Gidleigh Park

Amused

Daisy has been a way in Devon, Ashburton to be precise, doing a month cookery course here http://www.ashburtoncookeryschool.co.uk/ which by all accounts was excellent. I went up a couple of times over the month & we scoffed our way through most of South Devon. One place I was really interested in going to was Gidleigh Park, a 2 Michelin starred hotel within Dartmoor National Park where Michael Caines is the executive head chef http://www.gidleigh.com/restaurant.

Toms & melons

We went for saturday lunch & had a beautiful drive through Dartmoor, then into the grounds of Gidleigh Park which is stunning. On entering we were shown to the lounge, a very comfortable & spacious room & ordered 2 aperitivos & browsed the menu. There was the Signature menu, A la carte menu & Seasonal Lunch Menu, all sounded amazing. We decided on the 3 course Seasonal Lunch menu & ordered in the lounge where we were also given a Amuse Bouche of turbot which was delicious.

Salmon

We were shown to our table which was very nice & ordered a local Rose' which was lovely & Daisy had a glass of Sancerre which was equally good. There was some amazing homemade bread & another wonderful Amuse Bouche of Crab Bisque. There was a little wait, then our starters arrived! I had ordered "Tomato & melon salad with tomato jelly & basil oil" & Daisy had ordered "Loch Duart salmon with tagliatelle of courgette & cucumber beurre blanc". We were pretty excited. Both dishes looked exquisite, my tomatoes were tangy, the scoops of melon with the basil oil were very refreshing & there was a crispy side of fried bread I think, should of asked but very good. I really enjoyed the dish but I wasn't wowed on first impressions though thinking about it after I actually thought it was excellent & was glad that I ordered it. Daisy's salmon was beautifully cooked, the courgette tagliatelle wasn't what we were expecting but in a good way & there were salmon eggs exploding every so often in the odd mouthful. It was quite a salty dish but very tasty & I had quite a few mouthfuls of it.

Porky

Jackson  

On to mains! I ordered "Local pork loin with pea puree, boulangere potato, girolles & a marjoram pork jus" WOW! The pork was a little rare, I recently read how the food safety & Inspection service had lowered porks cooking temperature, so it was very juicy & tender, the boulangere potato mind blowing & the pea puree & girolles all combined to make this a wonderful dish. KNOCKOUT!

Daisy had "Cornish pollock with leek puree, wild mushrooms & a chive butter sauce", cooked to perfection. The pollock was delicious & the buttery sauce, buttery! Again a great dish & I can't remember thinking of any gripes. Amazing Mains!

Dessert! My favorite part were both extroadinary! I had "Banana parfait with chocolate & lime sorbet" Thin crisp chocolate stacked up with the banana parfait in between & I wasn't sure about the sound of the lime sorbet but it worked perfectly. Absolutely delicious. Daisy had the "Poached cherries with tuile basket & cherry & Kirsch ice cream". The cherry ice cream was absolutely lovely & the poached cherries divine.

We followed this by having coffee & petit fours in the lounge which were almost as good as the dessert. It consisted of one little dumpling, a mini creme brulee & a pannacotta. All amazing as well as the staff who were all friendly, very professional & the manager Sue Williams came & had a chat with us which was very nice. Next time at Gidleigh Park a room for the night would go down very well! Might have to start saving.