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<a href=press.php target=_top>Back</a><br /><br /> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 width=300> <tr><td bgcolor=#9DB783><img src=images/spacer.gif width=1 height=1 /><br /></td> </tr> </table> <br /> <b>The Financial Times - Sophy Roberts</b> <span class=date>March 2009</span><br /><br /> <b>Britain’s Countryside Inns</b><br /><br /> What was once considered fuddy-duddy is bang on trend now that we’re keeping our heads down, our wallets closed, our feet more firmly on the ground: a quick weekend at a restaurant-with-rooms squirreled away in the British countryside. Among the best of them is The Foxhunter, five miles south of Abergavenny in Monmouthshire.<br /><br /> I admit I visited begrudgingly. Wales, or anything bordering it, is to my mind too wet for anything resembling a holiday. And when I looked up The Foxhunter’s exact location, the best diversion – denoted by those ubiquitous brown signs for tourist attractions which line Britain’s motorways – was somewhere called “Big Pit” (a former coal mine offering, as it happens, a gripping exhibition on Thatcherism). You’re pretty much out on a limb here, with the next best diversion a good half-hour drive away in the Brecon Beacons, where foodies will want to make a lunch trip to The Walnut Tree Restaurant just east of Abergavenny.<br /><br /> Still, I went with the recommendation, booking in for a four-night stay as a fully-paid guest. And I was right to. Once ensconced in the bosom of The Foxhunter, you immediately forget the slate skies, drumming rain and lure of a mineshaft.<br /><br /> This is because the food isn’t something you will easily come across at a restaurant in London. The Foxhunter’s cuisine belongs entirely to its location – slow-roasted Longhorn oozing hours of tender attention, root vegetables straight from the ground, braised organic mutton. Of course Smithfield meat market supplies the capital’s eateries with exceptionally fine raw materials, much of it, probably, from the very same farmers in these wild Welsh Marches. But there’s something about enjoying rigorously seasonal produce in its rural context which gives The Foxhunter a different kind of gravitas.<br /><br /> It’s as if the slow cooking, which is so much a part of chef-proprietor Matt Tebbutt’s approach, belongs to the quietness of this sleepy, hard-to-find locale. The suckling pig with mustard leeks and potato cake, the smoked eel, the pappardelle of ox-tail, the banana bread and chocolate pudding served with clotted cream – this is far more than posh pub grub. It is sophisticated modern British cooking, in the tradition of Mark Hix (formerly of Le Caprice) with a dash of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Tebutt, like Whittingstall, runs foraging courses throughout the year – a hot topic in these penny-pinching times. And it’s comforting, warming. Tebbutt’s large and unpretentious portions make perfect sense.<br /><br /> The homeliness of the cuisine fits like a glove with the “rooms” available for overnight guests. The accommodation, which is within 20 metres of the restaurant, consists of Foxhunter Cottage and The Old Stable. I stayed in the former, which has two bedrooms (a double and single) with a cosy downstairs sitting room with log-burning stove. Foxhunter Cottage has a small patio garden, which would be appealing in summer and helps make this the better house if you are here with children. The Old Stable features a mezzanine-level double bedroom. With both, the style is clean and simple: sisal floors, natural linen sofas, modern kitchens and bathrooms with steaming water. Nothing too fancy, but for £145 per house per night, it’s fair value. The fridge is stocked with some good quality breakfast ingredients; for lunch or dinner, you can self-cater, eat at The Foxhunter, or order “room service” from the restaurant kitchen. And with a three-course set menu costing £25 per head, excluding wine, the final bill isn’t so bad – an entire bed and dinner stay, in fact, costing the same as an average hotel in London.<br /><br /> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 width=300> <tr><td bgcolor=#9DB783><img src=images/spacer.gif width=1 height=1 /><br /></td> </tr> </table> <br /> <a href=press.php target=_top>Back</a>
AA Notable Wine List 2008 & 2009
Perfect Pub Awards : Best Food 2007
Wales the True Taste (Cymru y Gwir Flas) - Dining Out Gold 2005
AA Restaurant of the Year for Wales
Email:
info@thefoxhunter.com
Telephone: 01873 881101
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