We spent two blissful days and nights at At the Chapel in Bruton. This hotel, restaurant and bakery is like a slice of London which has been picked up and placed in the beautiful Somerset countryside, away from the noise, the stress, the grumpy people, and the pollution.
As you may have guessed from its name, this place is a converted chapel, and as a result has the highest ceilings, the longest, most spectacular windows, and an amazing sense of calm.
The main room in the building is busy all day with people drinking coffee, eating breakfast, sharing pizzas, tucking into burgers, having tea, enjoying a cocktail, and treating themselves with dinner. You can sit at a communal table, in a squidgy green armchair, or at a table surrounding the central space at any time of day, and if you're anything like us, you'll be tempted to not move any further than that room for many, many hours.
The whole hotel is beautifully decorated in a chic, minimal style, the staff are wonderfully friendly, and the fantastic Hauser & Wirth art gallery (which also has the most fabulous restaurant and bar) is only a 10-minute walk away. But, if I'm being honest with you, the real reason we were drawn to stay here was the bakery.
At the front of the building there's a small room filled with a huge wood-fired oven out of which the Chapel bakers produce croissants, breads, pizzas, pastries, biscuits, cakes, all day, and all night. We feasted for two days on everything this bakery produced. The best croissants we've ever had were hung on our bedroom door everything morning and eaten in bed with a strong cup of tea and lashings of strawberry jam. Avocado and poached eggs were served on flax seed bread alongside a coffee after a run around the Somerset fields. Hot pizzas were shared at lunchtime and soon led into the soft focaccia that began every dinner. A slice of chocolate and beetroot cake ended our final dinner in the most spectacular way.
We ate ourselves silly during our short stay at At the Chapel. The restaurant serves the freshest, most local, and seasonal food, and we did a fabulous job of eating our way through the menu (as you can see). We left Somerset stuffed, relaxed, and oh-so-happy, with a car loaded up with pastries and loaves of bread to take home for breakfast the next day.
Highlight: Croissants
Lowlight: Croissants are tricky to eat in bed
At the Chapel, 28 High Street, Bruton, Somerset, BA10 0AE
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