West Stoke House

Located on the edge of the Downs surrounded by Sussex countryside, West Stoke House calls itself a “five-star restaurant with rooms”.

Set amid five acres of manicured lawns, it houses eight large bedrooms, each with traditional English decor, freshly-cut flowers and pretty rural views.

But it is its sophisticated fine-dining restaurant, which was awarded a Michelin star this year, that is its pride and joy.

“Our emphasis is very much on our good food served in relaxed surroundings,” says Rowland Leach, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife Mary.

“West Stoke House is a historic country house which the Duke of Richmond had built for his brother Lord George Lennox.

“The restaurant was previously a ballroom and features an Italian chandelier and a French gilded mirror as well as an original 18th century fireplace.

It’s a beautiful place to eat but our prime passion has always been our food and drink.

Specialising in “modern English cuisine with French influences”, the restaurant is under the charge of head chef Darren Brown, whose impressive credentials include working at London’s Michelin-starred French restaurant, Monsieur Max and five-star luxury hotel, Lanesborough, in Knightsbridge.

Darren says: “Our starting point is always good ingredients. All our fish, for example, is freshly caught from the South Coast. It comes from an excellent fishmongers in Portsmouth which only buys directly from fishermen.”

Fish is a big passion for Darren.

“One of my signature dishes is pan-fried red mullet,” he says.

“It is served with garlic pallet, parsley puree, tomato and onion salad and garlic chips.

“It combines traditional English fish with a classic French combination of garlic and parsley.

The garlic palette is made by freezing garlic puree, covering it with bread crumbs and then deep frying it so you end up with a liquid garlicy centre with a crisp crumb outside.”

The chef reveals the secret of his Michelin success.

“You have to up your game and find new exciting ways of presenting food.

Instead of serving a big lump of meat, which can be nice but isn’t very imaginative, I would use different parts of the animal so you’d get one flavour but many different textures.”

Darren’s signature dish, Cornish rump of lamb, comes with poached sweetbreads and tongue.

“The rump is roasted and the sweetbreads are gently poached before being roasted in butter so they are lovely and crispy on the outside and tender and sweet in the middle,” he says.

“The tongue is braised slowly in vegetable stock and herbs for four hours before being fried to get that crispy texture and great colour.”

His lamb is served with confit potatoes, buttered spinach and wild garlic leaf foam.

As with all his dishes, he focuses on “simple, attractive presentation”.

The slices of tongue are placed on a bed of spinach and the rump of lamb goes on top of that,” he says.

“Then the little confit potatoes are placed around the plate with the fried sweetbreads and to finish, the wild garlic leaf foam is placed decoratively on top.”

But Darren’s culinary imagination doesn’t stop at starters and main courses.

“My chocolate moelleux is one of our best sellers,” he says.

“It’s got a chocolatey, nutty, rice crispy base.

On top of that are layers of milk sorbet, walnut biscuit, milk chocolate mousse with a liquid caramel centre, and honeycomb biscuit topped off with milk chocolate cream and served with caramel sauce.

“The presentation is simple – a little tower of flat discs – but it works so well and the milk chocolate with the crunchiness of the biscuit and the smoothness of the caramel is really divine.”

Sample the menu

Dinner menu, £39
Roasted breast of quail, quail kiev, confit leg, truffled potatoes, baby leeks, potato tuile.

Pan-fried fillet of red mullet, garlic palette, parsley puree, dried tomato salad.

Pressed terrine of foie gras and confit duck leg, fine bean salad, sweet wine jelly, toasted brioche.

Roasted squab pigeon, crushed peas, pea puree, foie gras, quails egg.

Desserts, £11.50
Milk chocolate crunch, milk sorbet, walnut nougatine, chocolate tuile.

Lemon sabayon and pine nut tart, honeyed cream, sable biscuit.

Open Wednesday to Sunday 12.30pm to 2pm and 7.30pm to 9pm. A three-course dinner costs £39.