A sumptuous dining room, a high-end hotel and some of the best service I’ve had all year was the setting for yet another of our out-of-London luxury escapes. The Restaurant at The Vineyard Hotel has an interesting and quite topsy-turvy history. The head chef here is Daniel Galmiche, who took over from John Campbell (now at The Woodspeen) and has worked at the hotel since 2009. At the time the restaurant held two Michelin stars but since John left, they of course lost both. It’s definitely not of two Michelin star standard now, but it’s very close to one star dining and the food currently is superb. French in style and very classical. The dining room is nice too – it feels very expensive and opulent in all its grandeur.
We started our experience here with a glass of chilled English sparkling wine at the bar. A place which is far to comfy and extremely easy to drink too much in. Sipping on our bubbles we looked over our seven course tasting menu with matching wine pairings inspired by the Judgement of Paris tasting event, serving us 6 French and 6 Californian wines – one of each with every course. First dish to match our first pairing was a butternut squash velouté with warm chestnuts. This turned out to be our least favourite dish, lacking in-depth and seasoning, though the blind wine pairing turned it into something more attractive – attempting to work out which wine was French, and which was Californian.
Once we started to move through our tasting menu, a new depth of complexity slowly appeared with every new plate of food. Dishes such as this guinea fowl and partridge terrine with mandarin & brussel sprouts was very nice but needed a touch more seasoning, yet a beautifully presented plate of Cornish cod with mogette beans, confit tomato and rosemary crisps carried an astonishing balance of flavours and textures – plus the seasoning was absolutely spot on this time. Both our menu and its cooking started to get very serious indeed from here onwards.
And things just kept on getting better. Pristine looking line-caught halibut was drenched in a fragrant rocket oil, carrot puree and a silky smooth spiced butter whose flavour made its way around the whole plate, turning each mouthful into a dream. The real spectacle still was this vibrant plate of duck. This was one of those dishes which when you take your first bite, has you putting down your fork for a moment and sloping back into the comfort of your dining chair, while placed in an utter state of pure happiness. A medley of Tidenham duck, earthy heritage beetroot, sweet quince and spicy ginger made for a dish I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
Desserts were a real highlight for us and someone in the kitchen here knows exactly what they’re doing. A rather generously sized pre-dessert of grapefruit and green tea was both stunning in flavour and presentation, while chocolate, salted caramel, cacao nibs and a fromage blanc sorbet created what was probably the most decadent dish I’ve eaten so far this year. A wonderful way to end a first class meal.
When we visited The Restaurant at The Vineyard it was admittedly on the quiet side, but perfectly understandable given the first day back after the new year. I personally had such a busy festive period, so found it refreshing to be part of only a handful of diners and it meant our service was much more personal – special mention to our waiter. Sadly I didn’t recall his name but the words ‘trainee’ on his badge should be stripped and replaced to head waiter, he’s that good – not to mention incredibly passionate about food & drink. Daniel Galmiche has created a wonderful restaurant here in Berkshire and if he ever wanted more then I’ve no doubt he could get it, with just a slight push in the kitchen.
8/10
