Mr & Mrs Smith

The Green House

Dorset, United Kingdom

A five-minute meander from the city centre and the sands, The Green House is a smart seaside hotel that’s been given an eco-friendly overhaul. Sustainability informs everything from the furnishings (white, woody and, of course, green) to the food – the restaurant’s Modern British dishes are among the best in Bournemouth.

Need to know

• Rooms 32.
• Rates Double rooms from $125.14 (£83), excluding tax at 20 per cent.
  The price shown represents the lowest nightly rate for a double room available at this hotel over the next 21 days. Any price conversions from the hotel's local currency (£83) have been conducted using today's exchange rates from xe.com.
• More details Rates usually include a full cooked breakfast of fresh New Forest produce.
• Facilities Small garden, DVD library (and players to borrow), free WiFi throughout. In rooms: eco-friendly LED TV, Bose iPod dock, tea and coffee (courtesy of the eco kettle), bespoke low-impact bath products.
• Check-out 11am, but later check-out may be possible, for a charge. Earliest check-in, 3pm.
• Children Welcome, although there are no outstandingly family-friendly facilities. Travel cots can be borrowed (extra beds are £30) and there’s baby changing in the toilets near the restaurant.
• Also One room has been adapted for wheelchair users. The hotel is a popular wedding venue on weekends, so be prepared for the bar and lounge to be busy. Check when you book to find out if there's an event on.

Food and drink at The Green House

• Hotel restaurant

  It might not sound like much to say the Green Room restaurant is the best in Bournemouth but it’s been drawing appreciative nods from those in the gastro know since it opened. As you’d expect, chef Andrew Hilton takes sustainability seriously, tweaking the menu almost daily to take advantage of what’s fresh, seasonal and readily available from the local area. The six-course tasting menu, which gives starring roles to dishes such as fluffed hen’s egg and black pudding, spicy squash soup and satsuma soufflé, is gloriously good value, and vegetarians are very well looked after, too.

• Dress code Informal, though things get suity during the week; country casuals at weekends.
• Top table By the bay window, in the middle, where it’s brightest (by day) and free from passing elbows.
• Last orders The Green Room serves dinner until 10pm (lunch is 12.30pm–2pm and breakfast, 7.30am–9.30am). Guests can drink in the bar around the clock. You can take afternoon tea anywhere in the hotel between midday and 6pm, but the best spot is outside on the lawn.
• Room service There’s a 24-hour menu of snacks and sandwiches, with a handful of hot dishes and a tasty cheese platter.
• Hotel bar

  Just off the lobby, the Green Room’s snug rectangular bar area is papered in Farrow & Ball thistle-print brocade (best not mention the fact it’s upside down), and dotted with comfy toweling-topped seating in green and purple. It’s ideal for pre-dinner berry mojitos, Sunday brunchtime Bloody Marys, or just a pint of Dorset ale. There’s a wide-ranging biodynamic wine list, too.

The Green House 4 Grove Road, Bournemouth, Dorset BH1 3AX