I was in Nirvana; I was staying at Le Manoir, which I regard as one of the best hotels in the world, and I was about to eat in its 2 Michelin starred restaurant, which I regard as one of the best restaurants in the world! OK I’m very biased on the latter, because in 2001 I did a week long cookery course here. That’s where I learned their kitchen practices and experienced how much work goes into so many elements of their dishes.  Le Manoir’s restaurant, overseen by chef/patron Raymond Blanc and Head Chef Gary Jones truly is a ‘temple of gastronomy’ where new dishes are constantly being developed to ensure everything is ‘a la mode’. As an example, some 25 years ago Le Manoir introduced vegan a la carte dishes!

Restaurant reservation times are in fact the times you go to their lounge. You get taken to your dining table about half an hour later.  It’s the same at Le Manoir alumnus Michael Caines’ Lympstone Manor, but on that occasion we weren’t told in advance of their practice. (You can go straight to your table if you don’t fancy an aperitif.)  As we relaxed on sumptuous sofas we were brought cocktails (we both had punchy Negronis 10/10), nuts and menus. Then along came a large plate containing four pairs of beautifully contemporary canapés.  I didn’t take notes at this stage of the evening, but I can assure you the canapés were all lovely 10/10

Our food and wine orders were taken. We decided to go for the seven course tasting menu, which they call “Les Saveurs du Manoir”, at £190 each, and a ‘basic’ wine flight at £125 each. Three classes of wine flight were offered including an “exceptional” one at £799, which astonished me. (note all wine flight servings are a proper 125ml). This is a costly place, even by 2-star standards, but they don’t have a problem filling their dining rooms.

Once seated in the large ‘conservatory’ part of the dining room (the best bit), we were offered bread from a large selection, along with 2 patties of butter; a salted English and an unsalted French. The sourdough I selected was very good. 9/10 (because the butters weren’t house made.)

Our first dish was a generous shot glass of pumpkin soup, served with a biscotti topped with pumpkin puree and seeds and Cashell Blue cheese. It tasted lovely and there was nothing to fault, so 10/10

Our second dish was beetroot-cured trout with beetroots, a trout tartare on a sourdough crisp and a sorrel sorbet.  It was all very good, but the tartare on the crisp was brilliant and the sorrel sorbet was amazing – so fresh and citrussy. 10/10

Dish three was a poached egg sitting on spinach and a watercress puree and topped with pieces of Jabugo ham and toasted hazelnuts.  This dish didn’t impress me. Although the egg yolk was still runny, I found it overpowered the flavour of the good ham, and the bitter watercress overpowered everything. I had seen online that the previous week’s menu showed this dish with truffle instead of the ham, which I suspect would have worked better (and indeed our young sommelier told us the wine he poured for us would “go well with the truffle”). 7/10

Our fourth dish was poached Cornish turbot with scallop, oyster, oscietra caviar and a wasabi beurre blanc. The turbot was on point (soft and moist), the caviar had lovely golden pearls, and I thought the sauce was expertly made to retain the wasabi flavour but not its heat. For me the portion was a little small. This was quite a complex dish with some strong individual flavours and I don’t think I got what the chef was trying to achieve. 8/10

The ‘main course’ was venison loin wrapped in ham, with root vegetables (including baked celeriac with black truffle) and toasted hazelnuts. The venison was beautifully tender, but it didn’t have a lot of gamey flavour, and the truffle lacked its usual punch too (time of year?).  I personally don’t like seeing hazelnuts on more than one dish on a tasting menu. 7.5/10

For a palate cleanser we were served “blood orange carpaccio with Campari and orange sorbet”. The carpaccio element was thin slices of a cylindrical terrine of orange and grapefruit; very clever. I thought this was a terrific palate cleanser. 10/10

Our dessert was a lovely one: milk sorbet, milk crisp and then rice pudding inside a caramel cylinder. I loved every element and thought they all worked very well together. 9.5/10

At the end of our meal we chose to have a fresh mint tea using mint from the gardens, in the bar. It was served with four delicious petit fours each and was lovely. 10/10

My total bill (including the negronis at £22 each, and a bottle of Badoit at a staggering £9) came to £703, which is a new high for me. It felt great to be eating at Le Manoir again, but I didn’t think everything was perfect, which it really should be at that price point.  Some dishes were perfect, but overall I’m somewhat disappointed to give a score of 8.5/10

(The next evening we ate a la carte and had a meal much closer to complete perfection)