The UK based Restaurant, Hotel and Wine Review
The UK based Restaurant, Hotel and Wine Review
There seems little point in visiting Bath without pampering
oneself. After all that was the whole point of the place - to leave
refreshed and recharged. Actually, many so-called persons of quality in the Prince Regent's day
went to Bath for the equivalent of a drying out cure! Today there is no
shortage of restaurants in Bath, at least no shortage of jolly little
bistros. For serious diners the current "in" place is Lettonie, but
it's actually a couple of miles out of town on the Kelston Road. The Moody
Goose does a good number on Modern British cooking, and the old war horse
The Hole in the Wall in George Street still packs 'em in.
If you want to escape the hurly burly without going out as far as Lettonie, you should try the Bath Spa Hotel. It's perched above the city, barely as far as the outskirts, in about seven acres of grounds. It was built as a private mansion called Vellore House in 1830 when the town was at the height of fashion as a watering place. The main dining room occupies the former ballroom, which is impressive but perhaps a little awesome for everyday eating. But that's not what I'm about to recommend - we went there for a treat, and we weren't disappointed.
For a rather less formal
dining experience there is a very pretty second restaurant which makes
imaginative use of a glazed-in colonnade which was probably wasted as a
grand corridor in a previous incarnation. It's aptly called the Alfresco
Restaurant, and the Modern Mediterranean menu looked interesting and
not too expensive, though there is some overlap across the lower price
range of the main dining room. I was very impressed by Alfresco's wine list, which featured
no less than 18 different wines by the glass, costing no more than a
maximum of £3.65. But I digress.
The menu in the Vellore Dining Room is as modern as the room is traditional. First courses featured interesting fusion ideas, main courses looked more like a careful cranking up of old favourites using top quality ingredients mainly sourced from local farms and suppliers.
We love trying lots of small things, so were delighted to find a first course called Amuses bouches and Tapas (£12.50), with a selection from some of the other starters. The centrepiece was an excellent dish of Chinese Dim Sum dumplings (£8.50 on its own), which uses the traditional pork base with tiger prawns flavoured with rice wine and soy sauce. The other morsels must have been exceptionally good as none of them came my way.
Other starters include ravioli filled with traditional ricotta and spinach with a bacon pesto (£7.00) which seemed to belong more in the Alfresco perhaps, or Crispy lemon and coriander chicken with Pok Choi and sesame seeds, £7.95. I splurged out rather and had the Pan fried foie gras and chicken liver parfait on brioche with a cherry tomato confit (£10.00). I couldn't quite work out how this dish had been constructed. It almost had the texture of foie gras entier (there was nice caramelising on the pan fried fried surfaces), yet it clearly was a parfait, which I would have supposed would melt if you tried to fry it! It was a culinary trick that worked very well indeed, and the piquancy of the tomato confit and some rocket leaves set the whole thing off to a tee.
It was a warm evening, so home smoked saddle of venison, (£21.00)- normally an
absolute must for me - was off limits, even with tempting
accompaniments such as creamed celeriac and vanilla poached pear. The
roast loin of Somerset lamb in a mustard and herb crust (£19.00) was rejected for
just the same reason. Crispy confit of duck (£16.50) with its cassoulet of
flageolet beans, lardons, tomatoes and rosemary looked very eyecatching on
it way to the next table, but it was not for us on this occasion.
We went for the poached Dover sole with asparagus and a delicious herb gratin. The fish was so delicate it melted in the mouth - exactly what we needed. Perhaps I should now confess all and reveal that we never really intended to eat a serious dinner at all, since we had already enjoyed a very good lunch earlier in the day at Bishopstrow House on our way to Bath. We were in the Bath Spa Hotel for a meeting which ended rather late in the evening and we were feeling a bit peckish and the Al Fresco Restaurant was full, and, and, and... so we we went into the main restaurant and made utter pigs of ourselves for the second time in one day! There! I feel better now I've got that off my chest!
As you would expect from an establishment whose second restaurant has such a good choice of more modest wines, the main list at the Bath Spa is rather sumptuous. We indulged ourselves with a very nice bottle of 1996 Burgundy from Savigny-Les-Beaune, whose light but elegant fruit matched the paté as well as the fish.
After a decent pause, we shared a tasting plate of miniature desserts (£6.50). By now guilty feelings had conspired to blot all details from my mind. No, wait, I pinched a copy of the dessert menu. How about these: "Real sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce and ice cream" (£4.95), or Assiette of Belgian Chocolate Desserts (£6.25) - I can't possibly go on.
I'd like to be able to tell you how we were carried upstairs by liveried attendants and left discreetly to sink sated onto the lightest down mattresses in our luxury suite with its whirlpool bath etc etc, then up with the lark and into the spa for a swim, a workout and a brisk massage. But no, alas, it was back to the town centre. We stayed at the rather humbler but very pleasant Francis Hotel in Queen Square - and we had a four poster bed to sleep in. The hotel sitting room and dining room (yes, breakfast was sampled discreetly) are very Jane Austen.
PS - I never mentioned the service - that's because it was as it should be, polite and friendly, but not intrusive.
Clifford Mould May 1999
The Vellore Dining Room at the Bath Spa Hotel
Sydney Road, Bath BA2 6JF
Tel: 01225 444424 Fax: 01225 4444006
The Francis Hotel, Queen Square, Bath. Tel: 424257
Lettonie, 35 Kelston Road, Bath BA1 3QH. Tel: 446676
The Moody Goose, 74 Kingsmead Square, Bath BA1 2AB. Tel: 466688
The Hole in the Wall, 16 George Street, Bath BA1 2EN Tel: 425242
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