Christmas at The Bell at Sapperton

Just a quick blog to thank the guys at The Bell at Sapperton for a wonderful festive evening on Saturday night. 

Every year our group of friends arrange a Christmas meal to celebrate another fabulous year together. We swap secret santa presents, get all dressed up, eat ,drink & be very merry! It's a definite highlight of our year.

Last year, we dined at The Falcon in Painswick, this year we chose The Bell at Sapperton. We love the restaurant there (see our last blog post about this great Cotswolds pub here) and it did not disappoint. Besides the food, the other man reason we chose The Bell was because they could accommodate our noisy (but hilarious) bunch of friends in their private dining room with doors straight out onto the patio. The room looked stunning, with its beautiful Cotswold stone fireplace and fire roaring, lots of candles lit and lovely Christmas decoration, it  made the perfect setting this year. We couldn't have been more pleased so thank you.

We preordered from The Bell's Christmas Menu and all the food was delicious. No try turkey here!

Meg: 

Beetroot cured loch Duart salmon, buckwheat pancake, horseradish slow.

Mallard Wellington, squash puree, wild mushrooms, port sauce. 

Chocolate delice, salted caramel, hazelnut brittle. 

Millie: 

Goats cheese panacotta, warm fig and sticky walnut salad. 

Braised shank of lamb, mini roasts, red current jus

Chocolate delice, salted caramet, hazelnut brittle. 

The service was amazing, we were truly spoilt. They continually took orders at the table, running drinks over and food came out in perfect timing with a much needed break before dessert. We enjoyed celebrating over bottles of fizz, lots of wine and some cheeky tequila shots. 

We also gave and received some amazing Christmas presents. Millie got Meg for Secret Santa, I was treated to a gorgeous necklace which is very me & a Kevin Murphy Powder Puff from Love Hair in Broadway to add lots of volume my limp locks. We've both been lusting over this product since trying it at Love Hair ages ago. Just shows how well Millie knows me. 

Millie on the other hand, received a gift from Harry. Not one for being discrete, Harry decided to treat Millie to a ride on the longest zip wire in Europe at Zip World. Apparently, it's the nearest thing to flying and reaches speeds of over 100MPH. Crazy!

We even had Victorian carol singers join us for a festive sing along in our private dinning room. We were in our element! It felt so special and pretty magical. They were brilliant and best of all they're just a group of friends who practice all year round to entertain the local villages during Christmas and raise some money for charity. Our night couldn't have felt more Christmassy at this point.  

Another massive thank you to the whole team at The Bell, we had a fabulous night and will certainly be back in the new year. 

We'll be relaxing, eating and enjoying family time this Christmas so won't be blogging much. Thank you all so so much for reading out Cotswolds Blog & have a very Merry Christmas! 

Millie and Meg x

Pub Gardens in The Cotswolds

We count ourselves very lucky living in a beautiful part of the world. An area  with its very own smorgasbord of successful pubs to pick from. In fact, sometimes we find it hard to choose!

Summer may feel like it has come to an end now but we've had a good run this year and there is nothing we've enjoyed more than soaking up the sun in a beautiful beer garden. 

Here, are just a few of our favourite pubs we've visited this summer because of their outside areas... weather it's a lush garden, a pretty courtyard or a decked out drinking area, we love these Cotswold pubs for many reasons. 

Sunny Sunday Lunch in Sapperton

This is our wonderful friend Sophie! Again, we've been friends since school, 14 years. Emily used to live with Soph when they first moved to Cheltenham and not long after, Meg & Harry followed and lived only 2 doors down. Soph now lives in beautiful Painswick with her boyfriend, Owen and her family and works for Cheltenham's leading independent estate agent, Peter Ball & Co, at their Charlton Kings Office. 

Take it away Soph! #TheGuestList 

This Sunday bought us gorgeous sunshine and how better to spend the day than in a beautiful pub garden in the middle of The Cotswolds!

Owen (my lovely man) and I met some friends for lunch at The Bell at Sapperton. We had visited the pub for dinner previously so expected good things and I really was not disappointed.

The Bell is situated in the sleepy cotswold village of Sapperton. The stone building is full of  character in keeping with its stunning rural surroundings boasting beams and huge log fires and also, a beautiful cottage garden so a perfect place to dine all year round.

We were lucky enough to find a table in the garden- we sat down ordered a round of gin and tonics and studied the menu. We were restricted to a Sunday menu but there was still pleanty of choice including 3 roast dinners!

The meal was absolutely fantastic! I chose a Smoked haddock fishcake with black pudding and curry mayo to start and a whole sea bass for my main which were both absolutly delicious- some of the best sea bass I've ever had.

Owen had roast beef for his main with a huge yorkshire pudding and lashings of gravy plus a bubbling bowl of cauliflower cheese on the side. He was in heaven! He said the meat was tender and there was plenty of it too… in fact we were all too full for dessert!

The service is friendly and casual but very attentive, the wine selction is varied and very well priced and there is a complete focus on homemade fresh food! I would go again and again and really can't recommend this pub highly enough- a real Cotswold gem!

Sophie x