|
EX1's favourite restaurant at romantic Combe House Hotel, near Honiton, has been awarded a top European food award for the second year running.
The latest award - the Michelin Rising Star for culinary excellence - maintains the hotel’s place in the 2008 Michelin Red Guide, one of the most recognised & influential restaurant guides in Europe, featuring only 122 restaurants in the UK with one or more stars.
Ken & Ruth Hunt, who run Combe House, say the awards are thanks to their Master Chefs of Great Britain, Stuart Brown and Hadleigh Barrett.
This is how good restaurants should be. An intimate setting for a romantic meal and with Michelin Rising Star status there are never any complaints about the food. Better still the waiters have mastered the art of being helpful without being patronising. Highly recommended - click here to read EX1's latest editorial
Radio Times South West. 4th-10th February 2006
Timeless Quality
Mimic Jon Culshaw's impression of Combe House
London is an incredibly addictive city...so full
of opportunities. You really don't know what's
going to happen from one day to the next and that's
why I love living there. But you have to be careful.
If you're there for too long, you can become jaded.
You have to get out just to catch your breath,
People talk about " recharging your batteries",
and I realise it's time for me to do just that.
Devon's not really an area that I know at all.
I'm a Lancashire lad - but we decide to try a
relaxing weekend break at Combe House Hotel in
Gittisham, near Exeter (described by Prince Charles
as the "ideal English village". Getting
there is ridiculously easy: we get the train from
Waterloo to Honiton, then it's a short cab ride
from the station. As soon as I get off the train,
I know I've made the right decision. Just getting
your lungs full of that country air and not having
to listen to the constant hum of traffic. It's
as if I can feel my brain uncoiling.
As for the hotel itself...well, what can I say?
You step inside and it's like falling back through
time to the 1600s. Parts of it date all the way
back to the 1300s. Huge sandstone fireplaces,
creaky old floorboards...I'm sure I'll turn around
and see Queen Elizabeth 1 checking in for the
night.
It's quite a big place - about 15 rooms - but
it doesn't have that horrible hotel atmosphere.
It feels like we're in somebody's home. Just really,
really cosy. And when you look out of the windows,
you've got more surprises. We wake up to see pheasants
and a herds of arabian horses. And if walking
is your thing, you've got hills and moors right
on your doorstep.
We decide to have a bit of a lie-in - well, it
is meant to be a relaxing break - so we have breakfast
in bed, but for the evening meal, I just have
to go down to the banqueting hall. Incredible!
The walls are covered in old portraits of kings,
queens and knights, all looking down at us. We
eventually go for the roast beef, but what they
bring is much more....I must have about half a
cow on my plate. It's a Desperate Dan-sized portion,
complete with all the trimmings. Although we don't
get the log fire going in our room, we do light
candles and enjoy the views out across the night
sky. Without all that light pollution, it's truly
spectacular. Both Venus and Mars are visible and
I really have never seen anything like it.
Combe House is a real find. One of those special
places to visit time and time again. It almost
seems a shame to tell anyone else about it.
Times online – Sept 25th 05
The world's best hotels for dirty weekends
COMBE HOUSE HOTEL, Gittisham, Devon
Lascivious gimmicks are all very well, but
if your libido leans to the romantic rather than
the raunchy, little can compare with a country-house
hotel.
We choose Combe simply because it’s gorgeous
— no spa, no pool, no designer names, just
a perfectly intact Elizabethan manor in 3,500
secluded acres. It offers award-winning food and
only 15 rooms: our favourites are the quirky Pitt,
with its bed under a mullioned window; and the
Willington, for the thought-provoking four-poster.
Both are straight out of the pages of a racy period
novel, with stunning views over a verdant valley
where thoroughbreds roam free. So rip those bodices
and get busy.
Daily Mail - Saturday June 4th 2005
Combe voted one of the Top Ten Glorious
British Sunsets
As the hills of Dartmoor turn purplish blue,
magnificent Arab horses from a nearby stud gallop
in the secluded valley beyond. You won't find
a hotel with a more English setting than Combe
House, a Grade 1 Elizabethan Manor surrounded
by softly verdant parkland in the village of Gittisham.
