After a great meal, there's nothing better than climbing into a comfortable bed. Dedicated foodie Rufus Purdy goes from the Kentish Coast to the Scottish Isles in search of Britain's best places to eat and sleep.
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| Langford Fivehead in Somerset, England Photo by Simon Wheeler |
It has taken the british a while to come around to the idea of a
top-quality restaurant with rooms. Although country pubs have
traditionally provided space in which diners could crash out after
their meal, there has been little on these shores to rival the
French auberge - where guests can expect to enjoy a meal prepared
by expert chefs from the finest seasonal, local ingredients, before
climbing the stairs to sleep in comfort and luxury.
But the number of UK restaurants with rooms has been increasing,
and several have opened in the past 18 months. In an era when it
seems every major hotel has a destination restaurant overseen by a
star chef, this less glitzy scene flourishes under the radar.
Talented chefs who don't have a TV series or their own range of
cook-in sauces are realizing that by providing accommodation within
walking distance of their tables they can not only boost their
profits but also entice far-flung foodies who might not otherwise
have visited.
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| The dining room at Rocksalt, Folkestone, Kent, England Photo by Simon Wheeler |
Wearing the hats of both hotelier and chef, however, is hard.
Increasingly savvy guests expect high levels of style, comfort and
design as well as fabulous food. So the successful restaurant with
rooms has to excel on two fronts. The food and wine, the main
focus, must be of a standard worth travelling for, while the
accommodation has to hold its own against a very healthy British
boutique-hotel scene. The following 10 places, for the most part,
walk that fine line very well indeed.
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| Smoked salmon with 'winter warming flavours',
including broken lemon-tart crust at 21212, Edinburgh, Scotland Photo by Simon Wheeler |
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| The entrance of The Yorke Arms, North Yorkshire, England Photo by Simon Wheeler |
Source: Condé Nast Traveller Magazine Issue June 2012
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This idea of combining a restaurant with a room to rest afterwards is quite rare and exciting. Not that people can't go to luxury hotels with top chefs, but it's a totally different feeling. In today high competitive market, many talented chefs have to find a better way to attract the "foodie", to compete against the celebrity-chef restaurants. In that case, the distance between the dining table and the bed seems to be more important to raise the attraction towards diners. There is no better way to pull more customers to the restaurant than offering a place to relax and rest after their fulfilling meals. Although being a chef and a hotelier at the same time might create some hardship, but the mentioned chefs above have proven that it's difficult but it's possible. They don't only create amazing cuisine but also bring a new breath to the accommodation comparing to the boutique hotels.
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