Considered the most prestigious culinary accolade available, the Michelin Guide indicates exceptional quality of a restaurant's food, service, and overall dining experience. Where better to dine on some of the world’s best food than at the UK’s Top 50 Boutique Hotels?
Moor Hall Restaurant with Rooms, Ormskirk, Lancashire
With not one, but two Michelin stars and even a Michelin Green Star for sustainability, Moor Hall is described as “charming” and “refined” by the Michelin website. The restaurant with rooms is no stranger to culinary accolades with 5 AA Rosettes, winning the Top 50 Boutique Hotels Food & Drink award in 2021, and most recently being crowned ‘Best Restaurant in England’ for a second consecutive year at The Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards 2023.
Chef Patron Mark Birchall creates delicate, produce-driven menus inspired by the restaurant’s exceptional surroundings and home-grown ingredients. Serving a lunch menu for £115 per person and an evening Provenance menu for £225 per person daily.
Dishes change regularly but have included delights such as a starter of turnip and crab, anise, hyssop and sunflower seeds, and mains of Charolais lamb with celeriac, hen of the woods, anchovy, ragout, curds, ramson with liver and honey.
The venue comes equipped with its very own cheese room where they showcase the best British & Irish seasonal cheeses as well as an impressive wine cellar which houses an array of wines to pair with your meal from £135.
Gravetye Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex
The quintessential country house in the Sussex countryside boasts a Michelin Star restaurant serving dishes that take full advantage of the 35 acres of gardens.
With the Michelin website saying, ‘The kitchen garden provides the restaurant’s heartbeat – if it’s not in season, you simply won’t find it on the menu’.
Taking gastronomic dining to a whole new level, Executive Chef, George Blogg, utilises the homegrown produce in every dish. The Dining Room serves seasonal lunch (3 courses for £75) and dinner (3 courses for £125) menus as well as afternoon teas and private dining opportunities.
Current dinner menus may include modern British dishes such as langoustine, apple, kohlrabi, horseradish and perilla to start and venison, cep, legumes and plum ketchup for main. There are of course plenty of dessert options as well as vegetarian and vegan dining options all able to be paired with an impressive wine selection.
Hambleton Hall, Oakham, Rutland
This magnificent country house is the proud owner of the UK’s longest-retained Michelin star. The Dining Room is the main draw for guests with an appetite for British cuisine delivered with flair.
The Michelin website says. ‘Accomplished seasonal dishes have a classical base with distinct flavours and plenty of modern touches’.
Chef director Aaron Patterson has been delivering exceptional food in the kitchen since 1992. He currently works alongside Head Chef Charlie Jones and Head Pastry Chef James Stone. The team have curated a daily changing à la carte menu as well as a lunch and Sunday lunch menu.
Signature dishes include poached fillet of turbot with baby leeks truffle and potato tortellini and truffle velouté as well as rhubarb and white chocolate cheesecake with tastes of Yorkshire rhubarb. All meals can be accompanied by fresh bread made daily at the inhouse bakery.
Lympstone Manor, Exmouth, Devon
Owned by highly influential chef Michael Caines, the Georgian house boasts 3 fine-dining rooms all serving Michelin star cuisine with the Michelin website saying:
‘Cooking is sophisticated, well-balanced and boldly flavoured’.
Utilising the bounty of the Exe estuary and the outstanding larder of the Southwest, Caines is able to express his vision of modern British cuisine using seasonality, regionality, and creativity.
Dining experiences on offer include a signature tasting menu for £225 per person, 3 or 4 course lunch menus from £75 per person, a la carte and an estuary tasting menu. Dishes have previously included mille-feuille of tuna and scallop with kaffir lime, soused beetroot, turnip, wasabi yoghurt, honey and soy vinaigrette to start followed by Darts Farm spring lamb with smoked aubergine purée, boulangère potato, grelot onion, ratatouille, lamb and thyme jus as mains.
The hotel is also home to its very own vineyard so an impressive wine list is also on offer when dining.
Number One Bruton - Osip, Bruton, Somerset
Our current Food & Drink award winner holds a Michelin star alongside a Michelin green star for sustainability. The partnered restaurant, Osip, serves farm-to-table modern British cuisine without menus, so diners can put their full trust into the kitchen.
The Michelin Guide describes dishes as ‘harmonious, with bold natural flavours and an effortlessly assured elegance. Wine pairings are organic and biodynamic’.
Chef owner Merlin Labron-Johnson serves 2 menus, a full Osip menu for £120 per person, and a shortened version for £69 available at lunch only. Dishes have previously included pumpkin soup with brown butter and fire roasted chestnuts and Jerusalem artichoke with roast chicken juices and diver scallop.
In Spring 2024, Osip will be moving to a new larger home and will no longer be a part of Number One Bruton.
Hampton Manor - Grace & Savour, Solihull, West Midlands
The 19th Century country house is a self-proclaimed “foodie estate” set around their working kitchen garden with two award-winning restaurants and an artisan bakery. Menus available include fifteen course tasting menu from weds-sat from £135 with a lunch offering on Saturdays for £90.
The Michelin site claims, ‘the kitchen blends classical and modern Nordic cooking techniques, so some of the dishes are eye-catching and elaborate in their make-up, while others more defined by their simplicity’.
From an open kitchen, the chefs serve a Michelin-starred tasting menu that celebrates the very best in home grown and sustainably sourced produce. Expect dishes such as kohlrabi cooked in brown butter with a sauce made from whey and elderflower and regeneratively hand-dived scallops, glazed in lacto-fermented honey with a broth of roasted mussel and parsley oil.
Shaun Rankin at Grantley Hall, Ripon, Yorkshire
The 5-star luxury country house is home to an array of restaurants, but none more accoladed than Shaun Rankin. Named and run by nationally renowned and respected chef Shaun Rankin.
The Michelin Guide says, ‘There is a bounteous larder in Yorkshire and the tasting menu, which flows in a skilled way, focuses on its very best produce’.
The kitchen utilises herbs and vegetables grown in the garden, using only the best raw ingredients with quality meat from nearby farms, speciality cheeses from across the county and fresh seafood from the nearby Yorkshire coast.
Sample the wares through one of the many menus on offer including their Taste of Home offering for £145 per person which has previously included dishes such as truffle cruffin with Yorkshire pecorino or cod with pike roe, cabbage, dill, lemon verbena. All menus come with optional wine or non-alcoholic pairings.
