Tasting Menu at The Moat House, Acton Trussell
At this four-star, family-run hotel set in rural Staffordshire, I found solid modern British cooking using local and seasonal ingredients in an impressive, 14th century moated manor house.
My first visit to The Moat House Acton Trussell was in 2017 as a guest at a wedding. I was very impressed by the grounds, the luxurious overnight accommodation and enjoyed the meal served after the wedding, the evening buffet and especially the breakfast served in the Orangery Restaurant. The restaurant, also open to non-residents, is situated in a large, airy conservatory attached to a beautiful medieval manor house. Outside the conservatory windows is the Staffordshire and Worcestershire canal and we ate our excellent breakfast accompanied by views of picturesque narrow boats gliding by.
My partner, ID, is a photographer (they’re his images featured in this post) and he’s had a number of client weddings at the Moat House so is quite familiar with the place. Since my stay I’d seen lots of interesting dishes appearing on the Moat House’s social media, so we resolved to go back to the restaurant for an evening meal.
A FAMILY BUSINESS
Before going any further I should perhaps say, don’t go thinking that this Moat House is anything at all to do with the (now defunct) large hotel group of the same name. The Moat House Acton Trussell is an independent, family-owned business, part of the Staffordshire-based Lewis Partnership which also includes The Swan Hotel Stafford, The Dog & Doublet Sandon, The Red Lion Bradley and The Bank House Hixon.
The Lewis family has owned the Moat House since 1955, converting it to a restaurant and village pub in 1988. Following a series of upgrades and extensions, it’s now a four-star hotel with 41 rooms, a popular wedding and function venue as well as having an award-winning restaurant.
As you arrive at the Moat House, you’ll understand exactly why it’s so popular with couples looking for a memorable backdrop to their wedding. At its heart is the impressive, fourteenth century, grade II listed manor house with its duck, geese and swan-filled moat. As the interesting historical information on the website explains, the mound on which the house stands is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and the moat one of 6,000 built in England by the Normans to add grandeur to important aristocratic houses.
THE ORANGERY RESTAURANT
Our recent visit to the Orangery Restaurant was on a beautiful late Spring evening with some of the guests from that day’s wedding out in the gardens by the lake, enjoying a drink at the picnic tables and wandering the grounds.
To access the Orangery Restaurant, we walked into the lovely half-timbered manor house and through the attractive lounge bar with its wooden beams. We were greeted by friendly staff and were pleased to see that we had a table by the window again and so could take in the canal side views once more.
In the restaurant you can choose from the A La Carte menu, the Fixed Price menu or the Tasting Menu. There’s a separate menu for the lounge bar and a Vegetarian & Vegan menu available whether you eat in the restaurant or bar. We found lots of tempting dishes on all the menus but, wanting to sample the best of what the kitchen had to offer, we chose the Tasting Menu at £65 per person (vegetarian version £55). For an additional £30 per person you can have each course paired with an appropriate wine, although we decided on a bottle from the extensive wine list.
Before our first course from the Tasting Menu we were brought two types of good and crusty sourdough – one simply white, the other studded with flaxseeds – plus some nicely salty butter.
This was shortly followed by an amuse-bouche of Cauliflower and Coconut Velouté topped with puffed rice. The soup, as it’s French description denotes (velouté = ‘velvety’), was beautifully smooth. Its delicate golden colour was provided by nicely warming but not overpowering curry spices. The crunchy puffed rice on top was earthy and exactly the right texture to add interest to the silky soup.
SEA TROUT
The first course on the Tasting Menu was citrus cured sea trout, cockles, samphire, sea herbs and caramelised lemon purée. This dish looked like perfect late Spring/early Summer food and tasted like it too: fresh and cool with clean flavours.
