Table Talk REVIEW
1907 Restaurant By Amanda Menahem
T
he Brooklands Hotel is a striking
target markets are business folk and petrol-
prosecco jelly and sourdough’ (£8.95). Our
example of modern architecture – by
head tourists; Mercedes Benz World and
dining guest ordered ‘Rosary Ash goats cheese
which I mean it’s all a little bit ‘airport’,
Brooklands Racing Museum are on the same
and pears poached and grilled, crisp and
both inside and out. This is not necessarily a
site. Our publisher, Maarten, somewhat of a
dressed’ (£7.50).
criticism. Personally, I rather like Heathrow’s
petrol head himself, will be reviewing the hotel
Terminal 5.
in full in a subsequent issue, so I’ll leave all the
The hotel has received the accolade of one of the Sunday Times Top-100 ‘best small companies to work for’. As an ex-HR
non-food detail and history to him (it’s really not my bag…). And so, on to the food... We had a very promising start. We had met
My venison carpaccio was tiny. I was immediately disappointed. The carpaccio took up less space than an iPhone 5 and was smothered in a dollop of the celeriac remoulade. There was a barely discernible
Director with first-hand experience of this
with the charming Italian General Manager
crushed hazelnut (it can only have been one)
award, I know this is no mean feat. Nor is it a
earlier and Maarten happened to mention his
sprinkled across. There was no evidence of
meaningless bauble. The link between happy
fondness for Chablis. Lo and behold, as we
any mushroom. The carpaccio and remoulade
staff and happy customers is an obvious one,
were seated by the window, with fabulous
were both pretty good, but there just wasn’t
but for some reason I can’t fathom, it is often
views of the Mercedes track, a bottle of
enough of it and there were elements missing.
Chablis had been placed on ice beside us. A
I had finished it within two bites and had to
nice touch, and one that I assume epitomizes
sit while my dining companions continued to
the service philosophy, listening carefully to
eat their more substantial starters. Baffling.
are clearly happy in their jobs and service
customers and striving to delight and exceed
I called over the waitress to ask where the
is attentive and charming, with a genuine
expectations.
mushrooms were. She had to go and speak to
neglected in the hospitality industry. Not at The Brooklands. The team here
desire to please. I was relieved to find that the restaurant itself holds two AA rosettes. Restaurants in venues like these are so often disappointing. This being an ideal meeting venue, the
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As a game lover, I chose ‘venison carpaccio with celeriac remoulade, mushrooms, and hazelnuts’ (£9.50), a great-sounding combination of some of my favourite things. Maarten chose ‘duck liver parfait with
the chef and then returned to say that they should have been under the remoulade. They weren’t. The goat’s cheese salad was also something of a conundrum. It was cold goat’s cheese on