Latest opening: The Pass by Ben Wilkinson
What: The relaunch of a West Sussex hotel restaurant that has seen, ahem, a fair few chefs pass through it in recent years. South Lodge Hotel’s owner Exclusive Hotels launched The Pass in 2008 with Matt Gillan at the helm. He went on to win a star, a feat that has yet to be repeated by the succession of chefs that have taken on his mantle. To be fair, the last two chefs that oversaw the restaurant-in-a-kitchen concept - Tom Kemble and Greg Clarke - were cooking at the required level but weren’t able to stick around long enough to be acknowledged by the little red book (Kemble left as a result of the pandemic and Clarke was only there for a six-month residency).
Who: Ben Wilkinson is the latest chef to have his name on the door at The Pass, although management have switched things - it’s now The Pass by Ben Wilkinson rather than Ben Wilkinson at The Pass. Like Kemble and Clarke before him, he is a chef that certainly has the potential to finally win back the restaurant’s star having attracted one at Lake District Restaurant The Cottage in The Wood 18 months after taking on the kitchen (he stayed for five years). Front of house is overseen by his partner Monika Zurwaska.
The vibe: Pretty much the same as before, save a fancy new glass sign in the hotel lobby bearing the restaurant’s new name. The brightly-lit space was refreshed in 2019 when Kemble took over and sports pink leather-clad banquettes and stools that give most guests a commanding view of South Lodge Hotel’s large kitchen (the space also services the hotel’s Camellia restaurant and its banqueting operation).
The food: Wilkinson’s eight-course ‘taste menu’ is priced at £120 (the wine flight is £85) and includes the likes of smoked venison with fennel, capers and pine nuts; Turbot with turnip, peas, girolles, caviar and a sauce made from locally-produced sparkling wine; lamb with Jerusalem artichokes, hen of the woods, sweetbreads; and strawberries with ewe’s curd, vanilla and elderflower.
And another thing: Though far from being staid, Wilkinson’s food is a little safer and undoubtedly more classically minded than Kemble or Clarke’s. That’s probably no bad thing with Kemble in particular finding that many of the restaurant’s guests wanted something more familiarly 'fine dining' than his thoughtful Japanese-influenced cuisine. With South Lodge Hotel's close neighbour Interlude now holding a star for its South African-accented food, the pressure is on for both Wilkinson and Exclusive Hotels to finally deliver the goods.
