Pennyhill Park Luxurious Country House Hotel - Sunday 28th August

Venue:-            Penny Hill Park Hotel & Spa

Telephone:-            01276 486150 (restaurant number)

Website:-            www.pennyhillpark.co.uk

Situated along the A30 between Bagshot and Camberley you see the entrance to Pennyhill Park, once through the entrance advertising its five star status you enter 123 acres of rolling Surrey parkland within which lies a luxurious country house hotel. You may choose to park your car in the car park and walk to the hotel entrance or simply drive up to the front door and toss the keys to the valet to park it for you- having opted to drive the Skoda today and not the Ferrari I opted for self park. The hotel is very worthy of its five star status, I am having trouble finding even the tiniest fault.

We had come for Sunday buffet lunch (£37.00) per head plus drinks – a bottle of house wine comes in at around £16.00 a bottle of beer at £4.60 plus, most wines seem to me about £30.00 plus and champagne £50.00 plus. Now this probably seems expensive and yes it is, but you have luxury surroundings, immaculate service, a jazz trio (The Jubilee trio) and a buffet to die for.

The buffet consists of a traditional carvery (beef, lamb and pork loin today), sea bass and a pasta dish all served with all the trimmings and local produce. The starter range is enormous with lots of seasonal seafood – oysters, giant prawns, roll mops etc. cold meats and various salad accompaniments. The desserts consisted of classic hot fare – bread and butter pudding or apple and cinnamon crumble or a selection of exquisite concoctions such as exotic choux buns.

There is a more detailed menu on the website, plus details of its other restaurant ‘The Latymer’ which we haven’t tried.

We all had a mixture of starters, probably had something of everything between us – the plates were cleared. For the mains we had either lamb or pork, as much as you wanted (you can always go back for seconds or thirds), the very friendly carver will give you slices from where you request thereby catering for the lovers of well done and those that prefer pink – plates cleared again! We tried lots of the desserts  -more empty plates. All washed down with some water and wine and followed with rather delicious coffee – Oh! Something to complain about, the coffee came with homemade marshmallows – we don’t like marshmallows, bring back the petit fours I say.

I would rate this overall as an ultimate five star experience of both luxury and cuisine and you should try it, especially good for that little special occasion surprise lunch. There is a 10% service charge added to all bills which I am told is divided between all the staff involved.