The hotel bar's speciality drink makes a delicious
aperitif: the 'Dowa' consists of honey, ice, vodka
and crushed limes, all sipped through a straw,
and comes from the Swahili word for medicine.
From The Good Food Guide 2005
Philip Leach runs the kitchen at this many-gabled
Elizabethan manor house, where architectural grandeur
does not translate into a stuffy ambience. The
dedication to sourcing fine seasonal and often
local ingredients is clearly a driving obsession,
and the sylvan setting includes a large kitchen
garden producing an array of herbs, vegetables
and fruit. Begin with a woodsy pairing of ceps
and leeks in an open ravioli sauced with cep velouté,
or tempura oysters with celeriac and oyster soup,
before moving on to pot-roast poussin simply paired
with colcannon and wild mushrooms, or poached
fillet of halibut with tagliatelle and pesto dressing.
A six-course tasting menu is on hand if choices
prove difficult. Puddings range from chocolate
brownie with vanilla ice cream to pistachio bavarois
with sesame tuiles and milk sorbet. France, in
particular Bordeaux and – unusually –
Chablis, is the first love of the wine list, with
some well-chosen New World back-up. Half bottles
are in plentiful supply and six come by the glass.
House wine is a rather steep £17.50
The Sunday Times Travel Awards 2004
Country House Hotel
JOINT WINNERS
Combe
House Hotel and Restaurant, Devon
Castle Leslie, County Monaghan, Ireland
 We were agreed that this prize should go to a stately
home, but we just couldn't decide between the splendid
Elizabethan pile that is Combe House, and Ireland's
Castle Leslie.
Combe House remains refreshingly unreconstructed
in today's country-house-hotel world of statement
spas and OTT extensions: guests choose between the
old servants' quarters and the old masters' quarters.
It has been owned by generations of posh Devon families,
but despite sumptuous antiques and old-school service,
still feels homely, with a small team of expert
staff for whom nothing is too much trouble. Bedrooms
are sumptuously furnished with antiques and rich
fabrics, and the food is amazing: what doesn't come
from the kitchen garden is sourced from high-class
butchers, smokehouses and farm shops. The excellent
head chef, Philip Leach, knocks up an unpretentious,
delicious menu (roast rump of lamb with aubergine
millefeuille, pan-fried fillet of sea bass with
crushed new potatoes). The duck is simply the best.
Sunday Times August 8 2004
A Manor to which you'll be accustomed
It may be grand, but it feels like
home: Matt Rudd finds the perfect place to unwind
Combe House Hotel, Gittisham, Devon
 The
hotel: I've noticed an alarming trend in the shires
of late. It's when some splendid country-house hotel
sticks on a modern extension round the back to squeeze
in more guests. All very egalitarian, but who wants
to stay in it? And it doesn't stop there. They'll
also bung on a state-of-the-art gym. And a spa where
they'll wrap you in mango peel after your game of
squash. Mango on my manor? I think not.
Combe House Hotel has no plans to expand. It has
just 15 rooms, and if you want a bioneoduothermal
seafood mud bath or a raspberry colonic, you'll
have to go elsewhere. There are no modern bits –
instead, you get to choose between the old servants'
quarters and the old master's quarters.
Relaxation comes in the form of afternoon tea on
the lawn(s). Sunday papers on voluminous sofas and
G&Ts by the croquet lawn. It's the sort of place
that makes you say “righty-ho”, “smashing”
and “old chap” repeatedly. Maybe even
“spiffing”.
The house isn't Georgian, but that's okay because
it's Elizabethan. Over the centuries it has been
owned and added to (tastefully) by posh Devon families
such as the Willingtons, the Beaumonts, the Putts
and the Markers. So there's plenty of intrigue,
king-bashing and inbreeding to readup on while you
stay , none of which is, to my knowledge, still
practiced by the current owners.
Ken and Ruth Hunt took over seven years ago and
run it with a small team of expert waiters, maids,
gardeners, chefs and Jeevesian bartenders, for whom
nothing is too much trouble. And despite the mile-long
driveway, the sumptuous antiques and the old- school
service, it's not at all intimidating. It feels
homely. In fact, by the end of the weekend, you'll
feel as if this Grade I – listed manor house
is your home. But it isn't – so you'll have
leave, all right?
