Smoke at Hampton Manor
NO SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE
The rapidly expanding fine dining empire of Hampton Manor now has more food options than a motorway service station. It’s not only the home of Michelin-starred Peel’s and newly launched Grace and Savour but there’s also Stu Deeley’s current home, Smoke ‘cooking over coals… celebrating seasonal produce cooked with creative simplicity and soul’ and they’ve just started doing Sunday lunch too.
Set in the manor’s old furnace house, it’s a less formal affair than its two siblings and we’re led outside to one of two Victorian greenhouses, adapted as dining spaces. Although with the first real heat of spring and despite the dappled shade offered by some well-established vines, I do worry if I’ve put enough deodorant on, given the size of my hangover.
Smoke’s restored Victorian greenhouses
There are four of us here for the £55 4-course Sunday lunch, which the waiter informs us is quite a bit cheaper than it usually is to eat here. As greetings go, it has me a bit concerned I may have overdressed; put in a bit too much effort like I’m not used to such places, but then part of the reason for this meal is finally to meet our friend’s new partner, Paul. Besides we’ve all dressed up, as have the extended family dining to my right, although the table to my left could easily be on a service station stop on their way to Margate. Each to their own, just the way it should be.
After the introductions and formalities, it turns out I may not even have won the most hungover ‘competition’, although whilst that might usually mean kicking the weekend right up to the border of Monday morning, there’s a growing majority forming towards ‘best behaviour’. I seize the opportunity offered by a flicker of indecision on how much wine we’ll need, by sending the waiter off with the instruction to bring two 500ml carafes of the Macon Villages.
At first glance, options across starters, mains and puddings appear not to have strayed too far from the Sunday lunch classics. But first up we’re brought what seems like far too many plates of food for a table of four.
Garden grazing / Garden vegetables & Cobble Lane cured meats, chive emulsion, sunflower seeds with sourdough
On each side of the table, we’ve got a bowl of crispy kale, carrot and radishes from their garden; salami, chive emulsion and sunflower seeds and what must be a whole loaf of freshly baked wholemeal sourdough and butter. It’s the perfect garden lunch for such a gorgeous sunny spring day. I could happily settle the bill now and go home delighted, if wasn’t for the setting that has me wanting to stay forever.
Chicken liver parfait, smoked beetroot chutney, walnut bread
When the starters arrive, we’ve got all three options on the table and there’s a whiff of smoke across them all. I’m only an observer of what seems like impossibly thick cubes of oak smoked trout with peppery nasturtium leaves and a ‘consommé style’ tomato essence. The chicken liver parfait with smoked beetroot chutney comes with walnut bread, which given the amount of bread I’ve already got through, has me relieved I opted for the carrot risotto. That thought is further emboldened by a general apathy toward the terrine, with it being outshone by the chutney.
Smoke carrot risotto, Spenwood, hazelnuts
I was fairly underwhelmed by the starter options, but this is a delight in every al dente mouthful with a playful battle to dominate the taste buds and whilst smokiness is front and centre, there’s also acidity from pickled carrot and almost sweet piquancy from Spenwood sheep’s cheese, with crunch from hazelnuts.
Boulangere potatoes
Thankfully, service is relaxed, so by the time mains arrive, my hangover has been fully tempered and I’ve achieved peak appetite. On the table we’ve got two roast Hereford beef strip loins and two lamb rumps. All the mains are served with boulangere potatoes and barbecued hispi cabbage with garlic and dill, topped with crispy onions.
Cauliflower cheese
I’ve also ordered a side of cauliflower cheese that’s an anaemic disappointment at £7, being too creamy, only vaguely cheesy and with a nearly but not quite crust that kind of sums it up. But the potatoes are wonderfully stock soaked, flavour packed and caramelised and the cabbage carries a whiff of smoke in and around every charred leaf and topped with crispy sweet onion.
Lamb rump, stuffed courgette flower, cep
I was very nearly tempted by the lamb rump, although it was the accompanying stuffed courgette flower that was whispering the sweet nothings, but my hangover doesn’t value subtlety. My one forkful momentarily has me regretting not having my head turned with the sweetness of the tender lamb, the savoury hit from the stuffed courgette flower and the umami in abundance from cep.
Roasted Hereford beef strip loin, Yorkshire pudding, served with bone marrow and Madeira sauce
But, it’s a clear second place to my two thick slices of strip loin, cooked pink with a crunchy, gnarly Yorkshire pudding and plentiful bone marrow and Madeira sauce. As Sunday roasts go it’s flawless and reduces my hangover to just pleasant memories of last night’s shenanigans, although I’m regretting not having ordered at least one glass of red.
Roasted Hereford beef strip loin, Yorkshire pudding, bone marrow and Madeira sauce, boulangere potatoes, hispi cabbage with crispy onions & cauliflower cheese
Never mind, as it demands I order an ice cider to accompany dessert. All of the options are enticing me, but the others would have passed on dessert completely had it not been part of the lunch deal. Three of us have opted for the lemon posset, with added freshness from lemon thyme sorbet, a chunk of aerated white chocolate and a hint of sourness from verjus on a light base keeping all the sweetness in check.
Lemon posset, verjus, lemon thyme
The other is a straight down the line, sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream. There’s nothing fancy about it and that’s exactly as it should be and we’re all stuffed too; exactly how Sunday lunch should be.
Sticky toffee pudding, butterscotch sauce, vanilla ice cream
Nearly three hours have past, so it’s time to start saying our goodbyes, as Paul has to head back to Nottinghamshire. I’ll not be eating again today and he’ll not be needing to stop off at any motorway service stations on the way home.
RECOMMENDED 8/10
Shadowbrook Lane
Hampton-In-Arden
B92 0EN
