221. Peel’s Restaurant At Hampton Manor.

 

  Unfortunately the magnificent Hampton Manor Hotel, home to Peel’s Restaurant, does not allow residents to have their dogs stay with them so by necessity dinner there involved leaving Lucy The Labrador in town at The Grand and taking a short trip on the train from New Street to Hampton in Arden station and then make a ten minute walk through part of the village and up the drive, past Stuart Deeley’s Smoke, to the manor which looks fabulous lit up in the dark early February evening. Definitely one of the most exciting first views of a building housing a Michelin starred restaurant that is on offer in the West Midlands.

  After a relaxed and pleasing welcome I was lead through to the small cosy bar area where I was able to sooth myself with a gin and tonic after the journey which, though short in distance and time, had started off with the need to walk through a raging downpour as I headed for New Street Station and then the unavoidability of sitting in a crowded COVID-19 incubator of a train carriage full of young Long COVID-fodder who, while happy to wear beards on their chins and village idiot caps on their heads, decline to wear a face mask.

  And so to dinner in the gorgeous panelled dining hall with exactly the right level of lighting to create a spot-on atmosphere. The excellent front of house staff were up and running providing a finely judged type of service. The details of the menu were enticing and I appreciated being given a magnifying glass with the wine menu after recent problems at Lunar in Stoke on Trent trying to decipher the drinks menu there. But is it too simplistic to wonder why some restaurants do not offer a menu which is instantly readable without any aid? - surely that’s the solution.

  The meal started with two very pleasing amuses gueules - a dainty tartlet with delicious chicken liver parfait and a briskly flavoured cheesy bite. Then the bread, perfectly crusty, tasty sourdough with my favourite Ampersand butter and my not-so-favourite beef dripping (given a more refined name obviously) served in a generous portion which I appreciated as it was rather enjoyable. But this is all frippery as the full blown starters prepare to enter the arena of flavour.

  Carrot dishes, as I’ve pointed out before, seem now to be de rigeur. And Peel’s’ carrot mousse with tangy carrot chutney and spicy seeds leads the way in carrot dishes. Then on to ‘the beetroot dish’ and Peel’s again provided a dish of great pleasure, the flavours of various forms of beetroot topped off by a snowfield of delicious ragstone goat’s cheese from Herefordshire.

  Next a truly great dish. For its main ingredient I again was taken on a trip to Herefordshire whence came this fabulously cooked and delicious Longhorn beef brisket with mushroom and truffle. An absolute star dish. The depth of flavour in the beef alone made the trip out to Hampton on a dark and increasingly stormy February evening worthwhile.

  

  Pleasure followed pleasure, as a dish of crab with lime was presented in a pleasingly theatrical manner, a little crisp balanced on a whole crab shell combined with a separate bowl of an island of white crab, lime and coriander, its shores lapped by a most refreshing sauce which would have made a delicious bowl of cold soup on a summer’s evening. 

  I suppose the next course must be regarded as the main event though it seemed like several had already taken place. A whole roasted Merrifield farm duck nestled on a pan and looking glistening and gorgeous was presented at my table along with a piece of duck sausage. This was an enjoyable piece of drama and I was told that the duck would be carved in the kitchen. I waited for it to be removed but it still lurked there in front of me several minutes later. Eventually I was asked if there was a problem with the sausage. Ah! Of course, I should have got on and eaten it as a sign that the duck could be carried off and a carved slice brought in for me. So that’s what I did; of course the sausage was a little cold by then but still tasty but I can’t help feeling that it might have been best served on the plate with the duck. No matter, the wonderful plate of duck with a cranberry ketchup and celeriac was as fine a dish of duck that I can remember eating. The duck itself was perfectly flavoured and seasoned, cooked to total perfection, its fat beautifully rendered down, the work of a master.

  By now, rather full, I was still ‘up for it’ as the dessert phase was arrived at. There was a pleasing, nicely crispy tartlet of Yorkshire rhubarb with a rhubarb jelly draped over it and partnered with an Ampersand buttermilk ice cream. This was pleasant and the rhubarb was of a good texture but it’s flavour might have come through a little more and the ice cream proved to be soothing but again with less flavour than one may have wished for. And finally, the final dessert which aptly combined the flavours of chocolate and coffee in a very pleasing way.

  

  In the week when Michelin gave very little new recognition to the dining out scene in the West Midlands region, it is not surprising that Peel’s is ranked among those few, those happy few, who have received the recognition they deserve from the London-centric French tyre makers who have set themselves up as food experts. This was a remarkable meal with some fabulous high points eaten in a gorgeous setting with top notch service. 

  Meanwhile, Storm Dudley had irritated West Midlands Trains sufficiently to make them decide to cancel the evening trains running from Hampton in Arden to Birmingham and there was nothing left to be done but to take a taxi from the village back to town. But the meal had been so very, very good that the extra expense was still money well spent.