Foodie stays: Bel & The Dragon at Kingsclere - review

Good food, great wine - and you can roll upstairs to bed afterwards
Kate Lough29 September 2016

Where is it? The pretty village of Kingsclere in Hampshire – famed for where Clare Balding's family has its racing stables. It's also only a 15 minute drive from Highclere Castle, the real life Downton Abbey.

Who’s behind it: Joel Cadbury and fellow old Etonian Ollie Vigors. Both used to be involved in the Groucho Club, and now they run the Bel and Dragon’s rapidly expanding portfolio of restaurants and rooms – of which Kingsclere is the seventh and latest opening.

What’s on the menu: Big, fat hearty dishes – created to use the most of the local British produce. Think suckling pig cooked on a rotisseries, steaks and lobster made on the pub's Josper Grill to get that smoky barbecue flavour and sharing mains like pot roast guinea fowl and rib of beef (pictured below). If you're thinking smaller, it also offers modern updates on classic comfort food such as veal spag bol, fish pie and risotto. You must save room for pudding, which again involves lots of sharing options - so wise - the apple tarte tatin was lip-smackingly good.

It's B&B style, so you can really settle into the bar after dinner for a nightcap or two, then traipse back down after a good night's kip for brunch. There's a buffet table of tea, coffee, toast, yoghurt and juice, as well as main dishes cooked to order - we loved the poached eggs on avocado with homemade bacon chutney and slabs of sourdough.

Rib of beef to share

And the drink: it’s worth noting that the Bel and Dragon group are big on their wine – so this is just as much an oenophile’s paradise as a foodie’s. The pub's house wines are currently a very good white and red Burgundy, served from a magnum and billed according to what you drink over the course of your meal. If you're really into your wine and happy to drop a bit more cash, you can get stuck into the 'From the Cellar' list, which includes some of the greatest vintages of the world's most sought after wines.

The dining room

The rooms: The nine ensuite bedrooms have a cosy, classic country feel and are slotted under various eaves and beams on the top floor of the pub. Our little room had the feeling of staying with very welcoming family friends who filled your room with vintage books, a flat TV and a Sipsmith nightcap – and who also had the added advantage of underfloor heating, a power shower and Bramble products in the otherwise ordinary bathroom.

Classic and cosy: a bedroom at Bel & The Dragon

The beds were sink-in-the-middle good and cloaked in fine White Company linens and piles of squishy pillows. If you're a light sleeper, it's worth requesting a room away from the bar and restaurant, as the noise does travel.

Any extras? Guests have access to an upstairs drawing room that full of plump sofas for reading and board game marathons. A nice touch.

Sitting room for hotel guests upstairs at Bel & The Dragon

What else can you do: In season, you could go to the races at Newbury – walk up nearby Watership Down – or, the real show stealer, have a glance around the real Downton Abbey – Highclere Castle – which is just a 15 minute drive away. And as a result, you might hear a good number of American accents around this tiny Hampshire village. Or you can just bed in by one of the many open fires with a scrabble board, like we did.

How do you get there: It's an easy 45 minute train from London Waterloo to Basingstoke, and then it's a 15 minute taxi to Kingsclere. Alternatively, it's a 1 hour 15 minute drive from central London.

Price: Mains from £12 and rooms from £115 ; belandthedragon-kingsclere.co.uk

Follow Kate on Twitter @kate_lough and Instagram @kateloughtravel

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in