Restaurant Reviews

Alan Cookman, Sentinel Sunday, September 29th 2002

Other than at medieval banquets or Mafia weddings, is it ever proper for an adult to wear a bib?
It is if he has just paid nearly twenty quid to have half-a-dozen gourmet-soiled silk ties cleaned at Sketchley's.
Admittedly, a grown-up diner who is incapable of keeping his dinner of his tie is in no position to complain about the size of his dry cleaning bills.
But nor is he under any obligation to expose a newly cleaned tie to the risk of further abuse.
So I smiled benignly at those of our neighbours in The Townhouse Restaurant at the Haydon House Hotel who were either surprised or amused to see me tucking my napkin into my shirt collar.
I had received extremely encouraging reports of the cuisine here and I was not about to have my enjoyment spoilt by fretting about the well-being of my designer neck-wear.
Anyway, although Haydon House is a relatively modern suburban hotel, the theme is very much bygone pastoral. There are more foxhunting prints here than at a Countryside Alliance jumble sale.
In the comfortable reception area, chaps in red coats are caught in various poses, and there's a framed tribute to Tom Moody, a famous whipper-in immortalised in the song Gone to Earth, the words and music of which are printed in full.
I am sure it is deeply moving when sung around the piano in the Master of Hounds' drawing room, but I lost the will to live after reading the verse.
There are even more fox hunting prints in the elegant dining room, plus a fine collection of antique clocks, a magnificent mirror and enough foliage and vegetation to lose a small horse in.
As for the food, I could easily have been satisfied from the table d'hote - excellent value at £16.90 - but a Haydon House regular had told me I'd be mad not to order the Welsh rack of lamb (£14.50), which he described as the jewel of the a la carte menu.
He did not exaggerate. The lamb was moist, tender, pink and juicy, and nobody had asked me if I wanted it that way because unless you are a complete barbarian there is no other way to eat Welsh lamb.
It was served on a pool of mint and redcurrant sauce which I could tell straight away had arrived with designs on my tie and which fell into a deep sulk when it caught sight of the bib.
I was so enraptured by the rack of lamb, by the way, that when the seasonal vegetables arrived I absent-mindedly referred to the broccoli as 'brocula,' as our old neighbour Reg Fox used to.
At home we always call broccoli 'brocula,' but I try not to do so when eating out for fear of being thought slow-witted.
Fortunately, the waiter didn't notice, or was to polite to show it.
Before the Lamb, I'd gone for the Provencale-style sardines (£4.25), a dish which often turns out to be one that no native of Provence would feed to his cat. This one was different: the tasty whole sardines were fried, but not drowned in oil, and they came on a bed of delicious tomatoes, shallots, garlic, herbs and a sprinkling of chilli sauce.
Herself started with lemon chicken (£4.75), which is the only dish I have ever really enjoyed on a plane (it was an Air France flight to Paris, since you ask) but even that paled beside these tender chunks of chicken breast, marinated in lemon and served on crisp continental leaves.
She followed this with the monkfish (£12.50), medallions of which were served in red pepper and Sauternes sauce with mixed peppers and fried fennel. I was vouchsafed a medallion of monkfish and I now know what I'll be ordering next time I dine at Haydon House. 'Divine' seems somehow inadequate.
For desserts she had the iced Grand Marnier soufflé (£3.25), topped with diced pineapple marinated in brandy and a raspberry coulis, while I enjoyed the excellent cheese, biscuits and fruit (£3.95).
We had chosen half-bottles of Chardonnay and Bordeaux, and each cost more than we normally spend on a full bottle, but the prices at Haydon House are not excessive for food and drink of this quality.
I don't mind paying over the odds for quality. It's paying over the odds for rubbish that upsets me. Tally-ho!

Alan Cookman, Sentinel Sunday, December 29th 2002

COOKMAN play the compliments of the season to his restaurants of the year.

"In choosing my most memorable meals of 2002, then, I have taken into account service, atmosphere, choice and value-for-money, but have obviously awarded most points for the quality of the cooking."

"Also in my top ten for 2002, in no particular order, are Haydon House, Basford"

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