Losehill House Hotel is an old walkers' hostel built at the start of WW1, and still displaying a few arts & crafts touches here and there. It is now a privately owned hotel with a small scale spa up a narrow single-track lane lane off the Edale road north out of Hope in the Derbyshire dales.
The unprepossessing entrance
One of the lounge areas
We only ate, so can't comment on the hotel or spa side of things, though my father and I appreciated the young ladies laid out in the grounds below in the skimpiest of bikinis. Slightly odd later when some hotel/spa guests came into the dining room wearing just dressing gowns over said bikinis.
The grounds (well, a tiny bit of, and no sunbathers)
The dining room is light and airy with panoramic views over the Peak District landscape.
View from the dining room
Chef Darren Goodwin's food was terrific. By prior arrangement, he did us a "Taste of Losehill" tasting menu. There were clean, precise flavours and excellent seasoning throughout. Confident, assured, delicious cooking. This is not show-off modern cookery, though onion ash, an elderflower espuma and a broad bean spherification did make appearances: but they were bit part players, not centre stage and certainly had their part to play. Except maybe the spherification.
Service was by local youngsters, but really pretty good: they all seemed knowledgeable about the food and were engaged.
A wonderfully pleasant, relaxed place.
Losehill Cured Bresaola Salad
Sea Trout with Cauliflower and Apple
Pressed Chicken Terrine, Parfait and Pickled Vegetables
Chicken terrines can often suffer from being a bit dry, from a lack of flavour, or (to counter that) over-enthusiastic seasoning. This managed to tread the very narrow path of being just right.
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