Is This The UK's Most Creative Dining Experience This Summer?

A fine dining Japanese meal inside a hot air balloon on a Victorian country estate? Yes, please!

Following last year’s wildly successful “Summer of Love” experience, the team at luxury hotel Beaverbrook has brought the balloons back – and they’re bursting with colour, bubbly, and delicious food.

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The Hotel

Tucked in an intimate corner of the Surrey Hills, Beaverbrook is a sprawling 400-acre estate which exudes quintessential British charm. With 18 rooms named after past distinguished guests, such as Charlie Chaplin, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rudyard Kipling, The House at Beaverbrook is a sight to behold. The Grade-II-listed building towers over the magnificent gardens and terrace, and can be seen in the distance on arrival as you zoom through the trees in a bright orange Moke car on the way to the property’s newest addition, The Village. Along with The Coach House and The Garden House, The Village offers cottages and additional rooms perfect for families or larger groups.

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Famed interior designers Nicola Harding and Soho House’s Susie Atkinson are responsible for the tasteful pops of colour we admired upon walking through The House, bringing a contemporary touch to the building’s Neoclassical architecture.

The Dining Experience 

More jewelled tones greeted us as we made our way to The Italian Gardens, where six raspberry red and rose pink striped stationary hot air balloons came into view. Luxury tablescape company Summerill & Bishop partnered with Beaverbrook once again to bring a whimsical, elegant feel to both the tableware and the balloons themselves.

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Each balloon seats up to four guests and well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome to join in the festivities. The menu is by Beaverbrook Executive Development Chef Wojciech Popow, who has had stints at Noma and Roka. To start, a beautiful plate of sashimi arrives with standouts including melt-in-your-mouth dry-aged bluefin tuna, Loch Duart salmon, and Wild Cornish red mullet.

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Next, an interactive yakiniku grill is brought out, and our group of (amateur) grillmasters cooked up a storm to enjoy, including Kyushu Island wagyu, West Country lamb, and Royal Windsor Park fallow deer, eaten alongside a selection of dipping sauces. Dessert reflected the day’s colour themes with a Japanese version of a Baked Alaska – delicate sakura sponge cake is topped with a salted caramel layer, all encapsulated in a flamed meringue. Last – but not least – we enjoyed a vintage Champagne flight curated by Moët & Chandon.

This is Japanese-inspired dining (but not quite as you know it), at an English country estate (but also not quite as you know it). If one thing is for sure, however, it’s that it will be hard to find a more creative, playful and delicious dining experience this summer.