Still stuck on what to get your sibling, spouse or friend for Christmas? A weekend minibreak could be the answer. Check out these four new restaurants with rooms, from Kent to Wales.
Words: Ben McCormack
Coombeshead Farm, Cornwall
For Starters: Restaurant royalty Tom Adams (Pitt Cue and Little Pitt) and April Bloomfield (New York’s The Spotted Pig) offer the ultimate in ‘farm to table’ at their new working farm and dining room. The farmhouse has six rustically styled en-suite bedrooms and a fire crackles in the living room.
Mains and more: Ultra-seasonal food is served on a communal table and is designed to be shared with your fellow diners: whole pit-baked Mangalitza ham and creamed kraut; rabbit, cobnut and nettle sausage; grilled onions and cods’ roe; curds with peas, mint and sorrel; and blackcurrant-leaf junket for pud.
Sides: On-site workshops show farmhouse kitchen techniques including butchery, preserving and bread-making. The farm has 66 acres of meadows, woodland and streams, and nearby Launceston has a steam railway.
Bill, please: Bed and breakfast including dinner from £150 per person
Contact: 01566 782009; coombesheadfarm.co.uk
The High Field Town House, Birmingham
For starters: This double-fronted Victorian villa in leafy Edgbaston comes courtesy of the Peach Pub Company, which has 16 other properties scattered around the Midlands. The 12 en-suite bedrooms are decorated in aquas and greys and furnished with king or super-king size beds, plus antique walnut and mahogany pieces. Three of the premium rooms have roll-top baths in bay windows (it might be a good idea to close the curtains).
Mains and more: Peach’s High Field gastropub next door was named Best Gastropub in the inaugural Birmingham Food, Drink and Hospitality Awards. Think salt-beef croquettes, hot-smoked trout, beef short rib and Sharp’s Doom Bar on tap. You’ll find wine, beer and spirits in the hotel’s honesty bar, while Simpsons, No.22 in Squaremeal’s top 100 UK restaurants, is over the road.
Sides: Highfield Wellness and Beauty spa is next door and you’re five minutes from Brum’s centre: go shopping in the landmark shiny Selfridges and Jewellery Quarter or swoon at Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Birmingham, famously, has more miles of canal than Venice; the network is at its prettiest in Gas Street Basin.
Bill, please: Bed and breakfast from £120
Contact: 0121 647 6466; highfieldtownhouse.co.uk
One Warwick Park, Tunbridge Wells
For Starters: Three separate buildings (including a former brewery) have been knocked into one, and a 39-room hotel in the historic Pantiles area of Tunbridge Wells is the result. If you hate chintz and miss the 1990s, the bedrooms will feel like a home from home: greys and creams, kingsize beds with Hypnos mattresses, limestone bathrooms with walk-in showers.
Mains and more: The hotel restaurant, Amore, serves English ingredients in Mediterranean dishes with a strong Italian accent: beef carpaccio, gnocchi with pancetta, hake with clams, and fillet steak with smoked garlic. Great Martinis too.
Sides: The hotel is a five-minute walk both from its car park and from the railway station, so take the train from Charing Cross (60 minutes) and explore Tunbridge Wells on foot: admire the Regency architecture, take a restorative sip of iron-rich spa water at the Chalybeate Spring, and browse your way around the Pantiles like a modern-day Beau Nash.
Bill, please: Bed and breakfast from £80
Contact: 01892 520587; onewarwickpark.co.uk
Palé Hall, Gwynedd
For Starters: This Grade II-listed country pile near Snowdonia has just opened as the first Welsh member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World. The 18 bedrooms and suites have been plushly restored, and each boasts a glorious view. Ask for the Victoria suite, complete with the bed that Queen Vic once slept in (the mattress is rather more recent).
Mains and more: Consultant chef Michael Caines (ex-Gidleigh Park) has recently installed Gareth Stevenson in the kitchen. Expect accomplished modern food such as roast Welsh lamb with smoked aubergine purée, boulangère potatoes and tapenade jus.
Sides: Snooze it off in an armchair in one of two drawing rooms, or take a more active approach: shooting and fishing parties or walking tours can be arranged on the 50-acre estate.
Bill, please: Bed and breakfast for two people from £190 per night
Contact: 01678 530285; slh.com
Not satisfied? Well good, because we also published four new UK minibreak ideas for spring 2016, which you can revisit here.
For more present ideas, check out our 2016 Christmas gift guide or, if this lot above has ticked your box, you’ll be needing our 2016 list of the top 100 UK restaurants outside London for your trip.
This article was originally published in the autumn 2016 issue of Squaremeal Lifestyle magazine