At The Chapel - Menu

The Natterjack

➤ Evercreech Junction, Mendip, United Kingdom

Full • Steak • Juice • Desserts

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"Not an experience I expected.. We have tried booking here for months and eventually got a table. Excited to eat here for the first time the bubble burst pretty quickly… Walked into the bar to be ignored for around minutes while the staff did...everything but see to us, already feeling like a burden.. not a great start! Finally given directions, not shown to our tables?! The pub seemed busy so carried on to give it the benefit of the doubt. Orders were taken quickly for food and the food was great, cannot fault. Staff were to-and-fro from the kitchen and we sat there most of the night infront of our dirty plates, we didn’t feel looked after, more overlooked.. Eventually after our meals we were asked to see the dessert menu, I had decided on dessert but after waiting too long for anyone to see to us I got fed up and decided to call it a night. Went to the bar to pay and yet again the staff were pre-occupied. Upon paying the staff member was conveying to us how it’s not usually this busy. Busy is great however I feel if you’re going to have a capacity that large in a restaurant do more to make your customers who are paying feel welcome."

Roth Grill

➤ Dropping Lane, Bruton I-BA10 0NL, United Kingdom, BRUTON

Kebab • Mexican • Seafood • European

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"Selling Picasso’s to publicity shy billionaire art collectors, sounds like such a bit of a cushy number. We can however get a glimpse of the skill sets required in Swiss gallery owners Iwan Wirth and Manuel Hauser’s diversification into the development of a UK based hospitality business. Or to be more accurate, several hospitality businesses. Their recent openings showcase an eclectic mix of wonderful art, honest food, comfortable beds and decent wines. One of them, the Fife Arms, the iconic flagship of the enterprise, encapsulates under its grey tiled roof, everything that is positive about Scottish hospitality, while transforming the provision of informal luxury accommodation into literally an art form. The hospitality experiment started with the acquisition of a farm in the rolling hills and apple orchards (now vineyards) of Somerset, near to the village of Bruton. Farm buildings have been converted into a 6 bed luxury gite (private chef to order), a spacious art gallery, cafe, bar, restaurant, and farm shop. Slightly confusingly, the venture sometimes goes by the name Hauser and Wirth, sometimes Art Farm, Durslade Farm Shop, and Roth Bar and Grill (design of the bar care of the descendants of conceptual artist Dieter Roth). In any event, last year I was fortunate to catch the last day of a magnificent display of works by the late Henry Moore in the farm gallery. If the entirety of the Somerset collection could be conceptualised by Dieter as an Anne Redpath still life, flowers in vases, cups on the farmhouse table, the next development in the portfolio had Frank Auerbach charging into the room, trowel in hand, blending autumnal colour combinations using enough paint to cover the hull of the Royal Yacht Britannia. I visited the Fife Arms in Braemar, a skip and a jump from Balmoral, in 2019 within a year of its opening. Having read the first Fife Arms reviews, as the co-owner of Hotel Les Deux Chèvres, a boutique art hotel in Burgundy, I had a professional excuse to satisfy my art appreciation curiosity. Frank’s bold brush strokes combined dollops of tartan, interspersed with stags heads, a stuffed Queen Victoria, Picasso’s, Freuds, and 1,500 odd other works of interest all under the roof af a magnificently converted 45 bedroom former Victorian coaching inn. For each room there were two staff, estimated conversion costs in excess of £20m, and the same again on the contents (not counting the Picasso and Freud). The integration of a local’s bar serving pies and pints with the 5* luxury ground floor salons, is a design masterpiece in its own right. And so to the latest offering, the re incarnation of a Mayfair pub, into a Mayfair pub, Mount St Restaurant, and rooms for private functions. To be frank, after staying at the Fife Arms, the Audley pub and Mount St restaurant, would need to be an unmitigated disaster, before I would give it a negative review. Of course it is not. The bar is pleasant, the service on a busy evening, good; the choice of beers, excellent. The restsurant, an interesting menu array of modern british, I have not yet sampled. But why The Audley? For profit? Surely not. Had it been renamed the Fife Arms (London), a few stags heads and bucket loads of fine Scottish whiskies and langoustines imported, I would get it. But those are my brand musings, and probably better expressed elsewhere. On the assumption there is a grand plan to the expansion of the Group’s hospitality interests, I await the next installment with interest. And should they consider a French wine village, I have just the opportunity ready and waiting in Gevrey Chambertin! In the meantime, bravo, and thank you very much for the journey so far, Manuela and Iwan. Food: 3 Service: 4 Atmosphere: 4"

The Bell Inn

➤ Bruton Road, Mendip, United Kingdom

Fish • Meat • Salads • Chicken

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"You know what, I'm actually really impressed by The Bell Inn The staff behind the bar and who brought our food out were really professional as well as friendly. My meal was perfect as well. I liked that it came with a mix of veg, it didn't feel too heavy. Others had lasagne and said it was delicious. A few people made the comment that some choices on the menu were also shown on the specials board, it would be better for The Bell Inn to only show their weekly dishes on the specials board instead. I'd be very happy to return."

The Three Horseshoes Inn

➤ Penny Square Barn, Shepton Mallet, BA4 6HE, United Kingdom, Mendip

Pub • Steak • British • Vegetarian

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"Should be so much better. 5 visits since it reopened; 1st review, as I hoped it would improve. Beautiful refurbishment, garden lovely, definitely 5 star. Unfortunately it's not run to the same standard. You rarely feel welcome. Bar offering poor, no premium lager, no sauvignon blanc, (or anything similar, no local refreshing cider. Food very hit and miss, menu looks good, but 50% of the food served is bland, not very warm and frankly disappointing. To me a major problem is the 12.5% service charge. I'm an adult, I can make up my own mind as to tip or not. On a recent visit, I went to the bar to ordered drinks, put them on our table, ordered food at the bar, paid at the bar (bill was completly wrong , so the only service was the delivery of our food from the kitchen, for which I was expected to pay 12.5% service, really??!! I want to love this pub, as it local to us and a good pub is desperately needed, but I can't, and won't return until I hear better reviews. Food: 3 Service: 2 Atmosphere: 4"

The Place

➤ Market Place, BA7 7AG, South Somerset, United Kingdom

Wine • Coffee • British • Breakfast

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"Amazing! No words can say how brilliant is this hotel. Old fashioned standards, quality, professional and friendly approach have returned. Very rarely found nowadays. On check in you are personally shown to your room. Incredible choices for breakfast .. NOT buffet style but a menu, and freshly cooked with local fayre. Joy!!! Everything done with a smile from the team. The attention to detail, the character of the property and the mission for providing top quality has been accomplished 100% Rooms: Lovely large bedroom . Huge bed, spotlessly clean. Brilliant decor to sympathetically address the character of a room in a historic building . .. throughout the hotel, the standard of decor, cleanliness etc is exemplary"