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I will never not love checking into Hampton Manor. The driveway as it arches into the imposing building with the mass of manicured green fields that lay behind it. The reception desk, a seemingly ever-moving part which now finds itself right by the doors of the house, then the slow procession to the room, past the tasting table where I once drunkenly mistook a glass of water for a very light whisky, up the gentle curve of the grand staircase, then into the suite. We are in Sarah Ireland, the bridal suite, which is appropriate as this marks the first official night of the honeymoon that seemingly started two weeks ago. The largest room in the house, with four poster bed, lounge area, circular bath, dressing room, and hidden mistresses snug downstairs. Yes, the last bit is true. No, I have no desire to use it- and that has nothing to do with the fact that this is my wife’s first time in the manor, or that she will be proofreading this on the bus on the way home. I want to say it is my favourite room in the house – I think I have stayed in nearly all of them by now.
We are here for dinner at Kynd, the new restaurant from David Taylor and the successor to what was Smoke. I’d booked it some months prior, and it is important I at least disclose the following in the efforts of transparency. When I booked it I assumed it was very much a normal service, though whilst on my way to the Manor I received a note to say that various other influencers had been invited and that in keeping with what was being offered to them, it would be food and room was comped, with us only picking up the drinks bill. Sophie and I agreed that we wouldn’t hold back on the booze, meaning that we left with a bill of £268, which isn’t quite as much as the bill would have been if we’d done the Sunday Sleepover (rooms from £140, dinner £55 each), but hopefully enough to convince you, Dear Reader, that we’ve made the effort to throw some cash back. My head on Monday morning would agree with that sentiment. We drank well. So well in fact that one of the influencers thought that my bottle was for them as it passed them by. Hands off.
I think I’ll write it up now based on what we had and book back in for a more conventional dinner. Because we will be back. So, a cocktail that is a riff on a marg, followed swiftly by a litre bottle of red. Some excellent potato bread to line the gut with butter that’s been churned in-house which is arguably even better than the bread. First course is Lancashire cheese mousse, chicken and lovage soup, and dressed radishes. It’s a clear signal for the type of cooking you can expect at Kynd; clean flavours, produce led, and with a distinct use of acidity. It is a bloody good starter.
Beef for main. A great big kilo of the stuff for two, blasted over the flames so that the flesh is caramelised on the outside and daringly rare in the centre. It’s a good steak; too much for us given we are pathetic when it comes to eating red meat, but complex and grassy and juicy and tender. I’d argue the sides stand-out as much as the beef. Carrots on a kind of a carrot coleslaw, a fondant of spiralised spuds; buttery, but still an ode to potatoes and the soil they were a part of. A killer gravy and perhaps the best bit, some greens dressed in a kind of salsa verde of peppers, that’s not really a salsa verde, but is loaded with acidity and enough flavour for me to beg for a tub to go with my cheese sandwich the following day. Would a big sharing steak be either of our first choices for main? No, but that does not matter here. We are the minority for this, and anyone paying £55 for supper is going to go crazy for it.
Dessert is the highlight of a very good meal, one that seems more of a signature to Kynd than anything else on the menu. A bubbling, molten tipsy brioche cake, steeped in rum and heavy cream, with brown butter ice cream and stewed rhubarb. Delicate and boozy, it’s a happy, joyous thing that even Sophie eats and Sophie never eats dessert. I could easily have eaten another. Service was brilliant and we’ve been over the bill already. After we head to the bar and drink Old Fashioned’s until that big four-poster calls us, before waking and enjoying a leisurely breakfast whilst others get taken on a tour of the grounds. There really is nowhere quite like Hampton Manor, and it looks like Kynd has hit the ground running for yet another brilliant addition.
9/10
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