Vineyard At Stockcross

The Vineyard restaurant is a beautiful setting with beautiful food that tastes as good as it looks. Fantastic service and a fantastic wine list.

My husband and I had supper here a couple of weekends ago for his birthday, and I though the food was absolutely stunning! Great wine lists and I thought the service was of the highest order.
Although it was quite expensive, it was worth every penny and very much deserves the Michelin stars and other awards it has recieved. I shall definately be returning in the near future, many thanks for a great experience.

The visit to the Vineyard for my birthday meal had a slightly strange timing, coming as it did on April Fools’ Day and not on my birthday! It did make me feel a bit like the queen, having 2 birthdays!
The Vineyard had been on my foodie radar for awhile, from the days of chef John Campbell who held 2 Michelin stars here. So, when I started dating my girlfriend who lives in Newbury, she organised to take me here for a celebration dinner.
The hotel and restaurant is definitely a dress up sort of venue and walking past the bowls of flames on the outdoor pond and through the automatic front doors made it feel like a special occasion. The whole place has light coloured décor with modern accents, which removes the air of over-​bearing starchiness that can pervade some fine dining venues.
We elected to have drinks while perusing the menu and 2 glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice were accompanied by some moreish canapes — large mild Ligurian olives, salted almonds and some savoury straws.
Chef Daniel Galmiche has his hand on the tiller in the kitchen these days. He is described on the Vineyard’s website as the king of contemporary French cooking, which are a big pair of shoes to fill. A lovely touch came at the end of the evening when he came round the dining room to meet the diners and have a short chat. He gave us a tip on how best to eat our dessert course.
The menu has 4 choices in each of the starter, main course and dessert sections. It covers both meat and seafood and perhaps a couple more choices in each section would have been nice.
After making our choice of food and wine, we were shown to our table. I have to say that the service from what seemed to be an exclusively French brigade was top-​notch and very smooth and unobtrusive throughout the evening.
We had an amuse-​bouche of goat’s cheese straw with beetroot tagliatelli and avocado mousse. A good idea with balance of flavours but the cheese straw proved hard to break down into small enough pieces to complement the beetroot.
My starter of scallops in an oriental broth yielded top class sweet scallops cooked to perfection but the oriental accents were perhaps a little muted for my palate — however, with scallops this good, the accents were perhaps missed less. My girlfriend’s starter of foie gras terrine was lovely and rich but the portion size was quite large — I helped to polish the dish off.
For mains, I had Balmoral Estate venison fillet cooked to medium rare perfection accompanied by my favourite ingredient in the world — seared foie gras. Top notch ingredients cooked perfectly accompanied by salsifi, butternut squash and quince to help cut through the richness. The girlfriend had a plate of veal — slow cooked rack, braised shin and sweetbread. Again, well cooked but quite a large portion size.
This meant that we had to share a pudding, both being unable to manage a whole one on our own. The girlfriend chose well — blackcurrant soufflé with licorice ice cream. Chef Galmiche’s tip was true — to get the full effect of the flavour combination, you had to eat the soufflé and ice cream in the same mouthful. The soufflé was really intensely flavoured with blackcurrant.
I also have to make mention of the pianist who entertained us through the evening. He was very friendly, giving me the name of a piece he was playing that I particularly enjoyed and taking requests.
We had a lovely evening here — great ambiance and venue for a celebration or date. The food is good and with a little tweaking of choice and portion size, it could be great.

One word… AMAZING! This truly lives up to its name, As a couple, we went for a spa evening for two including one 55 minute treatment, dinner and champagne. The food was outstanding, the spa facilities and treatment was very professional, would definately recommend and will be purchasing a gift voucher for future occasions.

Beautiful array of gastronomic delights in a luxurious, sophisticated but very friendly and welcoming setting.
For a special treat or if you are just very rich, excellent place. (For a rainy Thursday on a normal week, get a Tesco £10 meal deal, stay in and pay the difference off your mortgage.)
Highly recommended.

