Blakelands Lodge Restaurant

Considering the relative proximity of Blakelands to Wolverhampton, the local motorways and its Business Airport it is amazing how many people don't know about it. This is both its strength and weakness - we all love sussing out secrets, but even the best secrets need business to sustain them. A recent visit to this haven of elegance and tranquillity convinced us that this is indeed a real treasure.

The impressive Queen Anne house with its distinctive architectural features makes its impressive mark on the surroundings, but it is in the surrounding buildings where the main changes have been made resulting in such facilities as The Maltings, a 120 seater theatre style room which has its own private bar and adjoining buffet room. Privately owned since 1981, management is in the capable hands of Paul and Heather Morgan and we were given a warm welcome by Heather on arrival.

Blakelands is a real favourite with couples looking for somewhere special for their wedding. Not only can civil wedding ceremonies be held in the house, where fine furnishings, family heirlooms and antique furniture do credit to the handsome rooms, there are also three suites, one of which is The Corbett Suite, a sumptuous set of rooms which serves as the Bridal Suite.

Elsewhere in the complex are a further twelve en suite rooms, five of them in Blakelands Lodge all with their own characters and décor, all beautifully fitted out, and with locally inspired names that reflect the strong ties of Blakelands with the neighbourhood.

The menu is all embracing with a strong flavour of superior brasserie if a name had to be put, dutifully seasonal. Local sourcing is practised but not at the expense of quality, and the local venison sausages met with my companion's warm approval. Starters of black pudding and poached egg croustade, leek and potato soup, and asparagus spears are all there on the spring menu, the black pudding a particularly fine specimen which happily lacked the glutinous lumps of fat that some aficionados seem to admire.

The two prices against a main course on the menu are the charges for either a two or a three course meal, including that dish. A braised steak and ale pie, enriched with stout and with puff pastry crust was supremely tasty and very filling. Those who enjoy their steaks will be well served, with a sirloin forestière, roasted sliced sweet onions, forest mushrooms, Madeira and double cream at the top of the list. Shropshire pork chop served with sage and apple cabbage, cider and cream, haddock Mornay with cream and Welsh mature cheese, or duck breast with a ruby port infusion would, I am sure, all have been equally tempting, but the life of a restaurant critic needs to have certain limitations unless one is to become yet another burden on the NHS.

Talking of which, the puddings! On our visit Cambridge Burnt Cream was on the menu, a delicacy that attracted my companion, who as an aside pointed out that it should really be called Trinity (the College where it was first made) Cream, even if the University had subsequently taken the credit. At least there is no doubt about the provenance of the Eton Mess that has replaced it on the menu, unless some renegade stole the recipe from Harrow.

The team of chef de cuisine Steve Cartwright, toils ever upwards to maintain a high standard and if I had to be constructively critical it would be to suggest that a little more attention should be paid to the vegetables, some of which lacked in interest the commendable level of the rest of our meal. A wonderful cheese platter, a plate of spotted dick, and toffee crunch ice cream sundae, all of which would normally have had me coming at the gallop, had to be bypassed in favour of an excellent liqueur coffee, such was the filling capacity of the steak and ale pie.

As with so many restaurants these days, Sunday lunch is an event of celebration and relaxation with friends. Blakelands deserves much closer attention than it gets, and whilst ideal, and highly popular for weddings, conferences and private parties, they look forward to welcoming you to enjoy the same daily excellent experience such as ours.

Their well-compiled Website is packed with information, and in particular keeps abreast of any changes, especially the seasonal menus.