Colette's at The Grove

Queen Victoria and Edward VII were both rather partial to dropping in on this estate for the weekend when London's charms began to pall. It wasn't that far away even in those days, but with the capital's onward sprawl, it seems practically a stone's throw from the West End. What you get is a large country-estate hotel, with all mod cons (spa treatments and golf), and an understated restaurant in soothing beige with smartly dressed tables, artfully positioned mirrors and polished service. Russell Bateman has honed a profoundly accomplished style of modern British cooking here, imbued with his own personal stamp, while respecting the quality of the raw materials he works with. Dishes are composed of many interlocking elements, as witness an opener of Lincolnshire pork teamed with smoked eel, alongside a slice of foie gras and apple terrine. Another might see roast scallops against a southeast Asian array of peanuts, radish and lime. Moving on to main course, the stakes are raised still further, perhaps for an assiette of locally farmed veal (the fillet, breast, sweetbread and tongue), served with cauliflower and spinach in aged balsamic, while a brill dish becomes a seafood-lover's dream date, encompassing cockles, clams, an oyster raviolo and caviar cream, not to mention some leek and turnip towards your five-a-day. The seven-course tasting menu is the leisurely way to go. Desserts don't stint on creativity either, perhaps offering parsnip and cardamom cake with blood orange and white chocolate, or spiced banana tart with toasted coconut and passionfruit and a banana sorbet.