This week’s Chefs’ Restaurant of the Week is The Neptune, Hunstanton and courtesy of Great British Chefs
A refurbished coaching inn, which has been granted a Michelin star, within strolling distance of the beach at Old Hunstanton, The Neptune is a restaurant with rooms which has become most renowned for its food – modern English cuisine. It is presided over by one half of the husband-and-wife team who run the place, Kevin Mangeolles.
Although The Neptune sells itself as a ‘gourmet bolthole’, the size of the establishment – with its six rooms to rent – means that it’s more often a destination restaurant for curious gastronomes from in and around the area, and one of the region’s most in-demand places to eat and drink.
Housed in a building which dates back to the 17th century, in a charming semi-rural area which serves as a nexus point to explore nearby coastline and market towns, The Neptune features modern, unfussy accommodation. The rooms have a sort of luxury B&B feel, featuring neo-retro quirks like vintage-looking digital radios and lovingly restored furniture. Service and hospitality is friendly, attentive and knowledgeable.
For ingredients, Mangeolles uses the coast, as well as local butchers, farms and orchards to full effect. He combines these ingredients in a way that is described as modern British but which takes classic dishes and flavours and adds an imaginative and unusual slant.
The restaurant is also well-known for its desserts, with a focus on fruit – dark chocolate mousse with poached prunes, poached pears and cherries, Norfolk raspberries, and compressed strawberries all take pride of place in these delicate concoctions, alongside more experimental elements like peanut butter mousse and salted meringue.
Find out more about The Neptune on Great British Chefs website, where you can also subscribe to Great British Chefs’ bi-monthly newsletter for competitions, recipes and more from Britain’s greatest chefs.