The Cyder House Restaurant
The beautiful old Cyder House forms an atmospheric restaurant for dining and celebrations at the centre of the estate. Karin Mander's menu emphasizes bistro-style cooking, with seasonal produce from the estate. This includes game – pheasant and venison are specialities – and traditionally-reared Owlpen beef. Karin finds a special place for her native Swedish fish cuisine, and also the produce of Owlpen's Elizabethan kitchen garden, set just below the restaurant.
The Cyder House Restaurant is a listed historic building dating to 1446, with massive oak 'cruck' trusses. A gigantic oak and elm cider press stands in the corner from 300 years ago, when cider feasts were held here.
It is a stunning setting, furnished with Mander family portraits and Arts and Crafts furniture from the family collection, and with a floor laid from planks of ash, the trees felled in the surrounding woodland in 2010.
Today it combines fifteenth-century charm with twenty-first-century convenience.
Owlpen's cellars offer a good selection of reasonably-priced wines, especially from the French and Spanish regions.
