Welcome to a dream… That’s the opening slogan when you first visit Longueville Manor’s website. A hotel of pure understated luxury on the east side of Jersey close to the main city of St Helier. I have so much to say about Longueville Manor, but this article right here is all about the food, something which requires its own dedicated page and hopefully, mouth-watering descriptions to entice you. The head chef at this fine establishment is a gentlemen named Andrew Baird. A born Yorkshireman, Andrew utilises the finest and freshest produce which Jersey has to offer, creating seasonal and ever-changing menus. He’s worked here at Longueville Manor for over 25 years and helped the hotel to gain five AA Red Stars and three Rosettes along the way. He’s not only an asset to this hotel, but also a big part of the personality throughout – whether that be afternoon tea, dinner, petit fours in the room or a light bite by the pool.
Stepping into the restaurant at Longueville Manor is like their slogan, a dream. The interior is absolutely gorgeous. One half is dark, cosy, wooden cladded and oozing history, while the other is a lighter conservatory style experience. Personally I loved both parts just as equally. To settle us in to dinner here we started with my sacred start to any meal, Champagne – followed by some rustic, but gorgeous appetisers which were all full of flavour, colour and textures.
We opted for the seven course tasting menu during our evening here and word of warning, portions are rather large and very rich – so come hungry and go light on lunch. First of our dishes to arrive was perhaps the most rustic in experience, even a little dated – yet flavour and freshness were in abundance. Made up of local deep water crab, sweet pickled cucumber, melon, avocado and a warm fried crab claw. Our favourite dish throughout the entire evening was the oh-so rich and decadent, butter poached local lobster with shumai (Chinese dumpling) and Asian broth. I can’t recall the last time I ate a dish with such an identity of its own. This could easily become the restaurants signature dish if they ever needed one.
As a tasting menu experience there wasn’t really any main courses per se, yet two dishes were noticeably larger in size and made for the main spectacle of our meal. First out was the deep water halibut with globe artichoke, raisin and a caper berry sauce. Presentation wise it probably could have done with being a little more refined but every bit was a dream to eat. Equally as good, if not better still was the roast best end of Lough Erne lamb with pakora, honeycomb and butternut squash. The lamb was cooked so perfectly it cut through like butter and that crunchy pakora and sweet honeycomb really gave everything a lovely lingering depth and visually it looked stunning.
We (I) probably drunk far too much wine by this point, with a tantalising wine matched with each course but it was worth the stumble back to our gorgeous room. Desserts were good here at Longueville Manor but it was the area they could improve on most. A fresh & zesty courgette and green apple salad with pina colada and coconut sorbet was a great way to invigorate our palate, before being followed by a crisp sable biscuit creation paired with figs, orange, dulcey crème, crumble, pistachios and praline ice cream. If Longueville Manor really wanted to wow and impress more, I’d highly recommended grabbing the very talented pastry chef from their sister restaurant, Sumas.
The Restaurant at Longueville Manor is a fine addition to the Jersey dining scene and is without a doubt one of the islands top restaurants when it comes to fine dining. The service is impeccable, the dining room is sumptuous and the food delicious. This isn’t every day dining, this is fine dining led by a team who are all about creating memories and a unique dining experience to never forget.
8.5/10