Had a lovely Mothers Day meal here — great food fantastic friendly service.
Had to shut my eyes when the bill arrived, but I am sure it was worth every penny.
Will definitely be going back.

An anniversary dinner, and two plebs more accustomed to somewhat cheaper venues. Champagne at 12 quid a glass was an early warning I’d probably need a secondary mortgage before the evening was out.
The amuse bouche was blah, some small morsel totally overpowered with salty Parmesan foam and all in all it completely failed to amuse my bouche. My starter was a decent game terrine, and this was a real experience in rich game flavours, best taken with a little of the excellent bread offered by a hysterically camp waiter. The wine list was more of a wine lexicon, I opened it at random under the nervous-​making critical eye of the sommelier and saw a Château Margaux for £1700 Luckily the spasm this induced in my wallet hand caused the massive tome to flip open at a section of budget wines — we chose a perfectly adequate rose wine for around £25 which cheered me up a little.
My partner, already rendered dewy-​eyed by the pink champagne and the opulent restaurant décor, was very happy with her main course of sea bass while I was OK with my selection of beef cheeks off the seasonal menu, although truth be told the somewhat gamey flavours were a bit much after the game starter I had enjoyed. Also the thought of some poor ox wandering the fields of West Berkshire with pursed lips and a puckered up face just so I could enjoy two golf ball-​sized nuggets of stewing beef was a bit much.
The cheese platter was interesting, I asked our wait-​person for a selection of hard cheeses, being opposed on principle to the squishy mould-​covered nonsense cheeses from our trans-​Channel neighbours. They always remind me of bad bronchitis, what with the texture and the penicillin taste. The chutney was nice, biscuits OK if a bit poncey (dyed black with squid ink, or made verdant green by adding spirogyra or something) and I did get a decent cheddar among the five small pieces of cheese.
All in all my wife was happy and I escaped with a moderate £200 mauling of my clenched wallet.
Definitely the kind of restaurant visit I’d only repeat occasionally, mostly on price grounds, but gents, your lady partner will love the experience as long as you refrain from shrieking at the prices. It’s designed for that sybaritic feel, and a cuddly taxi ride home later.

This is a beautiful 5 star hotel in Newbury — just outside the town. I was lucky and stayed here on a work do and our bedroom was amazing. It is very traditional and 5 star servic all the way! The breakfast in the morning was excellent — allow plenty of time! a Michelin breakfast!

Absolutely amazing.
We stayed here for a weekend for a Valentines Day treat. The hotel was lovely, the spa very relaxing, but the best reason to come here would be the food. In fact, you could just skip the whole hotel thing so long as you can sucker someone in to driving home (or get a taxi).
The friendly maitre d’ greets you enthusiastically upon arrival and summons the discreet and charming sommelier. With a name like The Vineyard, you know to expect wine, but the reams of paper that contain the wine menu are just breathtaking. Every nuance of taste and knowledge are catered for, or you can merely leave your choices in the capable hands of the sommelier, who, with a discreet wink to how much you intend on spending, will guide you through the perfect accompaniments to your chosen dishes.
Then comes the restaurant. You are led into a delicate tiered room bedecked with a baby grand and a talented pianist to add to the atmosphere. Outside, flames burn around the central courtyard fountain, echoing the soft glow of the intimate lighting inside. The menu is astonishing and should come laminated to prevent the odd Pavlovian accident. Even the most decisive of people can find themselves giddy at what to order. There is of course a tasting menu to reassure you, should the vital decision elude you. But whatever you pick, the rapturous praise you will bestow upon what you receive will be the same.
This is gastronomy. This is the reason the French can no longer justifiably sniff at English cuisine. And I went there when it only had one Michelin star. Since my visit, another has been awarded, and the praise has more than doubled.
As for cost, who the hell cares? When the food is this good, you just pay the bill and worry about your knees at a later date.