So what are the rooms like?
All individually and sumptuously furnished with
antiques and rich fabrics. I couldn't decide which
was my favourite – the curiously misshapen,
bargain Pitt, or Tommy Wax, the no-holds-barred
deluxe option with a bath a deux. They're all lovely.
And the food? The house is set on a huge estate
of rolling hills and magical forests, with paddocks
of whinnying Arabian horses amd no restaurants to
speak of, other than its own. To leave this calm
sophistication for the cruel realities of Devon
proper is, frankly, too much. So it's fortunate
that the food here is amazing.
What doesn't come from the walled kitchen garden
is sourced from a list of high-class supplier: master
butchers, smokehouses, local farm shops. Urbane
Ken pootles down to Brixham in his Land Rover each
afternoon to collect the catch of the day, and the
excellent head chef, Phillip Leach, then knocks
up an unpretentious, delicious menu – roast
rump of lamb with aubergine millefeuille ,pan-friend
fillet of sea bass with crushed new potatoes, that
sort of thing.. Before you think this is a Huttonesque
whitewash, I'd avoid the John Dory with vanilla
veloute, unless you like fishy vanilla. But the
duck was the best I've ever had. It tasted like
it died happy. Which is probably true for the morning
kippers. I'll leave you to find out how good the
breakfast is.
Let's suppose we want to leave the hotel. Madness
– this is the place to convalesce, Matisse-style.
You want to sit, vegetable-like, soak up the views,
stretch a lot, wake up from an unscheduled afternoon
nap with a big pillow crease across your face. You
don't want to sightsee.
We insist. Fine. Go walking or riding around the
estate. Have a crab sandwich in petty Beer, 20 minutes'
drive away. And walk along the cliffs from there
to Branscombe: one of England's finest coastal stretches.
Then, just stop it and go back to Comber house.
Good for: getting a Jane Austen.
Bad for: a facial or a trouser press.
Combe House has doubles from £140 to £275,
B & B, Dinner is £36 for three courses,
£49 for the menu degustation.
Evening Standard Friday 6 August 2004
Travel
Review of Combe House in The Good Hotel
Guide 2004
On a vast Devon estate of woodland, meadows and
pastures with Arabian horses, stands Ruth and Ken
Hunt's Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house (with
19th-century additions). It continues to please
most comers: 'A treat: great welcome, gracious surroundings,
excellent food,' said visitors in 2003. Other appreciation:
'Friendly, professional; we felt special.' 'Wonderful
position, magnificent rooms; everything tastefully
done.' The panelled public rooms have huge fireplaces
with Grinling Gibbons-style carvings, coats of arms,
stags' heads, plastered ceilings, 'an abundance
of fine antique furniture, ancestral portraits and
flowers'. Rooms are priced according to size and
aspect. 'Our "superior" had a three-seat
sofa in the window; large bathroom with separate
shower.' 'A delightful, spacious room, well appointed,
oozing atmosphere.' 'Ours, decorated in lived-in
country house style, had lovely views over the gardens.
The owner himself brought a tray of tea and delicious
home-made biscuits.'
A couple with three dogs liked a rear suite with
direct access to the garden, and parents of three
small children wrote of a helpful reception (toys,
games and an early supper are provided). There is
praise for the food: 'Delicious, beautifully presented:
service was friendly, not overly familiar.' Chef
Philip Leach serves contemporary dishes, eg, rabbit
and chicken terrine with apple and onion relish;
best end of lamb, stuffed with lamb sweetbreads,
with steamed suet pudding; cherry clafoutis with
fromage blanc and hot chocolate sauce. The menu
lists the suppliers, all local; many vegetables
come from the hotel's walled garden. Private dinners
can be held in the candlelit Georgian kitchen. Breakfast,
served until 10 am, has good thick toast, 'perfectly
poached egg with smoked haddock'. Gittisham is a
picture-book village; it has thatched cottages with
cream and green walls, and a Saxon church. Nine
golf courses are within easy reach, and the hotel
has one-and-a-half miles of fishing on the river
Otter. The Jurassic Coast (England's only natural
World Heritage Site) is not far. (SA Sawyer, John
Mulready, and others).
- Back to the
top of the page -
|
