Food

Farmington Village - Food

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Several villagers have suggested that we share our eating out experiences.
La Vigna, Eagle & Child, 947AD, The Langton, Old Butchers

We are so lucky to live in an area that abounds with restaurants of all genres.

Come on - you must have a favourite, so tell us about it. Email your comments to FarmingtonGlos@gmail.com

So we went into Stow and fell uponLa Vigna, a Mediterranean Bistro, which is attached to the Grapevine Hotel, Sheep Street (tel.01451 832663). Mainly pasta, pizza, tapas & meze. Food was freshly cooked and hot. Wine most drinkable and prices reasonable. The ambience is warm and cosy, and the attitude was great. Thoroughly recommend it for a casual evening meal - http://www.vines.co.uk/la_vigna.html

From Lorna Marshall:
A second vote for La Vigna, the brasserie attached to the Grapevine Hotel. The great advantage of this little brasserie is that the food comes from the kitchen which also serves the more expensive restaurants in the hotel, supervised by the same chef, Anthony Bennett. The quality is very good, the service attentive and the prices very reasonable indeed. We enjoyed a delicious lunch there with friends all of whom enjoyed their meal.

A similar situation applies across the way at the Royalist Hotel. There the Eagle and Child is now a brasserie with a really interesting menu from the main hotel kitchen, at very reasonable prices: starters from £3.80 to £5.95 and main courses from £10.95 to £12.95.
Booking is probably a good idea at the weekend.
The main restaurant in the hotel is the 947 AD Restaurant. The restaurant is beautifully minimalist and modern set within the ancient mediaeval stone walls, with a fine stone fireplace at each end of the room. It is just the right size and the old and new work together admirably.
The dinner menu is not cheap: two courses at £28.50, 3 courses at £34.50 but includes delicious and imaginative dishes. Starters include stilton panacotta with carpaccio of beef; smoked salmon with warm caper berries and bitter lemon jelly. The main course menu had meat choices of lamb, venison and duck and fish choices of seabass or mackerel. Each is accompanied by mouth watering combinations of flavours and ours were beautifully presented. The price includes those delicious extras; an amuse-bouche appetizer to start with, petit fours with coffee. The patisserie chef not only makes desserts to die for, but home made chocolates, truffles and other waist-expanding delicacies. Irresistible. Their cheese board is mainly the best of English cheese with 3 or 4 locally made, including Cotswold white and blue, made in Lower Slaughter. The service was charming, very professional and unstuffy - just what I like.
At lunch time they do 2 courses for £12.95 and 3 courses for £16.95 which sounds like excellent value. I'm waiting for an excuse for lunch there.
Highly recommended.

The Penders recommend The Langton,
London Road, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham - 01242 258941
http://www.thelangton.co.uk/

This is a stylish bistro style pub/brasserie - ideal for a lunch on the way in to Cheltenham in Charlton Kings, just after the shops on the left . Recently refurbished and offers both light and more hearty dishes to suit all appetites.

This historical Regency building has been renovated and now combines a unique blend of organic, new and old features throughout. It is open plan with stylish interiors that feature teak, copper, leather and granite finished furniture and artifacts.
The new menu is simple but up-to-the-minute, with lots of comfort appeal, with homely things like pizza, steaks and pasta as well as contemporary, global touches to keep things lively. The wine list contains well known favourites, alongside little numbers from around the world.
The Langton has 10 different beers on tap ranging from standard lagers, to European speciality beers, such as Leffe and Erdinger, as well as great cask ales, like the award-winning Timothy Taylor Landlord.

The atmosphere at the Langton is relaxed, friendly and informal, while the overall impression is of a pub which is comfortable, light and open.

The Old Butchers, Stow-on-the-Wold.
7 Park Street, Stow-on-the-Wold (01451 831 700)
Chris Colton

This restaurant enjoys a high profile at present, thanks to articles in the press, such as Jay Rayner's, it is not without its critics. I fear that I have joined that band. Undoubtedly the food is absolutely first rate and we had a wonderful meal. There it ended.
On arrival, we were summarily pointed to our table, to which the pretty young lady behind the reception bar did not trouble to escort us. We sat at a table for four that was cramped, to say the least. The front of house senior then asked us to tighten up our chairs even more as some of the waiting staff were not very slim - true!
The white wine was placed on the table is a ghastly orange plastic ice bucket with a Moët logo, for which there was scant room and which we eventually had to put it on the floor: not long before it was kicked over and spilt water, ice cubes and a very pleasant Pinot Grigio around our feet and beneath the adjacent table.
We had booked for 6.45pm and were firmly reminded that the table was required by 8.45pm, when we should be expected to leave (we had already agreed this when we booked and been reminded by telephone that very morning). Our every request was greeted by an intensely irritating "No problem" - over and over and over. It became the only joke of the evening. Of course we were not a problem - we were customers ordering food from a menu in a restaurant - why should that be a problem? What ever happened to "It's a pleasure", or "Certainly"?
Jay Rayner commented on the music, so I shall say no more on that subject. Others, at the adjacent table, were equally dissatisfied with the front of house attitude that left us feeling tolerated, rather than valued as clients. The management have crammed in far too many tables - it's heaving, loud and serves good food with ill grace. Neither we, nor our gastronomic neighbours, will be returning. What a pity to sequester a first class chef, Peter Robinson, in such a rude, mercenary and uncomfortable eatery! I hope that they read this and take note - but I doubt it.