Harden's survey result
Summary
“A secluded gem where culinary delights await in the ancient dining room” – close to Ludlow but “not easy to find down a winding country lane through the estate” – Willem & Pippa Vlok’s restaurant-with-rooms offers a “consistently excellent” hyper-local menu from former MasterChef: The Professionals finalist Nick Bennett, staff that are “friendly, efficient and knowledgeable”, and “wooden-beamed bedrooms offer rest from the weary routines of everyday life”. Price-wise, it’s “a bargain for cooking of the quality, emphatically so by London standards”.
Summary
Ideal for a “hideaway date night in the shires”, with a “combination of discrete modern features melded into an ancient, beautiful and comfortable building” (whose stone dining room was built at the time of the Norman Conquest) – Pippa & Willem Vlok’s country-house guarantees a “really great experience”. “Truly remarkable staff” include head chef Nick Bennett, whose “highly skilled cooking” produces meals to savour.
Summary
“Absolutely lovely surroundings, worth a 6/5 for ambience!” – this medieval-to-Georgian country house with its own cider press, just outside Ludlow, is a “glorious” setting for newly installed chef Nick Bennett’s “tip-top”, “creative, inventive and delicious” cooking; and his “set menus offer just enough choice over a 3-night stay”. Pippa & Willem Vlok are “such friendly owners”.
For 34 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).
Have you eaten at Old Downton Lodge?
Downton on the Rock, Ludlow, SY8 2HU
Restaurant details
Old Downton Lodge Restaurant Diner Reviews
"We keep coming back - the combination of discreet modern technology melded into an ancient and most beautiful and comfortable building, with truly remarkable staff make the experience quite wonderful. The matched wine list was exceptionally good - so good it was difficult to decide which came first - the wine or the matching meal. The staff make the experience even better- we left feeling we had friends there."
"Not easy to find but worth the effort. The food was consistently excellent and the staff were human, friendly, efficient and knowledgable. At £55 a head for that quality of two courses it was a bargain, emphatically so by London equivalents."
Prices
| Availability | 2 courses | 3 courses |  |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always | £55.00 | £75.00 |  |
|
|
| Cost | Availability | Courses | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Menu1 | 95.00 | Always available | 6 |
| Drinks |
|
|---|---|
| Wine per bottle | £37.00 |
| Filter Coffee | £4.50 |
| Extras |
|
|---|---|
| Service | 10.00% |
Downton on the Rock, Ludlow, SY8 2HU
Opening hours
| Monday | 6 pm‑8:30 pm |
| Tuesday | 6 pm‑8:30 pm |
| Wednesday | 6 pm‑8:30 pm |
| Thursday | 6 pm‑8:30 pm |
| Friday | 6 pm‑8:30 pm |
| Saturday | 6 pm‑8:30 pm |
| Sunday | 6 pm‑8:30 pm |
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