BASICALLY, there are two kinds of coun- try eating in
Britain: the country house hotel and the rural pub with a restaurant. Both types indulge in varying degrees of elegance, sometimes pretension, and this, as much as the quality of the cooking, tends to influence the price. One thing remains constant: unlike the French provinces, prices in the English countryside tend to be little, if at all, lower than those to be found in the capital. Thanks to The Spectator's publisher, Kimberly Fortier, and her banker husband Michael, who have a house near Rutland Water, I was able to deprive Kimberly of the luxury of working in her own kitchen and try instead an example of each kind of rural establishment in the nearby village of Hambleton.
Hambleton is right beside Rutland Water, the largest man-made lake in Europe, and contains Hambleton Hall, a spacious but undaunting country house hotel, and, right beside the water, Finch's Arms, a recently restored and refurbished village pub with a restaurant at the back as well as food in the bar.
Our first stop was Hambleton Hall for dinner on Saturday night. The former city banker Tim Hart has owned this pretty red- brick building for some time now, and his chef, Aaron Patterson, is likewise well established. There are 15 comfortable bed- rooms and, on the ground floor, a spacious restaurant designed by Nina Campbell, an elegant lounge and an attractive bar open to non-residents. Prices are high and clearly the aim is to offer standards appropriate to a good, Michelin-starred 'restaurant avec chambres'. Indeed, it has a cooking star in the Michelin Guide for Great Britain.
We sat in the comfortably furnished, ele- gantly curtained lounge, with pleasing paintings on the walls and fine flower arrangements, and studied the menu over a glass of champagne. The carte offered eight first courses, ten main courses, cheese and seven desserts, plus a no-choice special menu of three courses plus coffee and petits fours for £35, and a 'Gourmet Cor- ner' of one starter, one main course and one dessert, which did not have to be eaten together, being separately and fairly aggres- sively priced at £18, £35 and £10 respective- ly. The main a la carte was hardly cheaper, with starters from £15 (for mixed salad!) to £26 for millefeuille of pan-fried foie gras with caramelised apples, main courses from £26 to £30, cheese £9.50 and desserts between £9.50 (sorbets) to £15 for hot chocolate fondant with vanilla ice-cream and £12 for most others, including prune and armagnac soufflé with its own ice- cream. It should be noted that these prices — and our meal for three with aperitifs and two bottles of wine came to over £240 — is well up to top prices in the French country- side at establishments boasting two or even three Michelin stars.
So was Hambleton Hall worth it? I'm afraid I must say no, even though the room was spacious, our seating comfortable at a generously sized table and the service both friendly and impeccable. Probably the most satisfied customer was Kimberly, who chose the set menu. She much enjoyed her rich, if not especially gamy, terrine of local pheas- ant with compote of blackberries and rock- et salad, roasted fillet of cod with creamed Does my bomb look big in this?' potatoes, caramelised onions and smoked bacon jus, and soufflé, having swapped the set-meal dark chocolate tart with pistachio ice-cream with her husband Michael, who approved it. He began with roasted scallops with sauce vierge, pleasant if not terribly excit- ing, and followed with some excellent roasted fillet of turbot with baby leeks, new potatoes and Perigord truffles, and found both dishes greatly to his taste. I fear I did least well. My first course of ravioli of Skye langoustines rather begged the question of ravioli, providing strips of rather limp pasta draped over some tough, rubbery lan- goustines — not a dish I enjoyed. My next course was not much better. Roast loin of hare in puff pastry with root vegetables and red-wine sauce offered thick, somewhat fibrous chunks of hare surrounded by what seemed solid short, rather than puff, pastry, in a sticky, over-caramelised sauce. The prune and armagnac soufflé was first-class, if slightly spoiled by the thick, heavy ice- cream of that flavour that accompanied it; the answer was to eat the soufflé on its own. Coffee and petits fours were good, and the white Azay le Rideau and 1985 Chateau Villegeorge claret both highly enjoyable and fairly priced. But taken over- all, despite the luxurious surroundings and attentive service, this meal simply lacked the class and quality predicated by what it cost and I was left disappointed.
Sunday lunch in Hambleton was a differ- ent story. The Fortiers' neighbour Colin Crawford had reopened his recently acquired free house, Finch's Arms, just four weeks earlier, and both bar and din- ing-room were doing a roaring trade at Sunday lunch. The family atmosphere was altogether much jollier than the reverential hush in the dining-room of Hambleton Hall the night before, and the simply but stylish- ly decorated dining-room, looking out to Rutland Water, was a pleasure to sit in and, despite varnished floorboards, not intolera- bly noisy. The Irish chef Ross Barret's £14.95 Sunday lunch and fairly priced a la carte were a delight to eat.
At a total of £73 for three of us to eat three courses and share a gutsy bottle of red Fitou, the value seemed exemplary. Highlights of our meal were the carrot and spring onion soup (set lunch) and delicious spicy Thai fish cakes with chilli salsa (carte), roast loin of lamb with a sweet onion and blue cheese tartlet (set) and grilled medallions of beef with purée of black beans, spicy sausage and garlic (carte — just £12.50) and excellent sticky toffee pudding (either menu) to pile Pelion upon Ossa at the end. There is no question that Finch's is a valuable addition to the joys of Rutland Water.
Hambkton Hall, Hambleton (three miles south-east of Oakham). Tel: 01572 756991. Open all week.
Finch's Arms, Oakham Road, Hambleton. Tel: 015 72 756575. Open all week.
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