Reviews
Review taken from Trip Advisor.
Read the review of Anise from dine-online
Read the review of Anise in Style Bible here
Read our latest review in Eat Out Magazine and learn more about the interior deisgn of the hotel
Anise wins 'Best Eating Experience in Sussex' Award, read what Eat Out Magazine had to say
A fantastic review of Anise from Andrew Kay for The Latest Magazine
Unbelievable value
Second time we have dined in Anise and for £32 you cannot get better value anywhere. We regularly dine out in London and Anise is worthy of at least 3 rosettes and in London you would pay £60 per person. A real hidden gem and I cannot believe we got in by only booking two days in advance.
July 4th 2010
Absolutely superb in every sense.
This is a great find. We have dined here twice now and the intimate atmosphere is very romantic, the decor cosy and stylish. The tables are set away from each other so there is always privacy talking. Contrary to the oft-quoted "never eat in hotel restaurants" which on the whole I agree with - Anise is the exception.
The staff are attentive, discreet and polite. On our second visit, I was on a very restrictive diet. I called the hotel in advance and arranged to email the Head Chef with my restrictions. Believe me, they were complex, as there were so many foods I could not eat. Within 2 days an email arrived in my in box with a specially designed menu for me that sounded so tempting. I was deeply impressed having received many recent bad experiences with restaurants that pretend to cater for dietary restrictions and sadly fail.
On the day, I have to say it was absolutely superb, the taste was sublime, I was delighted to experience such professionalism, flexibility and creativity. 10/10. Our party all enjoyed their food, beautifully cooked and very flavoursome. They use local foods, sourced from farms nearby or selected sea food sources.
All this should have cost a fortune, but it was very very reasonable. Our meal was £25 per person for 3 courses excluding drinks. We got a free glass of bubbly for having a birthday in our party which was a nice touch.
I cannot praise Anise highly enough - we'll be back.
2nd February 2010
Fantastic place for a special meal.
We have just taken my 83 year old mother here for her birthday lunch and had a wonderful meal and fantastic service. The food is superb and excellent value for money. Highly recommended.
31st October 2009
Located just 10 minutes from Gatwick Airport, nestled in the heart of the Sussex countryside, is the Anise restaurant at the Felbridge Hotel and Spa. For all the luxury of the hotel, the real star is its Anise restaurant. With a name like Anise, one could be forgiven for assuming this would be some kind of Asian fusion set up. In fact, Anise is one of a crop of restaurants springing up all over the country that attempt to do justice to the wealth of local produce for which the United Kingdom is justly gaining an excellent reputation and they certainly do it well. The dining room is peaceful and elegant, mainly monochrome black and white, with accents of red provided by framed prints. Fellow diners appeared to be as likely plucked from the local community as hotel guests and ran the gamut from older groups to young couples enjoying a romantic night out.
Award-winning chef Frederick Tobin has graced the kitchens of Chequers and The Royal Yacht in his time, as well as such august establishments as the Dorchester and Harrods. He has crafted a menu that is as sumptuous to read as it is to savour and it is no surprise that his efforts have been rewarded with two rosettes from the AA and won the 2009/2010 "Best Eating Experience in Sussex" at the Sussex Food & Drink Awards.
Tasting plates feature highly on the ever-changing seasonal menu of locally sourced produce, with the tasting of Sussex beef, just pipping the post as our favourite main dish over the also excellent lamb. Special mention must go also to the lobster and courgette cannelloni with pan-seared scallops, the cannelloni being artfully crafted from thin slices of courgette and beautifully set off by a light and zesty citrus foam. The sweet-toothed among you should be drooling at the mere mention of the tasting plate puddings, each featuring 3 to 5 tiny dishes created around a single flavour such as lemon, our favourite, or coffee, a close second.
The wine list is extensive, but the very friendly and knowledgeable staff have thoughtfully pulled a selection to accompany the menu of the day and, crucially, not just from the more expensive end of the list. In fact the staff were on hand to offer suggestions throughout in an attentive manner that never tipped that fine balance into meddling. Again, they were also happy to recommend the less expensive option, when faced with a choice. One tiny criticism is that, while Sussex wines do feature on the wine list, many diners, ourselves included, may shy away from ordering a whole bottle of what feels like a risky option. Perhaps a complimentary glass to accompany the delicious amuse-bouche might help promote the county's viticulture as effectively as the Anise promotes its food?
After - and indeed before - dinner, the Qube Bar mixes up a mean cocktail and also hosts live bands, DJs and themed nights at weekends, though I must confess that we were so pleasingly light-headed after dinner, that we crawled off to bed almost straight away.
We also took advantage of the Chakra Spa, where my week's woes were rubbed away with a wonderfully relaxing deep tissue massage. The spa is also very popular with local residents, so it is definitely worthwhile booking yourself some indulgent downtime ahead of your stay from their excellent menu of Elemis treatments. If you're more of an adrenaline junkie, then the hotel gym is remarkably well-appointed, while the kidney-shaped swimming pool and poolside jacuzzi, sauna and steam room are the ideal place to soak, bubble, steam and sweat out those toxins.
A final word of praise must be lavished on the breakfast. Arriving at the hotel's other restaurant, The Bay Tree, with just a few cobwebs remaining in our slightly addled skulls, the greeting was friendly, the coffee excellent and, perhaps for the first time in my life, the scrambled eggs tasted farm-fresh, as opposed to the dry crumbly mess that is all too often a feature of a hotel buffet breakfast.
All in all, the Felbridge and its Anise restaurant create a wonderful oasis in which to relax pre or post holiday, though I suspect we might need a little more predictability in the great British summer for it to replace that holiday altogether.
The Anise Restaurant wins Best Sussex Eating Experience 2010, 29th January 2010, 11:56am
The Anise Restaurant at the Felbridge Hotel and Spa in East Grinstead has won the Best Sussex Eating Experience title at the annual Food and Drink Awards 2010 last night.
The hotel has also recently been rated as one of the top five, black four star hotels in the UK, with an overall quality rating of 86%, making the Felbridge Hotel the highest rated four-star hotel in the South East of England and the joint highest rated black four-star hotel in the whole of England.
General manager Stuart Noble said: "We are absolutely delighted with this award for the Anise which recognises not only our superb chef and his brigade, but our commitment to local Sussex suppliers and the development of their businesses as well."
In addition, The Anise has just appointed a new executive chef, Frederick Tobin, who has worked at Chequers, The Grove and The Dorchester as well as having a chef of the year title under his belt.
Tobin commented on his new position: "Sussex is packed with fantastic suppliers and food artisans who care about how their produce is brought to market. I'm very excited about working with them to achieve even greater local and national recognition for our collaborative work over the next year."
