Lainston House relaunches The Avenue

Exclusive Collection’s Lainston House near Winchester has announced the relaunch of its flagship restaurant, The Avenue.

The restaurant will reopen on 27 November with MasterChef: The Professionals champion Tom Hamblet at the helm in the kitchen, following an extensive refurbishment.

Russell Sage Studio has led the redesign of The Avenue, blending contemporary elements with the restaurant’s “historic charm” and taking inspiration from the hotel’s Hampshire surroundings and mile-long avenue of lime trees, which the restaurant is named after.

Since winning MasterChef: The Professionals, Hamblet has completed residencies at Camellia at South Lodge in West Sussex in 2023, and at The Avenue earlier in 2024.

The eight-course tasting menu at The Avenue will be priced at £125. Hamblet’s snacks and laminated brioche with garden herb butter will be followed by a choice for the starter, main course and dessert, interspersed with extra courses.

The menu includes dishes such as scallop, anchovy, seaweed pickle, ajo blanco; Venison loin, beetroot, onion caramel, duck liver sauce; and Whipped cheesecake tart, pear, fig leaf, blackberry and pastis sorbet.

Additionally, Hamblet will be giving guests the opportunity to cook with him in his Season Cookery School classes at Lainston House, teaching recipes inspired by his dishes from MasterChef: The Professionals and his residencies over the past year.

Hampshire’s Lainston House features 50 rooms and suites and offers two dining experiences for guests.

Hamblet said: “It has been an incredible journey working with the talented team at Lainston House during my residency. I’m thrilled to be taking the head chef role for the relaunch of The Avenue, continuing to explore the region’s rich culinary heritage to create an unforgettable flavour-focused dining experience that helps put Hampshire on the map as an unmissable dining destination.”