Down Hall to launch British restaurant Garden Room

The new restaurant will open on 14 July with executive chef Graham Noonan-Chatham heading up the stoves.

Located within the Hatfield Heath-based hotel’s 110 acres of landscaped gardens and woodland, the 60-cover restaurant will focus on what the hotel describes as ‘micro-seasonality’ using ingredients grown in the hotel’s new kitchen garden.  

It will serve a daily-changing à la carte menu that will feature starters such as poached Norfolk lobster with Bedlam farm squash, salty fingers and trout roe; a main of risotto primavera with freshly picked vegetables and herbs; and manjari dark chocolate ganache with pistachio and candied ginger ice cream.

There will also be a seven-course tasting menu with dishes such as summer gazpacho with smoked almonds; treacle cured longhorn beef fillet and stout braised short rib with shallot purée and hispi cabbage; and roasted pineapple with spiced rum, lime meringue and earl grey ice cream.

“It is such a joy to come on board at a time of change and development and I can’t wait for our guests to see the incredible new restaurant that we have created,” says Noonan-Chatham.

“The team find such inspiration in our spectacular surroundings and that is very much the ethos of Garden Room – we are championing our landscape and bringing it to the heart of everything we do.”

The restaurant’s interior will have a botanical colour scheme marble topped tables and wall panels depicting naturalistic landscapes.

“This has been such an exciting time for Down Hall and we are delighted to see Garden Room finally come to fruition,” says general manager Ken Flockhart.

“By bringing a contemporary design into our historic building and showcasing the produce cultivated in our new kitchen gardens, Garden Room will bring the outside in and offer the perfect backdrop for Graham’s hyper-seasonal menus.”