sorbet and jelly with a creme anglais. This was the perfect harmony of tastes, textures and flavours.

 
Gipsy Spread had the coconut dessert. This combined coconut and pineapple delice with pina colada cream and chocolate ice cream. I had to have a taste of course, and found this dish to be realy tangy from the pinapple and light and fresh from the coconut in the cream.

All in all, our three course dinner was delicious, accompanied by red wine and finished with a wee dram of single malt Cardhu whiskey.


I woke up full after the meal, but cannot resist a good English breakfast, which is the meal that followed the above. Also served in the great hall, there was great selection of continental breakfast food and then a follow up of ordering a hot breakfast from the a la carte menu. I partook in all of it.

Suffice to say we had a fabulous stay and the food surpassed expectations, with the service second to none - exceptional. This Country spa hotel formula with a great kitchen is a winning combination and I have every hope to continue this Christmas time tradition annually.