Casual dining at its very best.
If you have an appetite for delicious food in an informal and relaxed ambience then come and experience Oakwood. Casual by nature but not by approach Oakwood has earnt 2 AA Rosettes for its inventive British menu.
Philip Clench - Head Chef
The Jacobean manor house in The Park has an amazing old Masonic lodge with its own private entrance. This is Oakwood. Philip Clench, The Park’s Head Chef uses his Woodstone oven to roast fabulous fish, meat and game in his open plan kitchen. Philips trademark home baked breads, signature crudités and traditional desserts make an exceptional diversion from the typical ‘formal hotel dining experience’. Oakwood also has a delightful private dining area that can seat up to eight in the old wine cellar and game store. ”Oakwood is not about luxury ingredients and pretension’, he says, ‘instead, I focus on the simple treatment of the finest ingredients. I like to describe my cooking as country casual dining of the highest order’.
Philip, was born in Malawi and brought up in a small village on Exmoor. He started cooking at the age of nine, his early inspiration being drawn from his grandmother and mother who taught him to make cream teas and cakes at the age of 9 and his father, who was an agriculturalist. Sometimes his father would bring a lamb carcass home and teach him basic butchery, how to skin rabbits and catch trout in local streams. His love of the country larder was born.
At the age of 11, he had his first formal cookery lessons, preparing ‘melting moments’ and ‘welsh rarebit’ under the eager eye of his home economics teacher, Mrs Jones. Throughout his teenage years he worked in local restaurants and hotels and so it was somewhat inevitable that he would go to catering college in Taunton at 16. Not wishing to give up academic studies too early in life, Philip made a decision to study Combined Engineering at university but having graduated, he knew his future was not in engineering. Instead, he followed his heart and nurtured his passion for food. His first venture was a café in Coventry and he variously cooked at the Circus School and Performing Arts in Bristol, and won Vegetarian Restaurant of the Year at a bistro (also in Bristol) in the early 90’s.
Philip’s great strength is the depth of his experience and breadth of his knowledge. He has been a licensed game dealer, had his own fish retail and wholesale business, and is a keen market gardener, still producing his own squash, fruit trees, soft fruits, beans, and experimenting, (not always with great success!) at rare and unusual varieties of potato.
He has worked as a chef in many of the region’s finest hostelries and cooked at three rosette level. Now, he feels he has come of age. His cooking can best be described as ‘country casual dining of the highest order’. Philip has never seen food as fashion. You won’t find froths and foams on his menus. Instead, he prefers to source good local food produce. Every week he scours local farmers markets, farm shops and ethnic delicatessens for interesting produce and seasonal ingredients.
Mothers Day Sunday Lunch £19.95 pp
Spoil the most important person in your life with our 3 course Sunday Lunch in Oakwood on Sunday 14th March for only £19.95 per person. We have a wonderful Roast of the Week plus dishes from our award winning Oakwood menu to choose from. We also have private dining rooms available for large families. To book your table please call our reservations team on 0117 9371800.
Open to our guests and non residents
Oakwood is open to our guests and non residents for breakfast, dinner and Sunday lunch. The gorgeous setting, superb cooking and sublime service brings people back, time and time again.
Oakwood Opening Times
Breakfast (Mon-Sun): 7am - 10am
Dinner (Mon-Sun): 7pm - 9pm
Sunday Lunch: 12.30pm - 2.30pm