There’s a kind of quiet confidence that lingers in the air at Dormy House. Maybe it’s the honeyed stone warmed by late afternoon sun, or the way the hills seem to fold into each other just beyond the terrace. Set on the Farncombe Estate, a sweep of lush private land just outside Broadway, the hotel doesn’t shout. It doesn’t need to.
Instead, it invites.
This spring, that invitation takes the form of a new seasonal menu at Back Garden, Dormy House’s signature restaurant. Less a dining room and more an extension of the landscape it inhabits, Back Garden offers something increasingly rare: a meal that feels truly of its place. Here, the clink of a glass or the arrival of a dish doesn’t interrupt the view, it blends into it.
Back Garden has long been a favourite among those who prefer their gastronomy with a sense of perspective. Not in the intimidating, multi-course, culinary-theatre sense, but in something subtler. Something more considered. The kitchen, led by Head Chef Mathieu Blanchard, is quietly serious about provenance. Ingredients arrive from names spoken of with familiarity and fondness, Paddock Farm, Billy’s Eggs, day boats moored in Cornish harbours, each folded into menus that feel like a conversation with the land.
The new offerings are elegant without posturing. A courgette and basil risotto is lifted by barrel-aged feta and a tomato salad that tastes as though it was picked five minutes before plating. Red mullet, bright with the promise of the coast, is joined by mussels, squid and a saffron parmesan rouille that lands like a final brushstroke. And there’s a Stokes Marsh Farm steak, naturally, paired with smoked garlic butter and rosemary fries that quietly insist you abandon restraint.
Dessert arrives with the kind of unfussy delight only the English countryside can deliver: sticky toffee and Braeburn apple cake, softened by clotted cream ice cream. It is the sort of dish that makes you momentarily question why you’d ever eat anything else.
There is a separate vegan menu too, full of inventive and plant-forward dishes that are rooted in the same philosophy: work with what’s fresh, treat it with care, and let it speak.
Blanchard, whose presence in the kitchen is as precise as his plates, puts it plainly: “After months of creativity and care in the kitchen, we’re delighted to unveil our new menu. Crafted with passion and designed to delight, we hope guests enjoy exploring it.” It sounds like something written on a board in a small village bakery. And that’s exactly why it rings true.
Of course, any meal at Dormy House is part of a broader experience. With 39 individually designed rooms and suites, the hotel is a masterclass in English comfort with Scandinavian restraint. The House Spa, perhaps one of the finest in the region, pairs an infinity-edged pool with a multisensory thermal suite that seems to press pause on time itself. This isn’t so much a getaway as a soft exhale.
In an era when luxury can too often equate to excess, Dormy House reminds us that there is richness in rhythm. That food tastes better when it’s grown nearby. That rest feels deeper when you can hear the wind through the trees. And that the finest experiences are often the quietest ones.
The Back Garden doesn’t seek to impress. It seeks to nourish. And this spring, it does so beautifully.
