The Manor Restaurant, Kent Review

The Manor Restaurant at Eastwell Manor, Ashford is a traditional eaterie in a traditional hotel. It has high standards, great surroundings and the food isn’t bad either.

Starters were duo of beetroot and pumpkin soup with crème fraiche. The poached golden and red beetroot was fresh, vibrant and had a very distinctive taste. The duo came with glazed Capricorn goats cheese and a balsamic reduction. The pumpkin soup was equally fresh and was served with crème fraiche. Both were an excellent way to begin a meal and set us up nicely for what was to come.

For our main course we had a fillet of Scottish venison and duo of beef. The fillet was beautiful to behold, the meat was rich, juicy and cooked perfectly. It was served with wild mushrooms, buttered cocotte potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli and a honey swede puree.

The duo of beef was a fillet of beef and braised blade of beef served with root gratin potato, celeriac puree, red wine jus and an aubergine caviar. Like the fillet, this beef was also fresh, flavourful and a delight to look at as well as eat.

“The Manor Restaurant has high standards, great surroundings and the food isn’t bad either.”

Dessert was trio of chocolate and a soufflé served with Praline dust. The trio of chocolate consisted of chocolate ganache, brownies and a milk chocolate mousse. Each was rich, sweet but very well balanced and different enough in flavour to offer something distinctive in each bite.

The soufflé was light, warm, perfectly cooked and the praline dust added a lovely earthy character to it.

We also had a lovely Sancerre rose wine with our dishes, which offered a light, fruity note to our meal. It was the perfect accompaniment to the evening.

Our meal at The Manor Restaurant was of a very high standard. Unfortunately, the service lets it down a bit. The staff are efficient but far less than welcoming, almost surly. There were no smiles, no greetings, no niceties you would expect from a high class dining venue. It didn’t spoil the experience, but was an unnecessary distraction from what was otherwise an excellent meal.