Grafton Manor - Bromsgrove

Home to the 'Earls of Grafton' (aka. the Morris family) since 1945, this old manor house still sports Elizabethan-style chimneys, a carved sandstone porch, tall mullioned windows and even a private chapel - making it a highly popular wedding hotspot.

Formal meals are served in a truly resplendent dining room with sumptuous fittings, wood panelling and tapestries. The surroundings may be aristocratically English, but the food throws up plenty of surprises. Four-course dinner menus tip their hat to modern country-house cuisine, but the real stars are the Indian dishes (a private passion of Simon Morris and his culinary team).

Expect to find spicy Goan crab cakes with chickpea and peanut salad, sali chicken caffrael with Indian vegetables or Maharashtran prawns with carrot purée alongside creative occidental dishes such as home-salted monkfish and confit chicken wings with nettle emulsion or pan-fried duck breast with apple, foie gras, fennel and red wine jus. Desserts might range from whisky steamed pudding to lemon and lime posset with shortbread, while France is the main contributor to the heavyweight wine list.