Lainston House Hotel

This was the ideal venue for us to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The staff were very friendly and helpful and the accommodation was excellent. A tv in the shower room was certainly a first for us! The bed was very comfortable and we were able to sit by the window and gaze out at the surrounding landscape. Our room overlooked an avenue of lime trees with views of hills in the distance. After taking a leisurely stroll through the extensive grounds and kitchen garden we headed for the cocktail bar where our evening got off to an excellent start. We chose The Experience dinner for our evening meal and were very impressed with the quality of the cuisine - delicious snacks and bread preceded our starters. The main course - turbot - was beautifully prepared and well-presented as were our desserts. Breakfast was also very good. There was a good selection of fruit, yoghurts, cereals and croissants and several options for the main course from the full English to poached egg and smoked trout on a muffin (fennel added to the flavour). There was plenty of parking and easy access from the A34.

Afternoon Tea - lovely location, friendly staff, gorgeous food. Delicious glass of English pink prosecco. Cakes that exploded with flavour. FAB grounds. Whats not to love. We are coming back!

My wife was attending a Masterclass with Andrej Urosevic and Tom Hamblet at the Seasons Cookery school last week, so we decided to make a two night stay out of it and enjoy the hospitality of the hotel as well as dinner in The Avenue one night and The Wellhouse the other. The whole experience was absolutely wonderful. The hotel is a beautiful building and very elegantly yet comfortably appointed throughout, the meals were both fabulous but what made the whole experience a step above most other luxury hotels was the staff. Everyone we encountered, both in planning and during our stay, was the epitome of excellent customer service. Everyone was warm, welcoming, knowledgeable and keen to do whatever it took to make our experience as good as it could be. Mostly though they were as personable as they were professional. First class service without any of the stuffiness that one experiences in some other high end hotels. From reception to wait staff, the sommelier to housekeeping, everyone went out of their way to make our stay memorable. Tom Hamblet's food was exquisite. The 8 course tasting menu, with a fabulous wine pairing was just fantastic. And the cookery course that Tom and Andrej put on was, my wife tells me, also absolutely first rate. She has attended several such classes delivered by some of the finest chefs in the country but Tom to be the most engaged and hands-on of all of them His incredible knowledge, shared in a very humble and digestible manner left attendees buzzing with excitement to try out their new found skills. We will definitely return to enjoy future stays at Lainston House and also more courses at Season cookery school.