'Extra Helpings' - Summer Lodge Hotel, Restaurant & Spa, from Square Meal Venues & Events Magazine Autumn 2007

Venue Review of 'Extra Helpings' - Summer Lodge Hotel, Restaurant & Spa, from Square Meal Venues & Events Magazine Autumn 2007

I cannot recall feeling cosier at a country house hotel than at Summer Lodge, snugly billeted as we were, in our own cottage nestled in the hotel’s four acres of gardens. Set in the pretty village of Evershot in Dorset – or ‘Hardy-country’ if you’d prefer (part of the house was actually designed by the great writer), the property has a comforting ‘large home’ rather than ‘hotel’ feel.

Service is incredibly attentive, while attention to detail abounds. For instance, car windscreens are cleaned daily and upon departure, each guest is given a travel pack with water and fruit. In our suite of rooms there was TVs with Sky in all the right places, a remote-controlled log fire, and a modish main bathroom with a huge tin tub. The compact spa, meanwhile, boasts a lovely pool with plenty of sun beds.

Dinner in the suitably formal restaurant was full of lovely touches and flavoursome food, mixing classic French service and presentation with some wonderfully local and homely dishes. Roast loin of Dorset lamb with braised shoulder ‘Shepherd’s Pie’, for instance, was a triumph. The wine list is excellent too, with accessible vintages rubbing shoulders with appropriately grand Marques. Frankly, it’s crying out for at least one Michelin star.

For corporate use, a single meeting room accommodates 16, but lacks natural daylight. However, with just two-dozen rooms, exclusive-use may well be the way to go, then the airy conservatory, drawing room and upper restaurant area can all come in to play as event spaces. Alternatively, wrap a series of meetings around a cookery lesson with celebrity chef Lesley Waters, who lives in the village, or around one of the hotel’s renowned wine dinners.

By Graham Hill, head of Venues & Events, Square Meal

Click through for Summer Lodge's venue review.