Vegetarian
Sunday Lunch
Risotto
Goat Cheese
Louth

Pea and Mint Risotto at the Brackenborough Hotel

Andrew Lashbrooke-Small

4 min readAug 10, 2021

-Sunday 8 August 2021

As the kitchen is still out of action (hopefully only for another week), we decided to try Sunday lunch at the Brackenborough Hotel, which is only five minutes down the road in Fotherby.

Pea and Mint Risotto — tasty!

The Pros

Tasty and delicious vegetarian dishes.
(I’m told the roast beef was one of the best ever!
Good, attentive service from the staff.
Nice location and environment.

The Cons

A limited range of options on the Sunday lunch mneu for vegetarians but the evening menu looks more promising.

The Location

The Brackenborough Hotel describes itself as a hidden gem in the Lincolnshire Wolds. The hotel is between the village of Fotherby and the Georgian market town of Louth, in Lincolnshire.

They advertise as a “medium-sized independent boutique hotel, Dog Friendly currently graded as one of the highest AA 3* hotels in the North East. We offer a chic, modern environment in which you can enjoy a romantic weekend break, a family get together, wedding or business convention.”

So we were looking forward to what they had to offer for Sunday lunch.

The Restaurant

The Brackenborough’s restaurant is known as The Lounge.

It was a comfortable bar, dining area and conservatory decked out with wooden tables and high-backed tartan covered chairs. Comfortable and cosy but still contemporary.

The service was very good. All staff were attentive and helpful.

The menu changes regularly. Currently there is a summer Afternoon Tea option “Day at the Beach” which the family of a nearby table were having and it looked delicious.

The Meal

The Sunday lunch menu had a limited range of starters and main courses. Desserts were on a separate menu.

Simon opted for Breaded Whitebait and the Roast Beef, which was served with Roast Potatoes, Mash Potato, Cauliflower Cheese, Broccoli, Stuffing, Gravy and Yorkshire Pudding.

The vegetarian options were limited.

For starters, the soup of the day was vegetable or there was Heritage Tomatoes. The only vegetarian main course was Pea and Mint Risotto.

The Starter — Heritage Tomatoes

The Heritage Tomatoes were served with Goat’s Cheese Bon Bons and a Walnut Salad.

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This was delicious. The green heritage tomatoes, although looking like slices of melon and somewhat unripe, were so tasty.

I would have liked a larger portion!

The Main Course — Pea and Mint Risotto

The only vegetarian main course option was Pea and Mint Risotto, which was served with parmesan shavings and Herb Oil.

We shared the dish of potatoes and vegetables that came with the Roast Beef.

The risotto was gorgeous. Creamy and minty, with a subtle flavour of pea.

However, it seemed like an odd combination, albeit quite tasty, with the shared dish of vegetables.

Dessert

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the dessert. The starters and main courses were quite filling.

The evening dessert menu has options such as Rolo Chocolate Fondant, Sticky Toffee Pudding, Chocolate Sundae and Pistachio and White Chocolate Cake, which all sound very tempting!

Areas for Improvement

I can’t fault the vegetarian dishes that were served as they were both tasty, delicious, and full of flavour.

But a risotto does not feel like a satisfying option as an alternative to a roast meat for a Sunday lunch. A nut roast or lentil bake option would have worked better with the shared dish of accompanying vegetables.

The Brackenborough is advertising a vegetable and nut roast to accompany their Christmas lunch menu in December, so it seems odd that this isn’t available at other times throughout the year.