“Beautiful food in a gorgeous setting” (and “wonderful accommodation” too) again wins rave reviews for Max and Susan Fischer’s small and “cosy” Peak District country house hotel; it’s a little “expensive”, though, and critics can find the atmosphere on the “stuffy” side.
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The critic expects the worst – “the snootily disengaged staff, the cloyingly chintzy yet sterile decor, the wickedly verbose and pretentious menu, the dismally over-fussy food drowned in Acme Lukewarm Port Wine Jus No 3 (c), the mirthless couples whispering to one another about how much they like the food while fantasising about ordering a bottle of Listerine and a spittoon for pud – when he visits this country house hotel. However, the place turns out to be “a pearl among swine”: “from the cheery, chatty welcome in the woodsmoke-scented bar, in fact, to the lavish petits fours served with coffee in the pretty dining room (floral-patterned wallpaper, lashings of fresh flowers, nice charcoal portraits), this was a difficult meal to fault”.
Matthew Norman (6th August 2007)
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