Lainston House Hotel

Woodman Lane

 Sparsholt Winchester SO21 2LT

Tel:01962 776088

www.lainstonhouse.com

Vegetarian: Yes

Parking: Own car parks

Wheelchairs: Easy

Loos: Excellent

Visited February 2009

For a superb meal in elegant surroundings it would be hard to beat Lainston House.  This award winning hotel is set in the most wonderful gardens and I really recommend you look at their website to read the history of this beautiful building.

We were five celebrating a birthday and therefore took the opportunity to try Lainston House using The Times vouchers, a three course lunch for only £10.  This offer is available Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays until the 30th April, obviously excluding Easter!  As well as the £10 luncheon they are also offering a £15 dinner menu on those three days.

 
We greeted on arrival and shown into the Oak Bar for a pre lunch G & T, only £9.50 each (!) but perfectly served as one would expect.

The Times Promotion lunch menu advises it is in association with Fundamentally Fungus Stockbridge, I was curious and if you are too click on this link .  Unusually the menu also gives the name of the local supplier of each dish.

The excellent 3 course menu consisted of Appetisers - sweet potato soup, chicken liver parfait, goats cheese, and confit duck leg Ballotine.  Obviously the full descriptions of all these dishes are far more elaborate but I can confirm they were all excellent and although minimalist portions beautifully presented and by the end of the meal we were pleased they had not been any bigger!

 
Mains - roasted corn fed chicken breast, salmon pave, twice baked Winchester cheddar cheese soufflé and Lainston style fish and chips.  Between us we had each of these dishes and all were delicious.
 
Desserts - honeycomb Parfait, selection of British and local cheese, apple & almond tart with marmalade ice-cream and sticky toffee pudding.  Once again seriously yummy and generous portions, particularly the cheese.  This was served on a slate with 4 choices of cheese, grapes with celery and home-made chutney. 

The food is fabulous and excellent value for £10.  If you only had water with your lunch (does anyone do that?) then you would come away with a very small bill however we obviously had a bottle of wine @ £24 plus a large jug of TAP water £1 (!) and coffee, £4.50 each, but if was large jug so we managed 2 cups each.  Therefore our bill was around £30 each including tip but definitely worth it and we all want to go again before the promotion finishes.

Their Executive Chef Andy Mackenzie has been awarded Hampshire Food & Drink Chef of the Year 2007 and 2008 and their Head Pastry Chef, Mark Tilling has been awarded UK Chocolate Master 2006/07 and 2008/09.  We highly recommend.

Cost £ £ £ £ £ £

Quality of food  4/5    
Variety of menu  4/5
Staff & Service  4/5    
Ambience, setting and decor  4/5
Value for money  5/5  

Total Yummy Factor 21/25

Report SM                    

5/5 = Cannot be improved upon, 4/5 = Very good, 3/5 = Good, 2/5 = Satisfactory, 1/5 = Poor, 0/5 = Terrible
The higher the "Yummy" factor, the better the food & service.  The higher the number of £ signs the more expensive.  ( Roughly one £ sign = £5 per head )
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