The campaigning restaurant guide for people who want to eat fish – sustainably
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Church Road, Great Milton, Oxfordshire, OX44 7PD01844 278881 / www.manoir.com / view map
Surveyed 17/03/2011What does this rating mean?
Probably the most famous restaurant in the UK run by its most celebrated chef. Raymond Blanc, now as famous for his TV programmes as he is for his restaurant, staked all that he owned to launch Le Manoir in 1984. The gamble paid off and the restaurant quickly gained two Michelin stars which it has held ever since. Not bad for a self-taught chef who began his career as a waiter. With its luxurious hotel offering every conceivable comfort, the Le Manoir experience is the gold standard to which all other fine dining restaurants aspire.
But the experience comes at a price. The cheapest room costs almost £500. In the restaurant the decouverte menu is £135; les classiques du manoir: £110 and the menu du jour luncheon: £62.50p.
Five stars on Google.
The modern French menu has been described as "a twist of imaginative genius." The quality of the food stems from the freshness and purity of its ingredients. The two-acre kitchen garden produces 90 types of vegetable and over 70 varieties of herb which are used in Le Manoir's kitchen. Raymond Blanc has been a champion of the organic movement for 20 years and comments 'flavour alone would be a reason to buy organic food, quite apart from its freedom from additives'.
Raymond Blanc and his Executive Chef Gary Jones are totally committed to serving only sustainable seafood and they have gone to extraordinary lengths to guarantee the provenance of every fish they offer. All the restaurant’s policies on sustainability are outlined in a lengthy statement on the restaurant’s website.
Previously Le Manoir, under M.Blanc’s orders, dropped Atlantic halibut from the menu after we pointed out that it was critically endangered. Now it has dropped cod after we warned it may have come from endangered North Sea stocks and replaced it with hake.
Le Manoir is a standard bearer for sustainability and we salute its efforts and its brilliant 4.5 Blue Fish rating.