Monsal Head Hotel

I've been a little remiss this year, and not kept this blog as up to date as I should.

This weekend's fine dining really does need a mention though!

We travelled up to Monsal Head, near Bakewell in the Peak District, for a long weekend.

We had rung ahead and asked the Monsal Head Hotel if they could cater for vegans. No problem, we were told.

http://www.monsalhead.com/


Well, they really did cater well for us!

At breakfast, out came the soya milk and vitalite vegan margarine. A cooked breakfast was on offer, complete with vegan sausages, but we both plumped for the fresh fruit platter, followed by what tasted like home baked seedy bread toasted. The fresh fruit varied each morning, and was always tasty and fresh.

In the evening, we were presented with our own 100% vegan menu, with a choice of around 5 options for each of the 3 courses. Everything that we selected was well cooked, well thought out, and very tasty.
From interesting salads (no cucumber, tomato, and limp leaves in sight, but plenty of wild mushrooms, fennel, fenugreek etc...), to tasty and spicy pasta dishes (forget the usual pasta in tomato sauce, how about pasta in a butternut squash sauce with plenty of veggies and spice).
And the puddings, well, forget the usual offerings of fruit and sorbet, these were "proper" puddings, and included plum pudding and soya custard, and crumble with soya cream.

We needed our long walks over the hills to walk off the food that we consumed!!!