Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons
It’s not just in the two-Michelin-starred restaurant of Raymond Blanc’s honey-stone Oxfordshire hotel (Relais & Châteaux) that you get great attention to detail: in the bedrooms, even the sugared almonds are colour coded according to the decor. More
Good Hotel Guide Review
It’s not just in the two-Michelin-starred restaurant of Raymond Blanc’s honey-stone Oxfordshire hotel (Relais & Châteaux) that you get great attention to detail: in the bedrooms, even the sugared almonds are colour coded according to the decor. The chef ‘has let his creative soul spill from the kitchen to the bedrooms’ to create what a Guide insider says is ‘probably the best hotel I have stayed in’. Elegant bedrooms, some with private garden, draw inspiration from Blanc’s past. A trip to China produced Lemongrass, with its bed on a raised dais and lime-green furnishings, and started Blanc growing the plant in the ‘beautiful gardens’, which include an orchard and organic kitchen garden supplying the restaurant. ‘It’s neither stuffy nor overbearing’; children are welcome guests. Staff are perfectly trained so they are ‘there when needed, never intrusive’. As for the food, ‘prepare to be blown away’ with dishes such as chargrilled Scottish langoustine, and squab pigeon wrapped in salt crust. Even the breakfast table is a ‘work of art’: Blanc spent a year perfecting it. ‘It’s expensive, but for a special occasion, it’s worth it.’ (JK)
Hotel details
Address
Church Road
Great Milton
Oxfordshire
OX44 7PD
England
Telephone
01844 278881
Bedrooms
32. 22 in garden buildings, some on ground floor, 1 suitable for disabled.
Open
all year, restaurant closed for lunch Mon–Wed.
Facilities
2 lounges, champagne bar, restaurant, private dining room, in-room TV (Sky, BT, Freeview), cookery school, civil wedding licence, 27-acre grounds (orchard, Japanese tea garden), public rooms wheelchair accessible, adapted toilet.
Background music
in some public areas.
Children
all ages welcomed.
Dogs
allowed in some bedrooms and public rooms, kennels provided.
Credit cards
Amex, MC, Visa.
Prices
per room B&B £570–£2,160. À la carte £180, 7-course set meal £194.
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