Gravetye Manor

Gravetye Manor was built in 1598. It is now a boutique hotel, and is noted for its spectacular gardens. These were established by a former owner William Robinson, who lived here from 1884 to 1935 and commissioned Sir Ernest George to develop the thousand-acre grounds into a magnificent garden. These days the huge grounds here contain a very large kitchen garden that supplies the restaurant with produce. There are multiple greenhouses, huge plots of vegetables, edible flowers and herbs; surplus vegetables are given to staff and local charities. Since March 2025 the head chef here has been Martin Carabott, who won the Roux Scholarship in 2018 and was previously head chef at Hide.

The dining room has well-spaced tables and, mercifully, no music, so noise levels are blissfully low. It is a striking room with floor to ceiling glass walls that look directly out into the nearby gardens. It almost feels as if you are eating in the garden itself. The menu was a la carte and priced at £128 each, with supplements for cheese and certain other dishes. I have written previously about the wine list.

Our meal began with some canapés. Warm gougeres were flavoured with Comte cheese and topped with Australian black truffle. The choux pastry was very good and neatly piped out, and the cheese flavour came through well, elevated by the fragrance of the truffle. A carrot cone contained chalk stream trout tartare with pike roe and trout roe with a chive curl. The carrot casing worked well and the chive curl was a nice touch. This canapé could be improved by switching chalk stream trout for sea trout, which has a superior flavour, but even so this was a very pleasant canapé. Finally, there was a cup of warm tomato tea with oregano and bay leaf. This used a mixture of San Marzano tomatoes and bulls heart tomatoes that are grown  in the greenhouses here. The tomatoes had good flavour and this completed a very enjoyable set of canapés (16/20 average for the canapés).

Two breads were offered, both being made in house. Cheddar brioche with jalapeño and oats had light texture and a lovely gentle hint of spice. Sourdough ciabatta was also very good. Additionally, there was a rye cracker with caraway seeds, which was crisp but a touch sweeter than I was expecting. The bread came with smoked hay butter with puffed amaranth seeds. Cornish crab tart came with chive emulsion. The tart was made from potato and contained white crab meat, allium flowers and was finished with oscietra caviar from Kings Fine Food in Hounslow. On the side was a cup of warm crab meat bisque with olive oil. This was a lovely dish, the crab having good natural sweetness, the tart having good texture and the salinity of the caviar being a nice balance (16/20). 

Truffle ravioli came with Scottish girolles, with ravioli made from charcoal pasta and pickled shimeji mushrooms, a warm Parmesan veloute, the dish topped with Australian black truffles supplied by Wiltshire truffles. This was a very good dish, the pasta having excellent texture, the Parmesan flavour coming through well and the girolles being of high quality (16/20).

A simply named garden salad was actually quite an interesting dish. The various leaves were all grown in the kitchen garden, and the exact composition varies daily. The one we had was in two layers. The bottom layer contained heritage carrots, beetroot, pickled fennel, broad beans, peas, blanched radishes, French mint, oregano, marjoram, kohlrabi and fried courgettes. The salad had a well-balanced miso dressing. The top layer contained pink garlic flowers, nasturtium flowers and leaves, chive curls, heritage carrot shavings and Charlotte potato crisps. The dish was a little reminiscent of the famous gargouillou dish of Michel Bras. It really showed off the produce here, with a dizzying mix of flavours and textures (17/20) 

Duck came with peach and apricot, kohlrabi and chives, garden turnip and almond praline. There was also a duck sausage leg flavoured with lavender and rose petals and a duck jus laced with blackcurrant and oregano. The bird had good flavour and I particularly liked the sausage (16/20). John Dory was from Cornwall and was precisely cooked. It came with courgettes, allium flowers and a smoked butter and wild garlic sauce. This was a well-balanced dish, with even the courgettes, which inherently tend to have quite a bland flavour, being very good. Presumably, this unusually high quality reflects them being grown in the kitchen garden. Seasoning was accurate, and this was a fine piece of fish cookery (16/20).

A selection of cheese comprised the Brie-like Baron Bigod, Golden Cross goat cheese from Lewes, Spenwood sheep cheese from Berkshire, Burwash Rose, Barbers Cheddar from Shepton Mallet and a local Sussex cheese called Blue Cloud. All were in good condition, served with crackers. Pre-dessert was camomile ice cream with bee pollen and a blob of Gravetye Manor honey applied at the table, with lavender and rose petals. This was the only dish of the meal that I didn’t think worked very well. One issue is that the honey quickly hardened and became a little awkward to eat, while lavender and rose are quite strong flavours. However, my main issue is that a pre-dessert should, above all, be refreshing, a transition from savoury to the sweetness of the main dessert. Consequently, pre-desserts often have elements like citrus to bring freshness. Honey with tea ice cream does not really fit the bill, at least to me (13/20).

Rum baba came with mango and passion fruit sorbet, coconut tuile, mango slices, kaffir lime leaf oil, and coconut with kaffir lime. The baba itself was suitably moist, and the tropical fruit flavours were a logical accompaniment (15/20). Blackcurrant soufflé came with blackcurrant coulis and blackcurrant ice cream. This was top notch, the soufflé light and airy and evenly cooked, the fruit flavour coming through well. The ice cream was smooth and nicely balanced in terms of sweetness (17/20). The coffee was supplied by Difference Coffee, which offers very high-quality coffee in capsules.

Our waitress (Ella) was friendly, patient and helpful. The bill came to £296 per person, of which the basic menu was £128. This was a thoroughly enjoyable meal, Gravetye offering a charming setting, an appealing menu, lovely locally grown produce and well-executed dishes. The kitchen is in very safe hands.

Further reviews: 17th Jun 2022 | 01st Jul 2004