Mercure Daventry Court Hotel & Spa joined the Mercure brand, which is run by the French multi-national corporation AccorHotels with more than 4,100 hotels in 55 countries, in October 2015.
The four-star Daventry hotel is set in picturesque grounds, complete with an inner courtyard, close to Drayton Reservoir and Daventry Country Park with 155 bedrooms and is an ideal location for business and leisure, with Silverstone, Towcester Racecourse and Althorp House all within easy reach.
An extensive bedroom and spa renovation programme was completed earlier this year with all 155 bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms being upgraded.
A fitness centre is available for guests, alongside an indoor heated swimming pool, sauna, steam room and spa with three specialist treatment rooms.
Free wifi is available in all rooms and there is ample free on-site parking.
Tony Rowen discovers the hotel’s Fuel Restaurant merits a visit
ON the hottest night of the year (so far) one of the coolest places in Northamptonshire was The Fuel Restaurant at the Mercure Daventry Court Hotel & Spa. In fact, it was doubly cool. Atmospherically, it was cool thanks to the air conditioning system, and cool by virtue of the food on offer and the ambience.
Although The Fuel Restaurant is a big room capable of seating 180 diners, the clever layout gives it an intimate atmosphere while preserving a degree of privacy, with the tables well spaced. There was a healthy attendance on the evening of our visit and, being midweek, made up of mainly hotel guests, but non-residents are also welcome.
A new summer menu has just been introduced, coinciding with the recent arrival of head chef Sherif Shabayek, who is originally from Egypt but has honed his talents at various Mercure hotels around the world.
The menu is simplicity itself with diners invited to make their selections from five sections – Starters, Grills, Burgers, Salads and Our Favourites. Also featured on the menu are Brunch (served between 10am and midday), Bites and Bobs, Sandwiches & Wraps and Guilty Pleasures – more of which later.
So with glasses of chilled wine in hand, it was eyes down for Anita and I to make our choices.
Starters feature soup, prawn and avocado salad, pressed goat’s cheese and beetroot terrine, salmon fish cakes and Scotch egg. Anita’s salmon fish cakes with chorizo ketchup were a resounding hit as was my Scotch egg with roast pepper mayonnaise and pork crackling.
We both opted for main courses from the Our Favourites section which has 10 choices – Nasi Goreng (an Indonesian fried rice dish), fish pie, Thai Panang chicken curry, tiger prawn linguini, fish and chips, macaroni cheese, red onion tarte tatin, roast breast of duck, supreme of chicken and sweet potato and black bean chilli.
For me, it came down to a toss up between the fish pie or the duck, with the fish pie getting my vote and a good choice it was. It was crammed with cod, salmon, smoked haddock, prawns, peas and roasted baby onions topped off with mustard mash. Anita chose tiger prawn linguini served with pasta ribbons, chilli, ginger, lime, coriander, spring onions and garlic bread.
Both dishes were superb, but a word of warning – make sure you are really hungry as the portions were very generous but we did them justice.
The aforementioned Guilty Pleasures are the dessert choices consisting of chocolate brownie, vanilla cheesecake, sticky toffee crème brulee, selection of ice cream and sorbet, Eton mess and a cheese selection. All sound very tempting, but neither of us felt we could do justice to any of them after our delicious starters and main courses.
The Fuel Restaurant ‘proudly serve Starbucks’ coffee so we decided this was a good way to end an excellent dining experience.
The smooth running of the restaurant is overseen by manager Janey Bradley,
and complemented by an efficient, smart and friendly waiting team.
Dining out options are many and varied these days and a meal in a hotel restaurant doesn’t necessarily spring to mind, but The Fuel Restaurant certainly merits a visit.
Sean Turton – General Manager
Australian-born Sean moved to the UK from Queensland three years ago and took over the reins in Daventry seven months ago, moving from the Mercure hotel in Cardiff. He has overseen the completion of the renovation work and made a number of key staff appointments to ensure the hotel meets its four-star rating and lives up the expectations of business and leisure guests alike.
Conference facilities
The hotel boasts 13 meeting rooms – all bar two with natural daylight – capable of accommodating events for six to 700 people with a full range of facilities and packages to suit all types of events as well as a dedicated training suite.
The Danetree Suite can seat up to 700 delegates in theatre-style for meetings and 350 people for banquets and formal dinners. It will be the setting, for the second year running, for the SME Northamptonshire Business Awards evening.
Wedding venue
The attractive grounds of the hotel, coupled with the four-star facilities provide a contemporary setting for weddings. There are a number of wedding packages available, while the hotel’s dedicated events manager can advise and assist on bespoke plans for couples.
Christmas and New Year 2017
The hotel will once again be staging its popular Christmas Cracker Party Nights from the last week in November to the weekend before Christmas. There is a range of packages with food and entertainment included. The ticket price includes an unlimited selection of draught beer, house wine and draught soft drinks from the bar for the entire evening. Special bed and breakfast rates are available to party guests.
On Christmas Day, a traditional festive lunch is served. This is always popular and a sell out.
Rounding of the festive celebrations is the New Year’s Eve Party complete with champagne and canapes on arrival, dinner followed by Rat Pack-style entertainment and dancing to songs played by the resident DJ.