Sea trout is not something I would normally choose on a menu and I haven’t eaten it that many times, but that’s the beauty of a tasting menu – in the hands of a skilled kitchen, you’ll almost always be pleased by something you might otherwise have shied away from. That was certainly the case here and I think this was the best sea trout I’ve had; the fish was firm with a good flavour but not overpoweringly strong. I loved the salty & chewy little cockles dotted about too and wish that more restaurants would feature this underrated bivalve mollusc more often.
The caramelised lemon purée was quite a revelation, the tartness of citrus mellowed by sweetness but still having enough tang to cut through the rich trout. The fresh sea vegetables were a crunchy delight.
We thought this dish a very good omen for the rest of the meal. It also inspired the accompaniments to a dinner at home I cooked a few days later: pan-fried cod and Jersey potatoes served with buttered samphire and cockles.
GOATS’ CHEESE CUSTARD
The next course was described as goats’ cheese custard, local asparagus, mushroom, hazelnut pesto. With the exception of mushrooms (which I can generally take or leave) I love all those individual elements and was pleased to see them brought together in this dish. I thought it a lovely looking plate of food and was glad to see that the custard was a firm one. If the custard had been softer, perhaps more like a savoury crème brûlée, I don’t think I would have enjoyed it half so much – not least because, skipping to the end of the Tasting Menu I could see that dessert was a ‘Burnt English cream’ i.e. crème brûlée.
I would describe the star of the plate as a mildly goaty cheese custard rather than a strongly goaty one, but it was none the worse for that. We both loved the flavour and the texture was perfectly smooth. I particularly liked the way the upper surface was lightly torched; who can resist a bit of toasty cheese?
I can’t get enough English asparagus and would be happy to eat it every day when in season so I’ve no complaints about the two sturdy specimens provided here, but I was a little disappointed about the non-appearance of the promised hazelnut pesto. Instead, we had asparagus purée. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the purée but, as regular readers of my reviews will know, one of my bugbears in restaurants is when diners aren’t informed about changes to a dish. Don’t tell me I’m getting hazelnut pesto if there isn’t any – you’ll only get me unnecessarily riled. There were little bits of hazelnut sprinkled over the custard and I thought they added good texture and flavour and more of it would have been welcome.
On a happier note, the little mushrooms (girolles I think, but I’m no fungi aficionado) appeared to have been lightly pickled and were absolutely delicious. Coming from someone who usually finds it hard to get excited one way or another about mushrooms that’s doing pretty good.
So, another very good dish: but more hazelnut, please!
QUAIL
Next to come along was the first of two meat courses: tandoori quail, quail ‘Indian Scotch egg’, cardamom carrot, lentil dahl and coriander yogurt.
The meaty, warm and spicy aromas coming off this dish were incredibly appetizing. This prompted me to note another advantage of tasting menus where everyone eats the same dish. Because my partner the photographer sometimes takes the images for me in restaurants (I’m a keen photographer but don’t have the skills to deal with the often-tricky lighting conditions and prefer to concentrate on the tasting) this means that, after I take a quick snap with my camera, I can tuck right in and leave him to worry about the more professional shots seen here. Neat eh?
Although I try to be disciplined and wait until he can start eating, with this quail dish I think I’d probably eaten at least half of it while ID was busy getting photos from all different angles. It just smelled to good to resist.
The skin on the dinky little breast and leg portions was spicily brown and crisply charred in parts. Within, the meat was moist and softly tender. In short, perfect. Both ID and I picked up in our fingers the diminutive bones to nibble at and make sure no tasty morsel of meat was left behind.
The julienne carrots on top of the breast provided a sweet and crunchy contrast to the soft meat, although I don’t recall detecting the advertised cardamom. The yolk of the Indian Scotch quail egg ran oozingly and satisfyingly out of its thin, crispy shell. The puffed rice we’d seen earlier, on the cauliflower and coconut velouté, made another welcome appearance and again provided good textural contrast atop its blob of green, herby yogurt.
SORBET
Before the next course came a glass of peach, raspberry and strawberry sorbet. Brought to us as a palate cleanser (although I find water usually does the trick) this was deliciously fruity rather than the more stringent flavour you might expect of a sorbet served in the middle of a meal. But I’m not complaining. It took me right back to childhood and the fruity, icy outer layer of the Strawberry Mivvi lollies I loved.
