Last Updated on March 1, 2025
A Restaurant with Rooms
5.0 out of 5.0 starsSelf-deprecation is a very British trait. In a world that seems to celebrate the brash, vulgar and the downright dishonest, a little modesty is a welcome corrective. Calling Restaurant Interlude, near Horsham in West Sussex, ‘A Restaurant with Rooms’ is a classic example of understatement. The 28-cover restaurant in the Leonardslee House opened in 2018, winning its first Michelin star in 2019, three AA rosettes in 2020 and a Michelin Green Star in 2023.
Executive Chef Jean Delport’s seasonal tasting menu – 11-12 courses for lunch and 15-19 for dinner – takes inspiration from his native South Africa and uses produce, much of which is foraged from the Grade 1, 240-acre Leonardslee estate. Restaurant Interlude sits within Leonardslee House, a 19th-century Grade II listed Italianate mansion that has 10 stunning first-floor rooms with views over the estate.
The Leonardslee estate has been described ‘as the finest woodland garden in England’. Seven lakes cut through the valley, with this very spot in the Sussex Weald being the centre of England’s iron industry. The only clue to this industrial history is an old Engine House that used hydraulic power to run the bellows, which gave oxygen to a furnace that blazed 24 hours a day. There is also a Rock Garden, Camellia and Oak walks, the Coronation Garden, a Rotunda and a Dolls’ House Museum.
In a quirky Antipodean twist, there is a Wallaby Enclosure, and excitingly, there are a series of vineyards, including England’s first Pinotage Vineyard. The Leonardslee estate’s owner is businesswoman Penny Streeter OBE, who also owns the Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate in Somerset West, South Africa (ranked 53rd in the world).
As you drive into the estate, you become aware that it is studded with contemporary sculpture that beautifully counterpoints the architecture and sets up an interesting conversation with the landscape.
Entrance to the house is through a historic hallway with a gallery, flooded by light from a domed atrium.
We stayed in the gorgeous Magnolia Suite. All ten rooms have a bespoke design with a classic British aesthetic with antique and more contemporary pieces of furniture.
The bedroom is stunning. Designed by well-known interior designer Veere Grenney, there is a beautifully upholstered sofa, an antique writing desk, large mirrors, a chandelier, a Nespresso machine and a flat-screen TV. The canopied bed is extremely comfortable and has top-quality pillows and sheets.
En route to the bathroom, you go through an anteroom with a large wardrobe.
The bathroom itself features a standalone nickel silver bath, a huge raindrop shower and a double vanity sink. There are Tyneham toiletries and, in a thoughtful touch, a copious supply of bath salts.
There is also an elegant separate lounge with its own sofa and TV, which is handy when the football is on!
The ground floor has a large sitting room, a bar and a dining room, and it is in the bar that our extraordinary gastronomic journey begins. It soon becomes apparent that owner Penny Streeter and chef Delport have created something quite original.
The concept of terroir -the relationship that a wine has to its location – has been extended and developed. If Ferran Adria’s El Bulli in Spain developed the idea of multi-course tasting menus, innovation in the kitchen and food that related to the locality; and René Redzepi’s Copenhagen restaurant Noma added to that the concept of foraging for local ingredients; at Restaurant Interlude with their own wines, foraged ingredients in every dish and most other ingredients being Sussex sourced, it is clear that seasonality, sustainability and locality are taken very seriously.
We start with a glass of Leonardslee 2020 Blanc de Blancs (100% Chardonnay), released in June 2024, which has the deliciously invigorating citrus freshness of a new wine. Three snacks accompany the fizz.
A beetroot meringue is topped with goat’s curd that has been smoked over ash, there’s a
raspberry tuile and some damson vinegar gel in there with a nasturtium leaf on top. The tiny mouthful seems to encapsulate the kitchen’s ethos in one bite. It’s a technically complex collation, speaking of the land that simply melts away in your mouth with the sweetness of the fruit mitigated by the tartness of the vinegar. The sticky crunch of a cheese cracker is glazed with the salty, savoury flavour of a homemade ‘marmite’, a gel of South African pickled mustard seeds and an onion salad.
The final element of the trio of snacks features the salty fresh crunch of a Jerusalem artichoke taco shell filled with Hamachi – a white tuna style fish – and then covered with Furikake – a Japanese seasoning, toasted sesame seeds, seaweed and apple.
After our drinks and snacks, we are led to the foraging station, where the restaurant showcases ingredients such as forest ashes, bracken fiddleheads, pine, nettles, rabbit and venison. We are told how they tap the trees to create sweet birch syrup, similar to maple syrup.
The supercharged umami notes of a smoked celeriac tea with the addition of wild leek oil, hedgerow vinegar and strips of celeriac Biltong set us up for the next phase of the meal. We are given a parchment ‘map of the garden’ menu as well as cards featuring the foraged ingredients for each course. I am impressed by the seriousness of purpose shown, and as we move into very uncertain times, these old foraging skills may need to come into focus much more!
