Lake Country House

Hot off the press! Lake Coun­try House of Llangam­march Wells in Powys has been named Hotel of the Year, Wales 2008/9 at the AA Cen­ten­ary Awards 2008 held at London’s Gros­venor House Hotel earlier this month. The award was presen­ted to hotel own­ers, Mr. & Mrs. J-P. Mif­sud, by celebrity chef, James Mar­tin. The AA describes the hos­pit­al­ity and ser­vice at the hotel as “of a con­sist­ently high stand­ard with a fant­astic pro­act­ive approach to staff training”.

It is not dif­fi­cult to see why this strik­ing coun­try house has been so deservedly rewar­ded with such a pres­ti­gi­ous accol­ade. It stands serenely amid 50 acres of park­land fea­tur­ing rhododendron-lined trails and river­side paths with the local attrac­tions of golf, game fish­ing, horse rid­ing and walk­ing in the beau­ti­ful Elan val­ley and Brecon Beacons National Park. With its indoor pool and spa, it makes an ideal des­tin­a­tion for romantic and lux­uri­ous breaks.

For 27 years, the hotel has been in the hands of Jean-Pierre and Jan Mif­sud, who together also own another award-winning hotel, the North­cote Manor in North Devon. Now a lux­ury “Red Star” hotel, ori­gin­ally built as a hunt­ing and fish­ing lodge, today it boasts its own spa, a par 3 golf course and put­ting green, cro­quet lawn and ten­nis court. Some of the best fish­ing in Wales may be exper­i­enced on 7 miles of the Arfon Irfon and a 3 acre lake in the grounds.

Din­ing in the res­taur­ant is an exper­i­ence to savour, with the emphasis on fresh local ingredi­ents, pre­pared under the cre­at­ive vigil­ance of head chef, Sean Cull­ing­ford. Sean has been at the Lake House for almost 10 years, hav­ing learned his trade in top food estab­lish­ments in Wales, Eng­land and Switzer­land. His recent awards include being accep­ted into The Mas­ter Chefs of Great Bri­tain and receiv­ing Condé Nast Johan­sens’ award of ‘Most Excel­lent Res­taur­ant 2005’.

Excep­tional culin­ary stand­ards are com­ple­men­ted by fine cof­fees from Café du Monde, sup­pli­ers to the hotel for the past two years. They installed their cafetière sys­tem, which includes stain­less steel cafetières, provided on a free loan basis. A range of spe­ci­al­ity cof­fees is pre­pared cour­tesy of the Company’s Mon Ami 75 bean-to-cup machine using Grand Cru cof­fee beans.

“In all our years at Lake Coun­try House and North­cote Manor, we have never met another cof­fee sup­plier with such out­stand­ing cre­den­tials as Café du Monde”, says Jean-Pierre. “It goes without say­ing that we chose the cof­fee to match the qual­ity of the rest of our food menu. Added to that, their ser­vice levels are without peer. We strive to provide the best in all we do and, so far as cof­fee is con­cerned at least, we need look no further.”

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