First Class Food In The Forest

Nestled in the Hampshire countryside, in the heart of New Forest National Park, half way between Southampton and Bournemouth lies the picturesque village of Brockenhurst.

Now bear with me for a short history lesson! Back in 1910 and just after his U.S. presidency ended in 1909, Theodore Roosevelt visited the U.K. as the U.S. representative at the funeral of King Edward VII and to also deliver that year’s Romanes Lecture at the University of Oxford. However, before he returned to New York in June, one of Theodore Roosevelt’s other engagements included a hosted dinner at a hotel in Brockenhurst. In 1914 the same hotel also became the General Hospital for the New Zealand and Indian military forces fighting in the First World War.

Forest Park Country Hotel

Back to the modern day and since its historic involvement, the same hotel has received a multi-million-pound renovation and is now a independently owned hotel and restaurant. Hotel director Kevin Wood and his executive head chef Mateusz Nowatkowski are now in charge of the hotel’s elegant and stylish restaurant known as The Acorn Room.

The décor in The Acorn Room embraces the national park, embodying woodland themes with large windows giving diners an outlook into the tree-lined hotel grounds and the Edible Garden, where they grow fresh produce used by the team of chefs in the kitchen.

Entering the hotel it is large and spacious and this definitely helps with all the necessary Coronavirus safety requirements that they have in place. We were taken to our table and our waitress told us the specials of the day that were in addition to the menu. The hotel supports the New Forest Marque scheme which recognises local produce that has been caught, grown, brewed, produced, processed or reared within the New Forest and the bottled water they provide is from one of these producers. On the hotel’s wine list they also feature wines from the New Forest too.

Starters

The hotel offers a wide range of starters and also salads including the mainstays such as soup of the day, baked camembert wheel, salt & pepper squid and Caesar salad, but they also had a red lentil, spinach and paneer dahl, tuna tataki, smoked mackerel croquettes and confit duck taquitos to name just a few.

We went for the tuna tataki which was recommended by the chef and the confit duck taquitos. The sashimi grade tuna was lightly seared then rolled in toasted sesame seeds and served with guacamole, fresh strawberries, red quinoa and a teriyaki sauce. I was initially in two minds regarding the strawberries and teriyaki working together, but the sweetness from the fruit bolstered the tangy and salty teriyaki making it very moreish.

The taquitos were filled with a slowly cooked confit of duck and surrounded in a wonderfully crisp shell, which gave texture to the soft confit and was served with a plum and chilli jam dipping sauce.

Mains

Once again there was a wide choice of main courses and options from The Grill. A small insight into the menu included the chef’s signature San Francisco style cioppino (a fresh fish and seafood stew), local Crow Farm bangers & mash, chef’s pie of the day, slow roasted Dorset lamb shank, rope grown mussels, Forest Park signature sweet potato and chickpea curry, 35 day aged rib eye and local venison fillet.

I choose one of the specials of the day, a Moroccan inspired cannon of lamb and my wife went for the local venison fillet. The cannon of lamb was cooked to perfection and arrived a beautiful blush pink. The Moroccan spicing was present, but lingered more at the back of your palate, which meant it didn’t overpower the lamb.

The fillet of venison came medium rare as you would expect and was served with black pudding, forest blackberries, fondant potato, seasonal vegetables and a glossy chef’s jus.

The food at Forest Park is definitely worth a trip into the New Forest, with either a walk beforehand to built up your appetite or for a very long walk afterwards to help digest all their wonderful and generous portions of first class food.