Restaurants in Rutland: Hambleton Hall
Enjoying a formidable reputation as Rutland’s Michelin-starred dining room, Hambleton Hall this month celebrates 45 years of exceptional service, enjoyable dishes and lovely accommodation. It remains a great example of what a luxurious country house hotel should offer
Hambleton Hall is certainly excellent, but excellence is nothing without consistency, too. Happily, the country house hotel possesses both qualities, in abundance. As Pride goes to press, Hambleton Hall celebrates its 45th anniversary and it certainly deserves to mark the milestone since celebrations to recognise its 40 years as the area’s most esteemed country house hotel were curtailed by lockdown.
Five years on though, and there’s nothing to stop the team raising a glass to Tim & Stefa Hart who transformed Walter Gore Marshall’s 19th century hunting lodge into one of the country’s most respected country house hotels, inviting in guests to join them for dinner and providing comfortable accommodation from 1st July 1980.
Tim & Stefa had fallen in love with Michel Guerard’s Les Prés d’Eugénie in France which inspired them to appoint maverick chef Nick Gill (brother of late Sunday Times restaurant critic AA Gill) to develop a fine dining restaurant that would draw the crowds. It also inspired them to join Relais & Chateâux as one of its first UK member hotels.
Also working in the kitchen was Aaron Patterson who, after a few years working with Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir Aux Quat’Saisons, returned in 1992 to Hambleton Hall, this time as its Head Chef. He still leads a brigade of 16 chefs and provides one of the most sought-after places in the country for up and coming talent to train.
Hambleton Hall was first awarded a Michelin Star in 1982 and proudly holds the record as the longest retained star in the UK. It has also retained 4 AA Rosettes for decades as well as winning almost every accolade there is, including two Michelin keys for the quality of its accommodation.
Other awards include recognition in the Good Hotel Guide, awards from the AA for Hambleton Hall’s Notable Wine List and its Housekeeper of the Year award, plus annual placement in Harden’s Top 100 Restaurants.
Hambleton Hall has been led by an exceptional General Manager, Chris Hurst, for the past 23 years. As Pride goes to press Chris retires, but will return, we hope, as a guest… Tim & Stefa praise him warmly as ‘cheery and immaculate,’ and everyone wishes him the very best for his retirement!
Chris, and other long-standing members of the team, have collectively worked at Hambleton Hall for over 125 years. This has provided a stability of leadership directly reflected in its ability to provide consistency and familiarity, especially with the hotel’s regular guests when they inevitably return.
Meanwhile Tim & Stefa’s exceptional team also afford the two of them more time to greet guests personally and oversee their respective areas of interest and talent. For Tim that’s the 17 acres of grounds surrounding the hotel, managed with a team of groundskeepers who work hard to present diners with a spectacular parterre which can be admired from the drawing room and dining room. Falling away from the terrace towards the water, it’s a very impressive sight and a lovely place to enjoy apéritifs in the warmer months.
Stefa’s interest in creating classically-styled interiors has enabled her influence to be reflected in the communal spaces of the hotel, as well as its 17 bedrooms, which are a comfortable and well-appointed antithesis of corporate design or soulless hotels in the city. Staying in one of Hambleton Hall’s rooms is an experience more akin to being a guest in a good friend’s home. The place is well run and as impeccable as one would expect, too, thanks to the reception and housekeeping teams.
Daytime diners at Hambleton Hall can choose a Lunch for Less menu with a choice of two starters, main courses and desserts for £58/£73 for two or three courses respectively, whilst the three course à la carte menu offers five options for £135. Aaron and the team also offer a very good vegetarian menu to which as much consideration is given, ensuring those with dietary preferences are never an afterthought.
Evening diners enjoy a daily-changing à la carte menu, £135, comprising five options, per course and a couple of special options in ‘gourmet corner,’ for which a supplement is justified given their deployment of premium ingredients such as Oscietra caviar.
A dedicated Sunday lunch menu provides three courses for £98.50, with a flagship traditional Roast Sirloin dish featuring Hambleton Farms beef.
Whilst the need for quality and consistency and to source some speciality ingredients necessitates looking further than Rutland’s borders, Aaron prefers to make the most of local suppliers, but the hotel also benefits from its one-acre kitchen garden from which the team produce speciality vegetables and herbs. And of course, another of the hotel’s local supplier is Hambleton Bakery, the sister company founded by Tim and former Hambleton Hall pastry chef Julian Carter in 2008.
Keeping an eye on the restaurant’s list of forthcoming events is advisable too, as Hambleton Hall has regular wine tasting events with sommelier Dominique and visiting chefs, the most noteworthy in recent years having been Aaron’s ebullient former colleague Raymond Blanc who remains a good friend of both Aaron and of Hambleton Hall.
On 8th October, Chris Denney – another of Aaron’s protegés – will return to the hotel as a visiting chef. October will also see a Mushroom Hunt with participants enjoying a lesson in foraging. The hotel also has a partnership with PalmerSport every October and offers a performance driving day and dinner with participants experiencing some of the most prodigious vehicles and driving tuition on a closed track.
45 years on and Hambleton Hall is aging like the fine wine it pairs with its lovely dishes. It’s always recommended, always exceptional and it’s always friendly and welcoming too.
Hambleton Hall Hotel
The Restaurant: “Purchased in 1979 by Tim & Stefa Hart and opening as a country house hotel in 1980, Hambleton Hall is a luxurious home from home, renowned for impeccable service with elegantly-designed rooms and Michelin-starred cuisine.”
Opening Hours: Lunchtime and evening service, seven days 12 noon – 1.30pm, 6pm – 9pm.
17 beautifully appointed and individually decorated rooms and suites from £425/night.
Contact: Hambleton Hall, Ketton Road, Oakham, Rutland LE15 8TH. Call 01572 756991 or see www.hambletonhall.com.
Read the full feature in our August edition, available now at https://www.pridemagazines.co.uk/stamford/view-magazines?magazine=August-2025