Langley Castle Hotel

There are a few country hotels that look like castles. Langley is no mere Victorian pastiche, however, but a real, live, perfectly preserved Plantagenet fortress, built during the long reign of Edward III, when Europe was being ravaged by the Black Death. Today, it makes a majestic backdrop for a wedding, a weekend getaway, or just a meal in the magnificent Josephine Restaurant, with its log fire and stained-glass windows. Extensive fixed-price menus are the order of the day, and Andrew Smith's food charts a course through the modern classic repertoire, delivering the likes of seared king prawn in gazpacho with pea jelly and lemongrass foam, roast rack of lamb with smoked mash and basil jus, and pancetta-wrapped monkfish tail with black pudding and butter beans. Sorbets and pre-desserts intervene among the main items, and proceedings close with something like a study in peach, combining peach crumble, Amaretto-marinated peach slices, and peach and ginger ice cream, garnished with a black pepper tuile.