Date Night at The Stables Restaurant at The Grove, Hertfordshire

Described on google maps as a ‘Ritzy Country Hotel’, the Grove Hotel is located just off the M25, on the northern edge of Watford, in an area called Chandlers Cross. Guests have included movie stars, world famous musicians, footballers and politicians who favour the hotel for its private location, set within a 300 acre estate, but with a convenient proximity to London.

The good news is you don’t need to be a guest of the hotel to enjoy its fantastic restaurants, The Glasshouse offers a spectacular buffet experience and is more high end, The Stables, which has a more relaxed environment, serving A La Carte options and Madhu’s which boasts an ‘elevated South Asian dining experience’. In addition, visitors can enjoy sushi in the hotel lounges, light bites in the spa plus a variety of pop up dining experiences that take place throughout the year. This month an immersive festive pop up restaurant, Feast Over Flame is taking place at The Grove’s Walled Garden.

Hubby and I recently had a very long overdue date night at The Stables, an intimate restaurant with a country style décor, with nods to the building’s history as the estate’s 18th Century stable block. It’s located at the back of the hotel and attached to the golf house.

The restaurant serves seasonal British produce, many of which come from the hotel’s own kitchen garden. The current menu will be available until the end of January, when the restaurant closes for refurbishment and will re-open at the end of March 2023.

Other diners appeared to be hotel guests, couples and families, the menu includes kid’s options so a meal here might be a lovely add on to a trip to Harry Potter studio tour, which is just a few minutes up the road. Luckily for us though, we had a babysitter booked so got to enjoy a lovely long dinner, with no talk of Minecraft or how many sleeps ’til Christmas!

I chose the smoked salmon to start and was amazed at the size of the portion. I dived in too quickly and forgot to take a picture when it first arrived so you will to take my word for it that the presentation was great too. Phil had the scallops and pork belly which was out-of-this world good and caused serious starter envy, a trip here is worth it just for this dish.

The Cornish sea bass was my choice of main, a delicious fairly light dish, perfect after such as large starter. Phil opted for Angus 41-day ages fillet steak, a satisfyingly large portion to compliment his more delicate first course.

There is a great choice of deserts, featuring some British favourites such as trifle, fruit crumble and sticky toffee crumble, however my eyes were drawn to the cheese menu which boasts a wonderful English and Welsh selection. I’ll definitely need to come back to work my way through all offerings.

The Stables is somewhere you come for a leisurely meal so I would recommend allowing at least 2.5 hours if you are having three courses. We had a wonderful evening and are already looking forward to returning in the spring once the renovations are complete and the new menu is launched.