From the moment you step through the front doors of The Pig near Bath you become mesmerised by its story.
The hotel’s 25 mile menu is a vow to source as many ingredients as possible from within a 25-mile radius.
Indeed many of the items that arrive on your plate are actually from more like 25 metres away in the kitchen garden.
Slip on a pair of the Hunter wellies by the front door and take a wander down to see the colourful herbs, vegetables and flowers for yourself.
Guests can feel free to explore the greenhouses and even chat to the gardeners about how the fruit and vegetables inform the hotel’s menu choices.
The rooms
In each of the 29 bedrooms you will find assorted furnishings, great beds, oversized showers, ‘larders’ stocked with snacks and Nespresso machines.
We stayed in a hideaway in the grounds of the hotel – a separate, secluded building overlooking the gorgeous kitchen garden.
It is spread over two floors, with a small bedroom downstairs but an exquisite bathroom taking up the entire top floor.
Sit in the bath and listen to the sounds of the countryside, brush your teeth while looking at rolling acres of land and wake up in the extremely comfortable four poster bed to see the deer running about outside.
The food
The restaurant at this great hotel is unlike anything I have ever seen before.
Greenhouse like surroundings with bare wood tables – this is clever simplicity.
Cheerful, knowledgeable waiting staff wearing pink shirts and Converse trainers subtly buzz around and fellow diners will stop you to tell you how much they admire the food and venue.
Before we tucked in we shared some ‘piggy bits’ – of which the highlight was most definitely the hockeggs with Coleman’s dressing. The gooey egg centres mixed with the breadcrumb coating was to die for.
To start I had James Golding’s home smoked salmon, which was actually smoked in the grounds – beautifully tasty.
My dining partner had new season tomato and garden lovage soup – which also really packed a punch when it came to fresh flavours.
For the main course we had the chargrilled pork belly and homemade bbq sauce – a plate of sticky loveliness that melted in my mouth and left me so ‘satisfied’ that I simply could not make room for one of the lovely looking desserts on the menu.
However, I did make room for one of Johnny’s great cocktails – hats off to the Margarita.
Also really fascinating was Johnny’s infused gins and vodkas, with many of the ingredients sourced from the gardens. Takes homegrown to a whole other level.
