THE PIG HOTEL- Great for a romantic couples or family luxury staycation. Excellent for a spot of an amazing foodie lunch or dinner with friends/family or the BF.
Happy hump day beautiful people. Hope everyone where ever you were you enjoyed the weekend. To my fellow Londoners how amazing was the sunshine on Bank Holiday Monday!
This week’s diarise it is all about The Pig Hotel. I was lucky enough to be invited down to tour and have lunch with some fellow bloggers at hotel and it is official I am in love with the place.
It is an amazing hideaway to escape the city of London for a perfect staycation. When life gets busy and the buzz gets too much The Pig Hotel is a perfect place to escape. Tucked away in the New Forest with lots of beautiful rolling hills is a tranquil oasis that is also a foodie paradise.
The day itself started with a tour of the gardens by the great head chef Mr James Golding. As chef cvs go, Mr Golding has worked at some fab restaurants including J Sheekey, Le Caprice and Soho House New York, so there is no doubt this head chef really does know what he is doing.
True foodies know it is rare for any great restaurant to have so many fresh ingredients growing on site. Before we even had lunch my taste buds were tantalised by the smells, colours and textures of the fresh herbs, vegetables and fruit-growing on site.
What is even better is that anything that is not grown or sourced on site, is sourced within 25 miles. 25 miles and the Pig Hotel’s own gardens produces a 25 mile menu were you literally want everything on the menu.
Despite pottering down on a Tuesday afternoon the restaurant was positively buzzing. The restaurant itself is in a light airy room with those amazing wooden tables we would all love to own.
We started off lunch with piggy bits and if this was all I had I would have left feeling delighted. The Crispy pork belly and spiced honey were amazing.
When it came to choosing my starter I was so spoilt for choice by the 25 mile menu that I ended up resorting to a silent innie minnie moe at the table. As a result of my innie and minnies I ended up choosing the Hand dived south coast scallops and streaky bacon to start.
The scallops ticked all my boxes, beautifully presented with the most amazing colours and most importantly they were tasty. In fact my scallops were so good I ate every morsel on the plate bar one piece of beetroot so as not to look like a greedy piggy.
The other starters on the table looked equally as appetising and when I am next down I am definitely going to try something else on the menu.
For my main I opted for the Fennel Roasted Fillet of Hampshire Pork and , after all it is called the Pig Hotel, so I thought it would be rude not to. Pork is not something I often have at restaurants as so many restaurants and people get it so wrong. My filet of pork was tender and my apple mash was smooth with a lovely hint of apple running through it.
PIGS IN BLANKETS
As the name suggests The Pig Hotel is a hotel. The hotel has 26 bedrooms, 16 of which are in the main house and 10 in the newly completed old stables and yards. I myself I am not really a fan of the word hotel as it doesn’t do some hotels justice. My replacement word for ‘hotel’ is a work in progress, so please do bear with me. In the meantime I would say The Pig Hotel, is warm and inviting, a place that is home from home with all the luxuries. If you want huge fireplaces, laid back, charming and fun this is the place to come.
After lunch we went to tour The Pig in the wall, which is located within southampton’s medieval walls. The Pig in the wall has 12 bedrooms and just like its sister horel has that luxury home from home feeling. Following the superb lunch we had at The Pig hotel I could have sworn an oath that there was no way I could eat another morsel of food. Wrong, wrong and wrong on so many levels.
As well as touring the gorgeous rooms at The Pig in the wall, we were offered beautiful cakes, which just screamed my name. I would love to say i resisted, but they looked far to good to say no, and also my favourite of favourites bannana cake was on offer. So i happily tucked in and I as did everyone else.
Everyone in life should have that feeling you get when you go somewhere amazing that is such an ecape from reality you just do not want to return to reality. Those types of holidays and moments in life are sometimes few and far between, so I am super happy to have experienced one last week at The Pig Hotel. Ps I loved it so much it is going to be diarise it again but this time as a pig in blankets for myself and the BF.
Live, love and learn.
xoxo
