Hambleton Hall

“Kitchen garden produce drives the menu here.” - AA Inspector

LOCATION

OAKHAM, RUTLAND

Official Rating
Inspected by
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Awards
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Our Inspector's view

Tim and Stefa Hart bought Hambleton Hall in 1979 and created a country-house hotel of distinction but the story of this unique venue goes back much further. Back in the 1880s, fox hunting was an aspirational pursuit, and one wealthy Victorian brewer built Hambleton as his hunting season holiday home. A water feature, otherwise known as Rutland Water reservoir (now a nature reserve) arrived on the hall's doorstep in 1970 to enhance the splendour of the setting. It is a handsome place that delivers grandeur on a human scale and was always meant for entertainment and pleasurable pursuits, a laudable aim which continues today with elegant bedrooms, chic public rooms and a fabulous restaurant to complete the sybaritic picture. Chandeliers, oil paintings and linen-swathed tables provide reassuring formality, and the service throughout is charming, professional and engaging. The food is refined, creative and firmly rooted in sound culinary thinking. The hotel has its own bakery, so the bread is a cut above, and everything from the canapés to the petits fours is beautifully made and delivered via tasting and à la carte menus. The chefs grow as much of their own produce as possible on site in the one-acre kitchen garden bordered on the south side by a two-metre high wall where the peaches, figs and apples thrive. Poached king prawns, ponzu, avocado and seaweed is one way to start a meal here, or perhaps the slow-cooked octopus, chorizo, lemon and ginger sauce and squid ink pasta catches the eye. It might be followed by roast quail, mushroom risotto, salsify and Sauternes or poached fillet of turbot, clams, cucumber and oyster leaf sauce. Finish with a classic prune and Armagnac soufflé and walnut ice cream or black fig tart Tatin and fig leaf ice cream.

Awards, accolades and Welcome Schemes

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4 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
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AA Notable Wine List
Hambleton Hall
Hambleton, OAKHAM, LE15 8TH

Features

Facilities
  • Seats: 60
  • Private dining available
  • On-site parking available
Accessibility
  • Wheelchair accessible
  • Steps for wheelchair: 2
  • Assist dogs welcome
Opening times
  • Open all year
Food and Drink
  • Wines over £30: 400
  • Wines by the glass: 19
  • Cuisine style: Modern British
  • Vegetarian menu

About the area

Discover Rutland

Measuring less than 20 miles (32.4 km) across, Rutland has a resident population of around 37,000, and apart from Oakham and Uppingham most of its inhabitants live in tiny villages and hamlets like Exton. 

The county’s name possibly derives from the 11th-century word ‘Roteland’, denoting the red colour of the soil in the east of the region; or it could have been part of the estate belonging to an early landowner called Rota. Whatever the origin of the name, one thing is certain, and that is that this tiny county has had a complicated history. The modern bit starts in 1974 when it was dissolved into Leicestershire. After more than 20 years of protest by unrepentant Rutlanders the county was happily reinstated in 1997.

The major tourist draw of Rutland was created in 1975, and is Rutland Water, a body of water which, at 5,000 acres, is the largest man-made reservoir in Europe. As well as a mass of wildlife and water pursuits such as windsurfing and sailing, Rutland Water also has its own church, which is now a museum, sitting on an outcrop that juts out into reservoir.

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