Aren’t we lucky to live on the edge of the beautiful Cotswolds? Acres of fine countryside, pretty honey-coloured villages, and some truly inspiring pubs, restaurants and hotels.

It is one of these hotels that we focus on this month — the genteel Dormy House on the outskirts of tourist spot Broadway, just over the Oxfordshire borders in Worcestershire. The hotel’s brochure speaks of of ‘sophistication and charm in the Cotswolds’ which, I am happy to say, was pretty accurate.

This four-star hotel has been created from a tastefully converted and extended 17th-century farmhouse, and it is a really lovely place to relax and unwind. Within the main building there is a maze of little corridors linking graceful lounges, the Barn Owl bar and bistro, and The Dining Room restaurant, part of which is in a beautifully light and airy conservatory.

Plenty of interest It was The Dining Room that was our chosen eating venue for the evening, though the recently refurbished Barn Owl bistro is the other, less formal, option. It’s spring menu offered all manner of appealing dishes, from pea and smoked ham hock soup with potato pancakes to plaice roasted on the bone with cider and mustard-braised cockles.

There is certainly plenty of interest and innovation on the menu from the kitchens of head chef Andrew Troughton, and this, of course, extends to The Dining Room, where fine dining is the order of the day.

Preceding a shopping foray into Worcester, I was staying overnight at the Dormy with my friend, Sue, and we perused the menus over (extraordinarily large) glasses of exquisitely chilled Champagne, seated on squashy sofas in front of a roaring log fire in one of the lounges. It is all very homely and relaxed, and the staff are wonderfully helpful and efficient, without being too overbearing.

The a la carte menu offered a manageable six options on each of the three courses — which helped with the difficult task of choosing what to have.

Starters included a roast chicken consomme with sage and onion samosa; smoked haddock and grain mustard croquettes with caper puree, quail’s eggs and crispy bacon or a ‘presse’ of ham hock, guinea fowl, confit potato, caramelised cauliflower and balsamic jelly with brioche.

Sue’s choice was, what she described as ‘a light and summery’ dish of carrot canneloni of white crab with a zingy carrot and ginger cream, which got top marks.

I had the wild mushroom risotto, which was properly cooked — creamy without being cloying. It was enhanced by the addition of two unusual ingredients — smoked coffee and white chocolate — and a smooth wild mushroom veloute. It tasted divine.

Sue’s choice from the mains, which also included dry-aged Scottish beef rump and cheek with celeriac cream and girolles and slow-cooked Gressingham duck breast with smoked parsnip and roasted pear, was the Blythburgh free range pork. This melt-in-the-mouth chunk had some admirably crispy crackling and was accompaniend by ‘belly, chou farci’, little minced pork-stuffed cabbage leaves. Served with pumpkin, shallots and an apple and potato puree, it got a definite thumbs-up.

My main course of cured roasted salmon was a lighter, though no less tasty, option and was served with a crab tortellini, a fennel and vanilla puree, and spiced lentils.

And so to the coup de grace — dessert. As always, I was far too full for one of the more substantial options such as apple tarte tatin with prune and armagnac ice cream, or the cheeseboard, but I very much enjoyed the praline mousse with sweet honey ice cream and nibbles of honeycomb.

Well paced Sue went that extra mile, never being able to resist chocolate, with the dark chocolate tart, extravagantly enhanced with the most gorgeous peanut butter ice cream and a crisp croissant wafer.

Service throughout had been attentive but well paced. I always think that a ten to 15, or even 20-minute lapse between courses enhances the eating experience. My pet hate is plates pulled away barely before you have finished, and the next course plonked down. There was certainly nothing of that kind at Dormy House. Dinner took a full two hours, and an unhurried meal in good company is something to value.

We had sipped our way through a bottle of crisp, dry Pinot Gris over dinner, and we returned to a squashy sofa in front of the fire to round things off in the drinks department with coffee for me, a pot of tea for Sue, and some irresistible petit fours.

Dormy House Hotel, Willersey Hill, Broadway, Worcestershire WR12 7LF, tel: 01386 852711