Gravetye Manor, the restaurant. I say it every time but John and I love a Michelin Star restaurant and are very much working our way through an ever extending list. This time incredibly local and a very pleasant surprise. If only we could go more often..
Pre dinner drinks
You can tell if you’re on to a winner just from your welcome and pre dinner drinks. It’s not essential and arrive early to allow time, you need to be seated at your reservation time. We sat out in the beautiful garden. Side note they do tours, a little on the pricey side but we barely scratched the surface and what we saw was beautiful. Gorgeous grounds, a few tables creating a private experience. Great cocktails, delicious champagne. The loveliest staff and don’t forget the olives and nuts, I am very much here for the snacks.
Drinks
The sommelier will help you chose your wine, the menu is vast. Some are by the glass, some are by the bottle. Both wines we picked were really good wines, I’ve been a little off it so it was a pleasant surprise to really enjoy it. Champagne was Taittinger, a great choice. John sampled a couple of Negronis and they were very much approve. I would have liked a port with my cheese course but I drove so in the interest of health and safety it was a no. I heard the sommelier chatting through the ports with another table and lets just say a taxi was nearly booked.
Food
I really loved the food, classic, home grown and incredible flavours. Don’t get me wrong now and again its fun to have weird and wonderful but I’m a classic girl at heart and this was very much that.
The food was really great, I often question how they get the levels of flavour into the food its just incredible. There were lots of nice chefs surprises across the four courses as well as canapés to start. My god the cheesy bite on the canapés incredible. I finished with cheese and helped myself to Johns petit fours that came with his espresso. Delicious home made chocolates, yum.
We both said we can’t believe somewhere so great is on our doorstep and wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go more often. Like with all these kinds of restaurants it’s not cheap, but its worth every penny. Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried Gravetye Manor. You can visit their website here. For more foodie posts click here.
Rach xx
