Castleman

Something of the French country house permeates this former dower house turned restaurant-with-rooms: perhaps the ‘gorgeous, unspoilt’ setting, the ‘air of faded gentility’, the ‘thoughtful, laid-back’ staff or the ‘real personality’ of owners Barbara Garnsworthy and brother Brendan. ‘Brilliantly’ looked after ‘as individuals’, guests find their delight in the ‘first-class’ menus, the ‘spot-on’ service, the ‘away-from-it-all’ atmosphere. Most of the bedrooms are ‘spacious, with a wonderful outlook’, though ‘careful selection’ is advised. Trace architectural fashions in the building’s period additions and expansions: one drawing room has Regency plasterwork, the other a Jacobean fireplace; ornate carved woodwork decorates ceiling, doors and shutters. In the ‘delightful’ dining room, Barbara Garnsworthy and Richard Morris’s ‘first-rate’ cooking, ‘promptly’ served, often draws ‘a full house for dinner’. Consider roast partridge, bacon, redcurrant jelly; pan-fried sea bass fillet, cobnut pesto. It is ‘very good value’. Breakfast has home-baked bread, ‘wonderful’ plum jam, ‘the finest scrambled eggs’. (AF, and others)