The Salutation

Sandwich, Kent

An Edwin Lutyens-designed country house hotel set amid award-winning gardens makes the perfect setting for Shane Hughes’s menu that celebrates modern British small plates. After aperitifs in the grand drawing room – all sketches, greenery and white linen – first-rate cuisine emerges from his kitchen and arrives in three laid-back dining rooms that are looking bright and fresh after a sweeping refurbishment. At lunch, expect a cornucopia of tapas-style dishes including smoked garlic bread, lightly pickled beetroot with goat’s curd, crisp salt cod, slithers of Kentish jamón and devilled potatoes in a raclette-like fondue. All are excellent. For something more substantial, be led by Hughes’s kitchen garden with tart citrus salad and horseradish espuma and bantam egg in teriyaki, or blushing venison dressed with sweet confit onions and Brussels sprouts. The Kentish cured and smoked rainbow trout is not to be missed, either. The vibrant ingredients are sourced from local suppliers surrounding the medieval town, which comes through in their flavour. It beats a sandwich any day. www.thesalutation.com