The 26-cover dining room is high-ceilinged and elegant with a primarily green colour scheme. There are antique mirrors, light wood tables and comfortable chairs, and with a cleverly curated sound system playlist that includes Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s Our House, How Long by Ace and George Harrison’s My Sweet Lord I felt right at home.
We move on to the strawberry notes of Leonardslee Brut Rosé 2021, which uses the Pinotage grape and has a gentle mousse and a creaminess from the malolactic fermentation process.
A delicate and delicious dish of poached lobster comes with a floral elderflower jelly, cauliflower cream, and Exmoor caviar washed with Kombu, all dressed with wild garlic oil. Refined beignets of a South African deep-fried elderflower cake are super light and fragrant. And, the next arrival is a fabulous dish of oyster poached in sparkling wine, dressed in fig leaf oil and served with the crunch of compressed cucumber and the acidity of pickled mooli in a smokey beurre blanc sauce.
We move on to the first of our South African wines. The Berguela Cove, Walker Bay Chardonnay, has spent 12 months on oak and is bursting with passionfruit, yeast, butter, oak, and vanilla notes. It’s a top manifestation of a South African chardonnay.
Next up was one of Interlude’s ‘signature dishes’, beautifully presented and based around the humble but wonderful carrot! Crispy carrot tart shells were filled with a liquid carrot mousse. Deep-fried tofu, with a crisp exterior but soft inside, came with a smoked carrot dip, and a carrot and goat’s cheese terrine combined the sweetness of carrot with the funkiness of goat’s cheese.
Another fabulous savoury dish with flavours that linger sees smoked beetroot with a nettle emulsion, tempura nettle leaves and blackened shallots aged with beeswax.
A South African brioche-like bread from the Cape was flavoured with aniseed. A herb butter was full of the fruity acidity of kumquat. Melted butter came with biltong spices, beetroot and seasoning. Some breads are not worth their own course but this is exceptional.
To match our fish courses, we try the Berguela Cove flagship wine, the Catalina 2018 Semillon, with a production of only 1,500 bottles. It’s a classic Semillon with a green pepper oiliness and an intense, full body. A sweet, barely cooked hand-dived scallop came with pumpkin and the rich, smoky stickiness of an XO sauce. Turbot, aged for a week, was garnished with truffle and greens, served with the acidity of a vin jaune sauce, sea green salsa, lovage oil and mussels. This is a fantastic rich-flavoured dish with a powerful mouthfeel.
It’s time for a red. The Berguela Cove Walker Bay ‘Collage’ Bordeaux brings together
Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Petit Verdot and Merlot to create a powerful blend with lots of red fruit and some chewy tannins. The food, a dish of shallots, celeriac millefeuille, mushrooms, prune and fig creates an earthy impression that speaks of the forest.
Replacing the duck main dish for our ‘Pescatarian’ menu, we have a ‘blooming onion’ with sauteed mushroom, the sweetness of fig coming together with the deep umami richness of a black onion jus. The flavours are strong and intense. To contrast, a granita of homemade Leonardslee sloe gin with wood sorrel has the cold, fresh taste of a winter hedgerow. A wonderfully alcoholic palate cleanser!
Continuing with the alcohol theme, to match with our desserts, we delight in the luscious honey notes of 2020 Berguela Cove, Sauvignon Blanc Noble Rot. The sweetness of the wine brings out the Sussex saffron notes of a South African dessert: a fermented milk parfait with mango, sponge infused with Sussex saffron, a dash of Roboois tea and a sprinkle of honey bee pollen.
A blackberry cheesecake is an explosion of a chilled yoghurt nitro and stewed blackberries alongside a woodruff parfait.
We love the contrast of temperature and minty sweetness of a crisp peppermint tart with chocolate crumble and caramelised Amarillo ice cream.
We pass on the cheese course as we simply have no space.
But somehow we manage some very fine chocolates, a Windfall Acorn, Double Walnut and a Eucalyptus Kiss.
Sometimes a meal is for fuel, sometimes for fun and very occasionally the act of being fed can deliver a profound experience, a meditation on place and time. Walking through the grounds at Leonardslee and then eating the food so connected with the land was very special. With informed and friendly service as well as the South African connection, Restaurant Interlude has a unique offer.
After a great night’s sleep, it was time for breakfast in the Clocktower Café. There’s a selection of cooked breakfasts, pancake stacks, breakfast baps, a granola pot or avocado on toast, all washed down with a wide range of beverages.
The sun was out, the birds were singing, and the wallabies were out playing. Fueled by our breakfast, it was the perfect time to explore the grounds some more before packing our bags and heading back to town. It had been the perfect stay.
Restaurant Interlude
Leonardslee Lakes & Gardens
Brighton Road,
Lower Beeding,
Horsham,
West Sussex
RH13 6PP
0330 123 5894
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