Hambleton Hall

'Could a summer day get any better than sitting in a beautiful garden, gazing down over manicured hedges and a fountain, to Rutland Water gleaming in the sunshine?’ A guide insider loved everything about Tim and Stefa Hart’s country-house hotel in a former Victorian hunting lodge – not least the food. The kitchen holds the UK’s longest-retained Michelin star. Chef Aaron Patterson uses local and home-grown produce to create ‘deliciously memorable meals’. ‘My king prawns with ponzu, avocado and seaweed looked almost too good to eat. Tagliatelle of wild mushrooms with grappa sauce was perfection.’ The service is ‘just so – not too stuffy’, and, ‘although the place is grand, there’s a relaxed, friendly air’. It is expensive, ‘but, my goodness, it’s worth it!’ There is a choice of rooms, from quite snug to a suite. ‘All are kitted out beautifully, with top-quality linen.’ 'It remains on the heights of excellence,' a reader concurs. 'At dusk, from our favourite room, one can see right across the reservoir to farmland beyond, with not a flickering light to be seen from anywhere’. A member of Relais & Châteaux. (Anthony Bradbury, Bill Wood, and others)