Strattons

Walk up a narrow lane between a kebab shop and a barber’s in this market town, on a sunny afternoon, and you may be surprised to find people enjoying tea on the lawn in front of a Palladian villa. Strattons is full of surprises, combining a hotel with a deli, restaurant and housewares shop. ‘The hotel has charm.’ The outré tastes of owners Les and Vanessa Scott are everywhere in evidence. Your bedroom might have a Jacobean four-poster, a freestanding copper bath, a jungle mural or mermaid mosaic, a chandelier or bowler-hat lampshades. Breakfast, including home-made sausages, kedgeree and ‘perfect’ poached eggs, is served in CoCoes deli, ‘an accomplished place with a happy, bustly feeling’ at the hotel gate. Throughout the day there are quiches, tapas, legendarily good fishcakes, ‘generous’ salads and home-baked cakes. New this year is Afterfive restaurant, launched by Vanessa Scott with chef Julia Heatherton, drawing on local specialist suppliers for such dishes as kiln-roast salmon risotto, ox cheek with bacon and sage, or ‘mega salad’. Take care when you sit down in the lounge lest you extinguish one of the house cats.