Review of The Hoste Arms at Burnham Market: Perfect Sunday roast at luxury hotel and restaurant

Despite ongoing issues with floodwater on its doorstep and other parts of the village, it was great to see The Hoste Arms in Burnham Market busy with guests at the weekend.

The luxury pub, restaurant, hotel and spa - which dates back to 1651 in its origins as a coaching inn - was where my parents and I decided to venture to on Sunday afternoon for a roast.

The premises on The Green is charming inside and out - the furnishings and details give it a classy and upmarket feel.

We were shown to a table within the restaurant, where a number of other diners were also enjoying their Sunday afternoons creating a lovely atmosphere.

While we did peruse the drinks menu, which had a brilliant selection to choose from, none of us wanted an alcoholic option, and so we went for an apple juice, an orange juice (both £2.75) and I had an Appletiser (£3.85).

And having checked for vegan main options ahead of time, I knew I was going to opt for the mushroom and cashew nut wellington (£17.50) - although if it had been any other day of the week, I would have been tempted by the plant-based laksa.

Mum decided she wanted the roast chicken with bread sauce (£19.50) and Dad chose the roast sirloin of beef (£20.75), which would have come with horseradish cream if he had not asked to have his without.

All of these were served with roasted potatoes, roasted carrots and parsnips, hispi cabbage and celeriac puree, a Yorkshire pudding (mine came without this due to my dietary requirement) and bottomless gravy.

As I was quite hungry at this point and had noticed how busy it was, so I had been slightly nervous that we would have a fair wait for our food, but I needn’t have been, as it came in good time.

When I say that our plates were full to the brim, I am not exaggerating. We were all handed huge portions of food - just what you want from a Sunday lunch - and they were presented beautifully.

We wasted no time and dug in straight away. My wellington was hearty and delicious, with the pastry crumbly alongside the flavourful nutty filling.

Mum said her chicken was moist and succulent, and Dad said his beef was also delicious and cooked beautifully.

We all agreed that the vegetables were really tasty, moreish and well cooked - pairing well with all of our mains.

It was, we said, an extremely delicious Sunday roast that Mum added was “made even better by not having to cook it”.

As we were all so full from our mains, we didn’t want desserts - and actually, we were still full until the evening.

Our total bill came to £75.49 including a 12.5% service charge at £8.39, working out to around £25 each. It was not a cheap meal but we felt we got what we paid for considering the portion sizes and the quality of the ingredients.

We would definitely return for a special occasion and hopefully we could pair it with a walk around the area or the nearby coast on a sunny day.

Ratings out of five:

Food: Excellent, couldn’t fault it - it was a perfect Sunday roast. *****

Drink: There was a brilliant selection but we just had soft drinks - I’d try more another time. ****

Decor: Extremely well presented and beautifully decorated. *****

Staff: They were very helpful, friendly and attentive - plus there were plenty of them on hand to help. *****

Price: It was at the higher end of things but we felt we got good value for our money. ****