As we were now quite close to the end of the Tasting Menu, the perennial anxiety of the greedy diner rose its naughty head: had I eaten enough or was I going to go home hungry? Were we going to need that optional cheese course at the end to fully satisfy us?
LAMB
That worry was put to bed when the next, and in my view the best, course arrived. Described as Perrys of Eccleshall loin of lamb, lamb sweetbreads, new potato terrine, French style peas and salsa verde, this looked more like a modern British main course than one of a series of smaller courses.
Like the sea trout which had headed up the Tasting Menu, this dish spoke of Spring and Summer. The predominantly green colours gave an impression of freshness and fecundity; even the substantial hunk of spud terrine had peas and other verdant goodies studded among the lightly crushed potatoes.
The peas, with lardons of bacon, button onions and lettuce, were rich and delicious. The salsa verde, which can traditionally have various herbs to the fore, in this case had a heavy kick of mint which made me very happy indeed. Mint, along with coriander, is my favourite herb and here it also hinted at the customary lamb and mint sauce, albeit of a greatly refined standard. It also made me wonder why I don’t make salsa verde more often at home, but I’ll soon be putting that right thanks to the Moat House.
What about the lamb then? As you should expect from a highly regarded and award-winning local supplier such as Perrys of Eccleshall, the lamb was of superb quality with an excellent flavour. Cooked very pink, but certainly not underdone, the meat was tender and tasty, the little bit of fat on the outside browned and rendered just enough. For me, the lamb sweetbreads were a touch overdone, losing a little of the softness they’re known for, but I still loved their rich flavour inside the crisp bread-crumbed coating.
Drizzles of two sauces, one meaty and one the green essence of Spring, completed this outstanding dish.
DESSERT
For our final course the menu read ‘Burnt English cream, rhubarb, blood orange sorbet, short bread’. I’m pleased to say that our server indicated a change to the printed menu by helpfully emphasising the words raspberry sorbet as he set the dishes before us.
This was another beautiful looking course, the deep pink of the fruits and dark golden topping of the custard standing stark against the black of the dish.
That ‘burnt’ shell on top was just right for me with a good crackle and shatter as I broke through with a spoon, but not overly caramelized or bitter. Inside, the delicate custard was set perfectly – not too firm – and was creamy with the correct level of sweetness.
The dice of cooked rhubarb and the deeply flavoured raspberry sorbet both had exactly the right balance of sweetness and acidity with the natural flavour of the fruit rightly dominating.
If I was going to nitpick, then I’d say the light, buttery short bread might have been baked a minute or two longer, just to brown it a little more, but that’s just my personal taste.
With four savoury courses, five if you count the amuse-bouche, I felt that the Moat House Tasting Menu might be more balanced with two smaller dessert courses rather than one the size you’d expect in a three course a la carte meal. Perhaps this might be better accommodated if the sorbet course was removed, tweaked and developed into a small dessert; a mini scoop of vanilla ice cream and you’d get a proper retro nod to the Strawberry Mivvi.
However, when we booked we didn’t have to specify that we wanted the Tasting Menu so it perhaps makes sense from a planning point of view to incorporate a few larger dishes that can also be offered on the a la carte menu.
LOTS MORE TO LOOK FORWARD TO?
We thoroughly enjoyed our evening at the Moat House Acton Trussell. The tasting menu featured interesting, modern British dishes with local, seasonal ingredients. The cooking was solid and it was easy to see why both the Orangery restaurant and the lounge bar were almost completely full.
All of the staff were friendly and efficient and the atmosphere, in the restaurant as well as the bar, was unstuffy and relaxed.
As for me, I’m looking forward to sampling some of the other eateries in The Lewis Partnership chain so expect to see more reviews coming soon.
All images in this post © Ian Dakin Photography