The Vines at Carden Park

Since our previous visit, The Vines has been awarded another AA Rosette. That makes three, which roughly equates to a Michelin star, if you care about that kind of thing. Which we most certainly do. 

Road-related ranking systems aside, The Vines is a clear highlight of the North West food scene and if you’re looking for some old-school glamour and grand cuisine, shunt it right up to the top of your To Eat list. 

It’s based in Carden Park, a sprawling countryside estate in Cheshire where everything is as refined as it could possibly be, without being fusty about it. The hotel is surrounded by 1000 acres of countryside, insulating it from the noise and frenzy of the outside world. Everything in its right place, as Thom Yorke once said, presumably about a similarly lovely overnight stay he once had. 

Fittingly, the restaurant has launched a monthly Supper Club, led by Executive Chef Harri Williams and Head Chef Cyril Gabriel. It’s held on the last Friday of the month, comes with an optional wine flight (take the wine flight, life’s too short not to have a wine flight) and features six courses that combine local sourcing with the precision of French gastronomy, plus a few international ideas for good measure. 

The inaugural evening sees a partnership with no less than Champagne Bollinger, which – wait for it – is absolutely fabulous. This means half a dozen timely servings of Bolli across the evening, beginning with a glass of Patsy Stone’s fave, Special Cuvee NV, in the splendid Goldies bar just across the hallway. 

Pleasingly, the chefs don’t play it safe, and even cock the odd well-placed snook at tradition. Case in point, the beef tartare. The expert inclusion of carrot and coriander, giving the raw meat a hazy Asian feel, topped off with a crispy quail’s egg to create a textural marvel. Steak tartare can often feel a bit unimaginative, but not here. Instead, we’re treated to multiple layers of flavour, both complex and complimentary. 

It’s a meal of highs, but the peak has to be the butter poached cod. A range of slightly unexpected but taste-appropriate ingredients are employed – dill, cauliflower, grains, a splash of champagne vinegar – matched with the most delicate, precision-poached fish this side of the Irish Sea. 

There are but a handful of world-class food-led countryside stays in the North of England. Gilpin, Northcote and Forest Side come to mind. If Carden Park continues to improve and impress at this rate, it’ll soon take its place alongside these titans of English hospitality. (And we haven’t even mentioned the spa yet.)