David's Reviews

The number of decent restaurants this close to Aldershot can be counted on the fingers of one foot, so I was quite keen to try this, on a Sunday, with my wife and daughter.

The building outside is aggressively modern and looked rather deserted. On venturing inside, through automatic doors, again it looked deserted until a porter spotted us and showed us to the restaurant, to a friendly greeting from the lady at the desk. To avoid undue repetition, I will say here that all the staff we dealt with were, without exception, friendly, helpful and just nice. The decor is all brown and cream and the tables are reasonably well spaced. They are also a decent size.

The menus and wine list both come on a single sided sheet about A3 size, with the food menu written rather large, in order that the not excessive choice should take up the whole space. The wine list was typed in a more normal font and had a reasonable selection, better than I have seen in many hotel restaurants, with several listed by the glass (in two sizes). I started with a large (250ml) glass of NZ sauvignon blanc at £8.35. A pretty average specimen. I then went on to an Aussie Pinot Noir (£32.96 the bottle), a likewise average specimen.

The menu bore no resemblance to that described in the Square Meal review or, indeed, to that shown on the hotel website. Square Meal describes the cooking as modern European and the website shows a menu touching pretty much all the bases you would expect from this description. The menu we were presented with could have come from any run of the mill hotel. The most obvious choice was steak, fillet, rib eye or sirloin being on offer and featured prominently. There were also 4 so-called “Classic” dishes, of which I recall slow-cooked lamb shoulder (which my wife and daughter had) and chicken curry. There was no discernable theme to the menu, other than a desire, understandable in a hotel, to include something to please everyone. I started with the asparagus, as did my wife, and went on… More

My wife and I, with a daughter and her boyfriend, stayed for a night, mainly with a view to trying the restaurant, 1 Michelin star, formerly run by one of our favourite chefs, Andrew Turner, now at Landau, but now the province of Michael Wignall. The hotel has two restaurants, the Latymer, where we ate, and the brasserie, so it is perhaps not too great a surprise that the Latymer, on our arrival at 7.30pm, had only one other table occupied, by a couple. It is, perhaps, more surprising that only two other tables (one 4 and one couple) were occupied throughout our meal. Although this was mid-week, I would not have expected quite such a lack of customers.
All of the tables had been set, all but one with white fabric cloths. Our table, a round one in the middle of the room, had a inlaid wooden top which it would have been a pity to cover. We were seated in comfortable chairs.
Although the website suggests that over 200 wines are available by the glass, this was not obvious from the wine list, which listed a reasonable number, certainly less than a dozen of each colour, but nowhere near 200. Perhaps the website is out of date. The list had a decent selection of bottles and did not seem grossly overpriced.
Service was mostly correct, if a little frosty at times, mainly by a young lady who plainly did not speak English very well. When she had delivered each course, she then told each diner what was on his or her plate, presumably in case we had forgotten. This might have been useful to the many amnesiac diners the restaurant doubtless gets, had she identified the ingredients correctly. However, several times what she said did not precisely match what was on the plate – she got the main ingredient correct, but the others were all over the place.
Sadly, none of us found the food to be as enjoyable as we had expected. Every single dish was, to my mind too fussy, with too many ingredients, too many tastes and not enough of any one to give much more than a mouthful of anything. For… More

My wife & I recently (mid-week, January 2009) spent three nights here. Off season, obviously. Even so, the restaurant managed to attract around 20+ guests each evening, many plainly locals.

Out of season, the menu choices are rather restricted to around 4 in each course. However, the chef has recently introduced a new option – a 5-course tasting menu, which he says will be geared to your preferences. My wife & I decided to have this on each night of our stay, and the chefs managed to come up with 15 different dishes, without too much fish (I’m not too fond) and with no fois gras (my wife doesn't like it). After the first evening, we were asked if there was anything we would particularly like for the third evening and we asked for duck, which was not on the menu – the rest of the dishes were, so far as I could tell, ringing the changes on ingredients that were available for regular menu dishes. The duck came in a savoury sauce, with an almost burnt taste, that went strangely well. Other highlights for me were belly of pork in a black pudding sauce, beef and fried Isle of Wight cheese.

We were here last year and felt that the food then, although quite good, did not show much imagination. That has certainly changed.

Service is from smart mostly young people, who appear to have been well trained. The wine list is surprisingly wide ranging for what is, after all, a seaside hotel. Perhaps it is not so surprising – the restaurant manager used to be the sommelier at Chapter 1 in Kent.

If you plan to stay, I can recommend the rooms in the new block, which are very modern and benefit from free wired broadband (I am not sure they have enough bandwidth since it seems to slow to an unusable crawl on occasion) and an interesting lift. The only disadvantage of these is that you have to walk through the small, unattractive car park to get to the main part of the hotel.

Money where my mouth is – my wife & I have booked to return for another three nights in February.

