Table of Contents
Last month, husband whisked me away for a weekend, sans kids – which hasn’t happened in years! The destination was Chichester and he got tickets for Anna Karenina in the Festival Theatre for us. What a great weekend we had! I was truly spoilt for my birthday, my batteries are recharged and it was overall such a wonderful weekend, that I thought, I must share a review of the Goodwood Hotel. I took many photos of the beautiful estate, dined in the restaurant and had a facial treatment as well in the spa – so I have an all-round review to share with anyone, who’s thinking about staying at the Goodwood Hotel, dining in the Farmer, Butcher, Chef or going for a day-spa experience. But because the lots of photos – I’m going to have to break the review into two posts – and this one will be about the estate’s flagship restaurant: Farmer, Butcher, Chef. We dined there on our arrival evening. Whilst in an another article, I share about the hotel and about our stay: Goodwood Hotel Review. They both deserve their own articles.
About Farmer, Butcher, Chef
The Goodwood Hotel‘s flagship restaurant, the Farmer, Butcher, Chef is claiming to be zerowaste and sustainable, using only seasonal English produce mainly from their own farm and local suppliers. Whilst the menu is certainly meat heavy, the meat is produced on their local farm. They offer specials and a la’ carte both changing frequently and only featuring a smallish number of options in each course – which is widely regarded as sure-tell sign of good restaurants. They also host Sunday roast and the breakfast service of Goodwood hotel – which we really enjoyed.
The name of the restaurant Farmer, Butcher, Chef reflects on the main idea of a very short supply chain: from farm to table via the butcher, who actively helps to design the menu with a waste-not-want-not approach. Depending on what cuts available, the butcher and the chef work closely to design dishes. (When I say design, that’s not an exaggeration at all – but more about this in the review below.)
Naturally, this approach has won them plenty of positive publicity and awards.
What we thought about it
At first I was alarmed by the name – of course, because I don’t eat anything that comes from a butcher. Looked the menu up online and that reassured me, they have some vegetarian dishes too. Good to see even restaurants catering a primarily middle aged male audience that reads The Daily Telegraph or that’s what they get in the hotel anyway (sorry not sorry) still offer meat free means for the spouses or something. To be fair, if the restaurant boasts about being sustainable – it would mean a lot less meat and more veg to start with. And if they say they are zerowaste – that also has to cover veg as well.
The food
When we sat down to eat, however, I was happy to see that each course menu contains a vegetarian dish (and there was even a vegan starter, but I guess tomatoes are not yet woke). Plus luckily, all these options sounded great, actually thoughtful, nice vegetarian dishes in line with the promises of seasonality and sustainability.
I had:
- Nutbourne Tomatoes with Chilled Dashi, Black Garlic, Basil
- English Asparagus with Egg Yolk Jam, Goats Curd, Watercress (shared with husband)
- Courgette with Lentils, Courgette Flower, Feta, Thai Coconut Sauce
Now, I really tried to take better photos but because it was late and less light combined with ambient lighting it was a bit difficult – but still, they aren’t to bad and you can see how beautifully they were presented and garnished.
The last one, which is the courgette dish – didn’t look like anything, because it’s just how it was with the ingredients – but that was the best of all, I was seriously considering having seconds – it was so delicious. A wonderful, lightweight combination of courgette and lentils, so fresh, perfectly al dente and not at all Thai coconutty – as you might think the Thai coconut taste can be overwhelming, but this was really subtle. It was perfect.
The tomatoes and the asparagus were also fantastic food creations with little, unusual twists to the ingredients instantly adding a touch of luxury the whole dish – and that’s not to mention how beautiful they looked on the plate.
We only had the chance to have a Negroni and an Aperol Spritz as appetiser as the food arrived so quickly and somehow our waiters were not around at the time when we wanted to order wine (this was probably on us though, as we were chatting and not looking out for them) that in the end we didn’t actually order wine. We were also hungry and totally amazed by the food so just kept eating. But also no waiter came to ask if we wanted some wine.
We did however, had a glass of wine in the bar after dinner.
The staff
Like I mentioned this in the Goodwood Hotel review, we found the staff exceptional. Although, on this evening they seemed to be a bit under-staffed or it was a change in shift or something, because no one came to ask if we wanted some wine. Other than that, we thought they were great.
Half of the hotel seems to be running by local kids, but these kids are so polished in manner and professional at their work that as if they were doing this for decades. There are a couple of “mature” staff members but the the breakfast service and also the dinner service were staffed by mostly 17 years olds. They are all very polite, friendly, funny even when the conversation permitted, they are a breath of fresh air to the place and really make a difference just how much more friendlier and younger the place becomes because them. They all wear a white long sleeve shirt and denim – laid back, but also uniform in look.
The price tag
As you would expect it’s not cheap, but to dine in the Farmer, Butcher, Chef is also not unreasonable. Of course, the meat-free choices are the cheapest on the menu, anyway. We also missed out on the wine so that makes a difference, but I think the two starters, two mains and aperitivos were just around £100. That’s not bad these days. The food was truly excellent compared and it was priced reasonably.
The ambience
I really enjoyed the ambience of the place. It’s a very entertaining, sometimes even shocking sort of experience for the eyes to sit down at the Farmer, Butcher, Chef. The restaurant is practically crammed with stuff. Whilst the walls and wooden beams are painted simple white, beautiful old wooden furniture is used to furnish it – there isn’t a palm size space on the wall that’s not covered with some old farming object, placard, or antique whatever. Ranging from odd things like a whole wall covered with name plates and pictures of the cows butchered through an old ideal weight/height chart for children to a corner of random objects decorated with white seashells. Even some tables serve as display cabinet. But many interesting things as well, like I said, if you are a visual type, you’ll find it either overwhelming in unsolicited information they give you or you will absolutely adore it. I was a bit of both, depending what I looked at.
There’s also a lovely terrace to sit outside, if you fancy that on a summer evening.
The bar/pub
The pub on the side of the restaurant is a different entity, but I think it’s got no name, or I’m not sure. It’s located in the little adjoint building next to the restaurant and reception. We did have drinks here and they have all a that a proper pub needs: draft beer, pub food and all that. There seemed to be a few local members there when we went for a drink, quite late around 10pm. Two older men were playing with backgammon. I was wondering if they are paid actors. It’s all very picturesque. Even a beautiful old sports car was parked outside. I wasn’t sure if that’s part if the decor or someone drove it to get there.
The verdict
We definitely prefer this hotel compared to the ones in Chichester town that we tried. We will be back!
