Sally's Reviews

Mark's bar was funky – I would say a bit shabby chic possibly. They even squeezed in a pool table..very rare to have such entertainment in a credible bar.

Service was intermittent, when we caught the eye of the right person it was great but others seemed chaotic and would not allow you to catch their eye. A slight annoyance but didn't detract from our evening.

We found a cosy corner and drank cocktails and had bar snacks until the last train was ready to depart, a fun evening and a good atmosphere. I do recommend this bar.

Bar snacks were impressive, we felt like we had a bit of a tapas treat, but we did pay for it… all in all cocktails and bar snacks added up to over £150 for two people…ouch! Ah well, we may have been slightly refreshed by this point!

Welsh Rabbit (sic) fondue was veeery nice.

Firstly I need to get this out of the way – Chewton Glen did let us down slightly in that they had extensive work happening at the time of our visit and did not really take pains to cover this up (even telling us it was pretty much finished when it very much was not)… initially I was met with a rather sniffy response when I pointed out that I didn't want to have a view of a half complete room full of sawdust and nails but I was speaking to the wrong person (the sniffy person was responsible for showing guests to their table but fortunately we didn't encounter her again). Ludo, the restauarant manager, took over the reigns and from then on it all went perfectly, My review is based on this…

Chewton Glen is very expensive, there is not really any getting away from it but I do think you get value for money. The restaurant (usually) is light and airy and a very comfortable place to sit and put the world to rights. The food is exceptional but I take the point of a previous reviewer who noted that they had lost their star. They will need to work to get this back, particularly if they want to continue to charge premium prices.

A note on the cheeseboard, we spent hours over this..all were British cheese and a delight. Ludo took the time to introduce every single cheese and his knowledge seemed extremely thorough, although we were told by Drew, one of the sommeliers, that there was another even more knowledgable member of staff. Personally I love cheese and love learning about cheese…just my little thing but I was impressed.

The wine list was extensive and there were some decent wines that weren't too overpriced, but they are few and the wine list does hike significantly, so take your platinum Amex…!!!

I still love Chewton Glen, despite my absolute mirth at the horrific state I initially found the restaurant in, I was able to see the funny side and free glasses of champagne aided my composure! All should be back to normal and I do encourage a visit…