Before you read this review, you should know that my family and I have been coming here for ages, through at least 4 managers, and are very well known, and so I am the very antithesis of the anonymous reviewer.

The restaurant is located on the A21, near a busy crossroads and on the outskirts of the village of Locksbottom. When we, my wife and I, arrived, on a Monday evening, the car park was pretty full, but the restaurant was only half full – the explanation was a function going on in the private room upstairs. Incidentally, I have used the private room in the past and it’s a good place for a private dinner party of 15-30 people.

Even half full, the room was buzzing and I would guess there were some 40-50 people.

We were quickly shown to our usual table and brought the menus, but no wine list. My wife was then brought her caffe latte and salad ( a standing order in all our regular restaurants) but still no wine list. My guess is that it was some 10-15 minutes before one was brought. I had the impression throughout our meal that there were simply not enough waiting staff, and this was subsequently confirmed by an assistant manager (the manager was off that night) who told us that a couple who were supposed to be on had not turned up.

When I finally managed to order some wine, I started with a glass of chardonnay (I believe it was from the USA, but am not certain – £5.50). I then went on to a NZ Pinot, Alana 2004, well worth it at £43, served in decently large glasses.

Maybe I eat out too much, but when I saw the menu, I was not too sure I fancied anything. The chef here turns out excellent food, but he doesn’t ring the changes all that often, at least with the meat dishes which are pretty much all I eat. However, I settled for jugged hare to start and lamb as the main, with a side of new potatoes (£2.50 – enough for the two of us, except when we are being greedy). My wife also chose the hare and asked if the quail could be served without the accompanying fois gras, of… More

We arrived a bit late, climbed the stairs besides a heaving pub and, passing between the ladies and gents loos, arrived in a half empty room devoid of staff.

After politely waiting around for a few minutes, we were just about to go to the table obviously set for us (unless they happened to have another party of 5 to go with the few couples scattered around) when a waiter appeared and brusquely enquired how many we were; not whether we had booked, or our names, or our inside leg measurements, but the one item of information that he could have determined for himself had his maths been up to the task.

He then pointed us to the obvious table and brought menus and a wine list. When it became clear that my wife’s requirements extended beyond the usual still, sparkling or tap, he sensibly got out a notepad and quickly and efficiently dealt with the orders.

Just to keep me going, I had a glass of Albarino (£7), very pleasant, and a generous size glass. Subsequently, I ordered a bottle of Mansion House sauvignon blanc (£27) and Dillons Pinot Noir (£32), both from NZ and both good examples of their type.

I did not follow what everyone else had. However, their consensus was that it was good but not exceptional.

I started with a warm salad of pigeon, pigeon tasty and moist plus a few odd leaves (not too many) and other stuff. I then went on to wild duck, with a side order of chips. The chips were large, but crisp on the outside and fluffy within. Although I prefer my chips more chip-size than quarter potato size, these were good. I did, however, have a problem with the duck. This came as a breast, cooked pink and a confit pie. The breast was cooked as it should be and tasted ducky. It did not, however, taste especially wild. The pie had a thin top and a thick and claggy base. I think the base was somewhat thicker than the filling. After a couple of exceedingly unpleasant mouthfuls, I took off the top, scraped off and ate the meagre filling and left the pastry, which rather destroys… More

I arrived a couple of minutes before the booked time, 7pm, to a friendly welcome from the doorman and a confusion of people just inside the door. However, I was soon shown to our table, to find that I was the first to arrive. However, my host and the other guest arrived within a few minutes. I had ordered a bottle of sparkling water on my arrival, and this turned up shortly after the rest had seated and was distributed among us.

The room is enormous, rather grand, and, I believe, has further seating upstairs at one end. We were seated on a small table, just big enough for 3, in close proximity to our neighbours on my left. The room was fairly noisy and very, very crowded. The tables, as is too common in London, were crammed together, to make the most of very expensive floor space.

Throughout the meal, the service was correct and professional, but not friendly. However, it is to his credit that the waiter who took orders, on a couple of occasions, came up to the table primed to do so and, seeing us deep in conversation, silently went away.

Two of us each started with a Kir Royale, and the other had a lager. The Kir Royale was well made without the usual excess of cassis. We then went on to bottle of Haut Medoc, which I believe is the 2003 Château Liversan, on the list at £29.50, and very pleasant. We had at least one further bottle of this.

The menu is enormous, covering a wide range of food types from soup and sandwich to a full scale meal. I started with roast quail and lentils. This seemed to be a whole bird cut into 4 pieces in a sea of lentils. The quail was somewhat lacking in taste, but the broth in which the lentils were swimming made up for it. However, in the end, a rather unsatisfying dish.

My main was the Thursday dish of the day, duck parmentier. This was a small round of shredded duck flesh, very thoroughly cooked, and surmounted by mashed potato – a duck version of shepherd’s pie. There was also a meaty gravy, which was really needed, as the duck and… More