Refined food is cut above rest

There’ll be 18,794 weddings at Hadley Park House this year. OK, maybe not that many. But there’ll be more than you can shake a stick at. And there’ll be 10,943 business meetings, or something like that.

The country house hotel on the edge of Telford with its vast glass, conservatory-like restaurant is one of Telford’s premier destinations for weddings and business. It’s got delightful grounds, ample meeting rooms and sits on the edge of Telford’s business parks and estates. So on any given day in spring, summer – and, for that matter, autumn and winter – you can expect brides and grooms, in-laws and best mates to be there in abundance. It fuses the classic and the contemporary, the dreamy and the utilitarian.

But its reputation for meetings, celebrations and corporate shindigs obscures another function. Hadley Park also has a more than decent restaurant that is frequently overlooked by those who associate it only with glitzy events.

It’s set up to run for 16-hours a day, serving breakfasts through to lunches, gluten-free afternoon teas, a lounge menu and dinner. And despite the perennial focus on weddings and business dos, the restaurant does a particularly good job.

It’s improved in recent times under the tutelage of accomplished head chef Kev Fellows, a man who loves the big, robust flavours created by such cooks as Tom Kerridge. His cooking is precise and well-seasoned, unfussy and unpretentious. His dinners are served in the hotel’s restaurant, Dorrell’s, which is lighter and airier than a row of greenhouses. A large, glass-framed space, with plenty of space between tables, it’s provides a pleasant environment for dining. It presently attracts one AA rosette, though punches above its weight and measures up to other Shropshire venues that have two.

The menu is a mix of classics and staples, of crowd-pleasers and dishes that are a little more creative. While Kev doesn’t steer too far away from a tried-and-tested formula, there’s enough variety for him to show his skills and offer courses that push the envelope and reflect the best of local, seasonal ingredients, served with panache.

Service is pretty good too. The waiter/restaurant manager who was working the floor when my friend and I enjoyed a midweek dinner was thoroughly accomplished. Confident and charming, he ticked every box: providing information about the menu, asking whether the food was to our liking and making polite conversation while being engaging but unobtrusive throughout. His experience and confidence shone through.

We arrived at the start of dinner service and the Dorrell’s lounge was buzzing with a large party of business types who were talking about that day’s deals and were filling the room with breathless chat and particularly bright shirts. Bless those businessmen and their fashionista quirks.

Dorrell’s offers a range of menus. There are classic starters, like chicken liver parfait and twice-baked goat’s cheese soufflés; salads, risotto and pasta dishes, from smoked haddock kedgeree to nicoise and Caesar salads; while mains include a range of steaks, burgers, hot sandwiches and more.

Compliment

My friend and I, however, opted for Fellow’s seasonal menu, which allows his brigade to bring their knowledge and experience to complement the local produce they source. Those ingredients come from butcher Andy Woolley, who sources beef from Red House Farm and Hawcroft Grange, lamb from Red House Farm and Dawtry Cottage, pork from Hall Farm and Buttercross Farm. There’s fruit and vegetables from Rowlands & Co, salads and leaves from Leaves of the Valley, eggs from Hollowdene Farm, cheese from Mr Moyden’s and dairy from Wells Dairy.

My friend started with a ham and pea number; featuring a delicious, sweet and salty terrine filled with moist and tender chunks of pork. Our conversation fell momentarily quiet as he manfully disposed of the lot. It was, he said, a particularly enjoyable way to begin.

I started with a lamb kofta with Bombay potatoes and swishes of yoghurt and dressing. The kofta was beautifully cooked, scorched on the outside but still a little pink within. The Bombay potatoes were cut into the smallest cubes, like Lilliputian dice, and perhaps a little over-spiced. The yoghurt and dressings added balance and turned down the heat on an otherwise well-judged and well-seasoned dish. And the presentation, for both of us, was a delight.

Our mains were similarly enjoyable. In keeping with the if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it them, my friend opted for an 8oz sirloin steak with tomatoes, mushroom, herb butter, hand cut chips, rocket and parmesan. It was cooked precisely as he’d asked and a thoroughly accomplished version. The meat was tender and big on flavour, the chips crisp and golden, the garnish full of colour and good intent.

My main was equally good. Two pieces of venison loin were served with deliciously satisfying boulangère potatoes, green leaves and a delightful and intense jus. The meat was wonderfully pink, the jus sticky and flavoursome while the garnish had been cooked with precision and skill. It was a perfectly good dish.

We took a brief pause before moving onto desserts. My friend ate a deconstructed Eton mess, a wonderful agglomeration of cream, meringue, soft fruit and purée. The plate was cleaned. I ate a mango parfait with passion fruit. It featured different textures of mango – principally parfait and jelly – and while it was elegantly presented it was a little on the large side and might have been a tad more restrained and refined.

The businessmen had long since cleared and my friend and I stayed a while to bask in the afterglow of a pleasant, well-cooked dinner.

Dorrell’s perhaps suffers at times because Hadley Park is so strongly associated with business and weddings. It deserves a place on the should-visit lists of discerning diners. Food is precise and well-balanced, fairly-priced and served with aplomb by a skilful front of house team. The ingredients are on point and while there are some dishes that might benefit from greater sophistication – the mango parfait, for instance – it does a thoroughly good job at the price and competes with the two-AA Rosette crowd.