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Restaurant & Piano Bar Quindell Golf & Country Club Skylark Meadows Whiteley PO15 6RS T:01329 844441 then press 22 for table reservations
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Vegetarian: Yes Parking: Adjacent Smoking: In Sports Bar Wheelchairs: Easy Opening times on their web site Not easy to find, suggest you check out the map on their web site! |
Visited May 2006 (Now in Discount Directory, they are offering a very generous 15% discount on total bill, lunch Wed - Sat)
WOW! The only word to describe the approach to Quindell! After winding our way, several times (!), around the corporate land of Whitely suddenly we were entering the gates of this stunning Golf and Country club, it's like a film set! (Yes, I know I have used a lot of exclamation marks, if you visit you will see why!!). The houses you drive past are enormous, complete with manicured lawns and very expensive cars in the drive ways. I do wish I had at least been through the car wash before I came! When we arrived at The Retreat we were greeted by the very charming Salvatore and Virginie (the restaurant manager and assistant manager) whose attentive service through out lunch made our visit even more special.
When we mentioned it was our first visit and how beautiful everything was Salvatore insisted on giving us a guided tour of the whole club house, there is a Sports Bar downstairs where they also serve snacks, a patio outside, an incredibly well fitted out gym, steam rooms, foot spa, and fabulous changing rooms with wet room showers, everything is state of the art! It must be wonderful to be a member here, you must read about all the facilities and joining details on their web site. Also lots of detail about the menus, prices, and their live music events. And they offer a complimentary chauffeur service, now that I like the sound of! (Sure there must be restrictions on this service).
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Forgot to mention that whilst
doing the tour we walked around with our perfectly mixed G&T's, very
civilised. At last we settled into our seats, we had a wonderful
view across the impressively landscaped golf course. The restaurant
is very stylish and like everything else here has been furnished to the
highest standard. There is also the Piano Bar area where they have
live music and it turns out the versatile Salvatore is one of their star
singers!
There were only two of us today, the others will be very jealous when they hear what they missed. The menu created by the chef Scott Garner is fairly brief which we take as a great sign that everything is freshly cooked, he changes it monthly. |
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Whist making our choices we were served with some delightful canapés, (left). Eventually we asked for Salvatore's help; I know we should try different dishes for reporting purposes but we both could not resist the Rosemary-skewered scallops and prawns with sesame flavoured julienne he recommended (see at top of page), they were stunning. The scallops were plumptious and the combination of flavours amazing, you did not want the taste to disappear, a memorable dish. |
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The homemade onion bread is very yummy. |
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For mains courses we chose Filet of Scotch Beef with spring cabbage, bacon and rosemary pommes dauphinoise (top right) and King prawn risotto (left) again absolutely delicious, cooked perfectly and so beautifully presented. We shared a dessert, although we were so full, a delicately flavoured Peanut butter parfait with mocha ice cream. We would not have had that if we had realised that with our coffees came the amazing assortment of petit fours pictured at the bottom of the page, don't they look gorgeous? |
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We only had a glass of wine and lots of water to drink as we were driving. The Retreat is not cheap but this is fine dining at it's best and a very exclusive venue, highly recommended for a treat!. Dress is smart casual.
Cost: £ £ £ £ £ £ £
Yummy Factor 9/10 
Report CJ
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| 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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