Updown Farmhouse

Drive 15 minutes from Kentish coastal town Deal, down a country road, then along a muddy track, and suddenly, on your right, you’ll spy twinkling lights, and secluded countryside stay Updown Farmhouse will appear from the darkness of the woodlands like a vision from a happy dream. The hotel was one of those rare successful lockdown projects, where its clever owners opened a restaurant with rooms in a Grade-II-listed building set over seven-and-a-half acres of rambling gardens. Arriving in the evening, we felt like we were being welcomed into someone’s perfectly arranged home – the house was warm and welcoming, with its colourful lounge, honesty bar, board games, books, and covetable art; and upstairs were the equally inviting bedrooms (with more set in two cottages in the grounds). The house’s older façade (all handsome redbrick) is hidden from the road, facing the grounds, which you reach through a porch lined with borrowable wellies; a manicured garden is scattered with sunloungers, and a little further afield a heated barn houses the kitchen and restaurant.

On that subject… It’s the food that draws guests and hungry locals to dine in this forest near the sea. Chef Oli Brown (who owns the hotel with his partner Ruth Leigh) previously founded Duck Duck Goose in South London, and his seasonal Italian-inspired menus here are similarly divine. The kitchen has a baker’s oven built into a wall of the former stables, and vegetables are gathered from the on-site kitchen garden. The team regularly organise special nights here too, where Britain’s favourite chefs join them in the kitchen – when we were staying, a truffle-themed menu (which it would be unfair to tempt you with as it’ll have come and gone by the time this is published) by chef Tim Siadatan (of Trullo and Padella fame) was upcoming. The restaurant has an array of potted tomato plants, and the corrugated-plastic roof is wound through with vines; rain gently pitter patters on it, making a cosy soundtrack to the meal. We were here on steak night, which offered a deceptively casual set menu, cooked to perfection.

In autumn 2023 Updown Farmhouse launched a new hideaway – the Gate House, a self-contained two-bedroom cottage, up by the kitchen garden beside the main house. It’s quietly opulent, with two bedrooms (a master with a king-size bed, and a little room with bunk-beds for small children) beside a living room with views across the gardens. The calm interiors are shot through with bold paintings by Salvadoran artist José Campos, the founder of Margate’s Studio Lenca. Us Smiths sat for a brief but glorious while on the house’s plump patterned sofa the next day, eating homemade biscuits and reading the perfectly chosen books that were waiting for each of us, from fairytales to Katy Hessel’s The Story of Art Without Men. Everywhere, gentle touches from the owners made us feel cared for – the staff and service were warm and quietly accommodating in the very best of ways.

After a grand breakfast (of scrambled eggs and salmon which had been smoked on site) we drove through the woods to the sea. Deal is a place that has embraced the gentrification, artistic community and unique boutiques you can find in other coastal towns like Brighton, but manages to remain just rough enough around the edges that you’re not blinded by, say, the gleam of polished mid-century furniture or aroma of botanical scented candles. We intended to walk along the cliffs from Dover to Deal, but ended up strolling along the pebbly beach instead, eating at Deal Pier Kitchen, a glass-walled restaurant at the end of the Brutalist structure, then making several ice-cream stops everywhere else. Margate is a short drive away up the coast, and we ended up there as night fell. We’d planned to settle in at  Sargasso (a small-plates eatery and wine bar run by the team behind acclaimed East London restaurant Brawn), but instead – with hyperactive kids in tow – we settled for fish and chips on the beach. 

On returning to Updown after a day spent bustling through the towns of the Kent Riviera, we were hit again by the effortless glamour of the place. Surrounded by trees, it feels as though the whole property is hidden, a grand, walled secret garden. This is one of those rare places where you can dip into the fantasy of a rural retreat, while feeling luxuriously looked after by staff who balance professionalism with a cosy friendliness. I can’t wait to go back.