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St Albans
Restaurant at Sopwell House

With its stylish interior and fresh new menu, The Restaurant at Sopwell House is St Albans’ most eagerly anticipated restaurant. In a class of its own, it has set the bar even higher for other restaurants in St Albans to follow suit.

The brand new restaurant sits on the site where the former Magnolia Restaurant was located. Having been recognised as an icon of the St Albans fine dining scene for more than a decade, the Magnolia closed its doors to its patrons in order to undergo a major facelift.

‘The Magnolia was an established, successful restaurant but it needed to undergo a top to bottom renovation to keep up with the changing demands and tastes of its clientele,’ says Charles Morgan, Group Operations Director of AB Hotels Ltd, owners of Sopwell House Hotel in St Albans, Hertfordshire. The hotel was formerly the Georgian country home of Lord Mountbatten and traditions at Sopwell were born in an era when service, hospitality and elegance were the standard, not exception.

The new restaurant is now simply called The Restaurant at Sopwell House. The name change is part of an effort by the hotel to broadcast to its patrons that it is a brand new restaurant that is both modern and timeless.

Sopwell House commissioned RDD plc, London-based hotel and restaurant interior architectural design experts, to give the new restaurant a more relaxed, comfortable and contemporary ambience but without straying too far from convention and alienating loyal customers.

To complement its new look, the restaurant’s menu also underwent a makeover. Sopwell House has hired award-winning chef Leigh Diggins, formerly with the Island Restaurant in London, to create a menu that spotlights modern British cuisine. Chef Diggins describes his menu as ‘seasonal and simple, made fresh from local ingredients, just pure honest food.’ Leigh Diggins is cited as one of the stalwarts of British cuisine, having been named by Enjoy England, the official tourist board of England, as one of its Food Heroes.

The new restaurant also features a superb wine collection housed in an impressive wall display – customers can choose from an array of wines from around the world to complete their dining experience.

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