Danesfield House is a luxury hotel and spa in Buckinghamshire though previously a private residence, dating back as early as 1664. What you see today however is in fact a full rebuild that occurred as recently as 1901. Funded by a fortune on the back of soap production of all things, the house was finished 'with a disregard for expense' and it shows. Sitting in extensive grounds (a full 65 acres), when you finally reach the house it looks more like a cross between an Oxford college and a cathedral than a house though it is supposedly fashioned in the style of the Italian Renaissance.
Our visit there was brief, stopping only for dinner, but both the property and grounds looked magnificent and the staff we encountered were polite and attentive. For the past four years, the fine dining restaurant there has been run by Adam Simmonds who prior to that had spent three years working at Le Manoir as well as time with Marco Pierre White before that.
In January 2011, after much disappointment in previous years, the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star.
The restaurant itself is a small affair seating around 30 covers while the room is one of light wood panelling and mirrors. Tables are sizeable giving you plenty of space and the chairs are luxuriously upholstered. Sadly though, on our visit, it was also empty and for most of the time we were there, we were the only diners. Understandably then, the place lacked atmosphere though we suspect that the dining room struggles with that anyhow.
We decided to forgo the tasting menu as the running order of the savouries here was scallop, foie gras, brill, venison. We certainly can't criticise them for that but it just appeared too close to the tasting menu of its peers leaving us the desire to try something a little different just by way of variety. We are also told by the staff that Adam predominantly likes to slow cook food sous vide so we should expect food to be warm rather than piping hot.
We started the meal with a great little palate cleanser in the form of a gin and tonic granita, gin and tonic foam and lime jelly with juniper on top. Or perhaps it was a lime foam and a gin and tonic jelly. Either way, this was a playful start and an original twist on the 'cocktail plate' that worked well, with the gin flavours plainly evident. After that, an amuse bouche of watercress soup and quails egg was spot on suggesting we might be on for a special meal.
Our visit there was brief, stopping only for dinner, but both the property and grounds looked magnificent and the staff we encountered were polite and attentive. For the past four years, the fine dining restaurant there has been run by Adam Simmonds who prior to that had spent three years working at Le Manoir as well as time with Marco Pierre White before that.
In January 2011, after much disappointment in previous years, the restaurant was awarded a Michelin star.
The restaurant itself is a small affair seating around 30 covers while the room is one of light wood panelling and mirrors. Tables are sizeable giving you plenty of space and the chairs are luxuriously upholstered. Sadly though, on our visit, it was also empty and for most of the time we were there, we were the only diners. Understandably then, the place lacked atmosphere though we suspect that the dining room struggles with that anyhow.
We decided to forgo the tasting menu as the running order of the savouries here was scallop, foie gras, brill, venison. We certainly can't criticise them for that but it just appeared too close to the tasting menu of its peers leaving us the desire to try something a little different just by way of variety. We are also told by the staff that Adam predominantly likes to slow cook food sous vide so we should expect food to be warm rather than piping hot.
We started the meal with a great little palate cleanser in the form of a gin and tonic granita, gin and tonic foam and lime jelly with juniper on top. Or perhaps it was a lime foam and a gin and tonic jelly. Either way, this was a playful start and an original twist on the 'cocktail plate' that worked well, with the gin flavours plainly evident. After that, an amuse bouche of watercress soup and quails egg was spot on suggesting we might be on for a special meal.
Our starter choices then were i) roasted chicken wings, white asparagus puree, dried hazelnuts, white truffle (with an £8 supplement presumably given the truffle), and ii) slow cooked pork belly, roasted Scottish langoustine, black pudding puree and granny smith apple. The chicken dish struggled greatly from a disappointing truffle that exhibited no aroma and no taste leaving the chicken to carry the flavours in which role it was always going to struggle. The slow cooked pork worked quite well though and versus a similar dish at Le Manoir (pork belly, black pudding and scallop) we felt the pork here had more flavour, as well as in our opinion the black pudding working better as a puree than a solid. The acidity from the apple gave some lift to the dish making this a pretty good starter.
roasted chicken wings, white asparagus puree, dried hazelnuts, white truffle
slow cooked pork belly, roasted Scottish langoustine, black pudding puree
Our gastronomic holiday seemed like a good idea (and indeed it was) but there's only so much venison you want to eat in a week and likewise seabass. Accordingly, for our mains we both opted for change, pursuing ingredients that had hardly featured over the course of the previous week by choosing Roasted lobster tail, veal sweatbreads, celeriac, dried almonds, autumn truffle (resulting in a further £10 supplement).
Now, on the menu, the courses are listed by their principal ingredient so at a glance, the menu reads Brill, Venison, Lobster, Partridge, Seabass. Accordingly, it was quite disappointing to find that the dish contained really quite a small portion of lobster rendering it out of balance with the plentiful portion of sweatbreads; the dish rightly should have been called 'Sweatbreads' not 'Lobster'. The truffle here came in reasonable quantity, and was discernible to taste but still a little shy. One you move to eat the food, first impressions are favourable but it then grew a little tired over time so that by the end, it seemed significantly less interesting. Some tweaking around plating, textures and a little something to lift the dish could improve it significantly in our view.
Now, on the menu, the courses are listed by their principal ingredient so at a glance, the menu reads Brill, Venison, Lobster, Partridge, Seabass. Accordingly, it was quite disappointing to find that the dish contained really quite a small portion of lobster rendering it out of balance with the plentiful portion of sweatbreads; the dish rightly should have been called 'Sweatbreads' not 'Lobster'. The truffle here came in reasonable quantity, and was discernible to taste but still a little shy. One you move to eat the food, first impressions are favourable but it then grew a little tired over time so that by the end, it seemed significantly less interesting. Some tweaking around plating, textures and a little something to lift the dish could improve it significantly in our view.
Roasted lobster tail, veal sweatbreads, celeriac, dried almonds, autumn truffle
The pre dessert palate cleanser was sloe gin sorbet and foam which was nicely original, Adam Simmonds likes these gin dishes it seems and he does make them work with the gin flavours. The 'real' dessert was a Milk chocolate, banana and rum Millefeuille, banana parfait which worked well and the banana, rum and chocolate combo mixed in great tastes and textures so that dessert became probably the dish of the day and I would have been happy to throw 'portion control' out the window and eat a lot more of this.
Sloe gin sorbet and foam
Milk chocolate, banana and rum Millefeuille, banana parfait
It took Adam Simmonds a long time to get his star at Danesfield House though we doubt he's doing that much different from the earlier days so more a quirk of Michelin it seems. Is the star deserved then? On the whole, probably yes. Parts of the meal were excellent with the pork starter rivalling Le Manoir's but the main needed another dimension. Dessert was good and the gin foams were fun. The bits we saw of the hotel were wonderful and if staying in the region, you could do worse than stay here and if you doing so, Adam Simmonds it's certainly worth a visit. If you're not staying there or not local, we would questionable how big a detour it's then worth taking though arguably that's true of most one stars.
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