Brook Room Restaurant, The Elms Hotel
On 6 December 2007, a friend and I visited this restaurant in Abberley, Worcestershire. It is part of the Elms Hotel.
This is the exterior of the hotel. Unfortunately it was a cloudy day and the picture looks a bit grim. The white-roofed passage from the entrance led to a big white tent for a party.
Entering the door, we could not find any obvious sign for the restaurant. We asked a receptionist for information, and she led us to the lounge telling us to wait there.
This is the view of the lounge. It looked like a large living room. There are some coffee tables, and the lounge menu is served here. In this case, the sandwiches are priced between £7.50 and £10.50, main dishes between £7.95 and £18.95 (mainly around £12). When we were there, a family with small children was having lunch here.
If you are eating in the dining room, Brook Room restaurant, this is the waiting area. Your have your drinks here and give order of the meal. You will be called in to the dining room, when the food is ready.
While I was drinking water, as always, a waiter brought us nibbles. Green ones are marinated olives, and white ones are sugar coated nuts. The nuts were warm, as they were just made.
After 15 or 20 minutes, we were led to the dining room. It is again a traditional style room, cozy but not fashionable.
It might look there was anyone else, but it is because I took this photo at the end of our meal. It wasl almost full, when we entered.
I did not count the number of tables, but it was not more than 10. Some of them are large, but I doubt that there are more than 30 covers. It is advisable to book a table, if you wish to come.
The first to arrive were bread and butter. There was a choice between white and brown (I guess you can get both, if you wish). Our waiter had some difficulty in serving round pieces of bread with knife and fork, which made us smile.
From its look and taste, I think they make the bread in the kitchen, too.
This is my first course: duet of smoked salmon.
To the left is smoked salmon ball, with avocado, prawn, green pepper, cucumber salad inside. To the right is a piece of baked salmon which did not taste smoked, but should have been. Three small red cubes are beetroot jellies, and also red blush is beetrood sauce. Beautifully executed and tasty, even if it was not the best salmon I ever tasted.
In British restaurants, the starter sometimes is large enough as a main course for me, but this one just was right amount (which means that it might be too small for the British, but, you know, it was lunch, and after three courses and a coffee with biscuits, many will feel it is sufficient.
This is the main course: Grilled fillet of pollock, served with ratatouille, baby leek tempura, and piquillo pepper foam.
Portion, again, is on the smaller side, but when the flavour is dense and the assemblage is elaborate, I get filled up more easily (and you don't understand how much you are eating when the food is piled up high as this one, as it is something you rarely do at home).
Pollock is white fish tasting similar to cod. It was quite salty, and we suspected it was salt cured (which gives the firmer texture, and more umami). The ratatouille instead was slightly under-seasoned to go well with the salty fish. We liked very much baby leek tempura. Batter was light, and the leek inside was melting soft.
Probably the critics will say there are too many things going on on a plate, but who cares!
My friend had roasted pork wrapped in Parma ham. This one also was very elaborate and intense in flavour.
As we got more or less full and could not find anything interesting in the pudding list (they were sticky toffy pudding, Christmas pudding, or selection of cheese), I just had a cup of coffee (and my friend nothing, as they could not make cappuccino). We were asked if we wished to have it in dinning room or lounge, so we returned to the lounge.
This is what was brought to me. The pot contained more than two cups of coffee. It was accompanied by one shortbread and one chocolate buiscuit. Although i don't like biscuits in general, this chocolate one was very nice with bitter flavour of cacao. This costs £2.95. They also serve afternoon tea ; the full tea set is £15.95, and there is lighter cream tea set for £9.95, between 2:30 and 5:30 PM.
The price for two-course lunch was £13.50, and three-course for £17.50. I did not pay anything for the drink sticking to tap water (I don't like sweet drinks and alcohol), so the price I paid was purely for two course meal and a coffee, but £16 looked ridiculously little. We left £35 for £32 bill, but it still is a bargain.
The head chef Mr. Daren Bales sometimes holds cooking classes at the same hotel.
The Elms Hotel
Abberley, Worcester WR6 6AT
Tel. 01299 896666, Fax. 01299 896804
E-mail info@elmsluxuryfamilyhotel.co.uk
For directions: http://www.elmsluxuryfamilyhotel.co.uk/
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