Looking back at recents posts, I see that I seem to have turned into a rather uninspired, second rate restaurant critic, but that’s what a tough day job, a horse purchase that went to the dark side after two weeks and a wildly dysfunctional home life does to you. So, with those impeccable credentials established, I hereby offer up another serving ‘From the desk of the Armchair Gourmet’.
The Newt In Somerset is an amazing achievement. A beautiful house, sensitively turned into boutique hotel and restaurant, with gardens, cider (or cyder) distillery and more, set in an arcadian landscape. This then was our chosen destination for Saturday lunch.
With the Family Unit fully primed with details of The Newt’s many and varied charms, we set off with empty stomachs and high expectations for our rendezvous with the in-house restaurant, The Botanical Rooms.
Whilst a trip down the heavily traffic jammed A39 is not the most enjoyable of car journeys, the drive off the road and up the to main house at The Newt is a different kettle of fish. The driveway winds around through trees and parkland and you are treated to glimpses of the house. In the early afternoon sun of a late October day, it looks truly fabulous, with its warm coloured stone sunlit and glowing against the dramatic backdrop of the darker, surrounding trees.
On arrival at the main car park, we were met by a rather truculent individual who seemed rather affronted that we wanted to actually park our car in the car park, which seemed a bit odd, especially as we hadn’t arrived in my 17 year old, horse muck covered Toyota. Having parked our offending car, we took the short walk to the Hotel.
The Botanical Rooms occupies a large part of the ground floor of the building and additional glassed in space off to one side. Someone has done some serious thinking about all of this, as the new seamlessly joins with the old, without creating that jarring sensation that you sometimes get when something modern is grafted on to a classical structure.
We were soon seated at a good table with menus to mull over whilst we had a drink. The general atmosphere in the very pleasant dining room is relaxed, friendly, luxe.
If you are looking for a huge list of starters, mains etc., you won’t find it here and if you’re not sure, you really do have to ask, as the menu tends to describe the key ingredients of the dish, rather than what it is.
For example, my beautiful dessert was described as ‘Quince, Hazelnuts and Rosehip’. What actually arrived was a posset topped with hazlenuts and sliced quince, with rose hip syrup served at the table.
The rationale for this is a bit uncertain, unless it is to give the chef of the day maximum flexibility to do something different with a particular set of ingredients, on any given day. The menu also has that slightly annoying, modern curse of just listing the price of the options as 11.5 or 12, which always seems a bit pretentious.
However, all of this pales into insignificance when the food arrives. Imaginatively interpreted and beautifully presented, each dish looked and tasted tremendous. The Offspring (notoriously fickle where food is concerned) cleared every plate put in front of her. Something not seen for …… years.
So, would we go back? Yes, definitely.
Future trips will need to be planned to incorporate some of The Newt’s non-food activities, as the website indicates that anyone wanting to venture here now, will need to buy a £48 annual membership (or should that be ‘48’?).
Score
Location / Facilities: Bit of a drive for us, but worth it. 10 / 10.
Food: 10 / 10
Want to find out more?
https://thenewtinsomerset.com/
Date of visit
30 October 2021
Dystonia Girl 