Heston Blumenthal’s Michelin starred restaurant The Hind’s Head in Bray closed its doors on March 27th undergoing a major transformation. Now it opened its doors to invite you for a journey with a touch of magic, beautifully encapsulating its rich unique history, with playful, quirky design references to its origins as a hunting lodge and coaching inn.

The Hinds Head is offering a choice of 3, 4 and 6 course menus that change and evolve on a monthly basis, celebrating British cooking and the consummate eclectic style that it has become known for over the past 11 years.

The ground floor is now offering a larger, more cosseted, dining area. The Grade II listed oak paneling, antique beams and open fireplaces remained and are enhanced with deep, button-backed leather banquettes, heavy wooden tables and eccentric curiosities.

The wine collection was expanded and housed in its own private cellar with a glass wall temptingly overlooking the dining room. Isa Bal, Head Sommelier of The Fat Duck Group is curating the extended list, comprising of approximately 120 bins, from more well known vineyards around the world to lesser known ones, producing great wines.

Venturing upstairs, guests are invited to explore the newly created lounge. With its own bar, the space became an opulent, handsome retreat filled with comfortable sofas, armchairs, rugs, fantastical trophies and dim-glow candle light, providing the perfect backdrop to indulge in a drinks list of artisan cocktails, classic and small batch gins, champagnes and wine. A smaller menu of bar snacks is also available from the kitchen.

The private dining room, The Vicars Room, remained but underwent a dramatic redesign, with teasing, tongue-in-cheek references to the building’s association with Simon Aleyn, the infamous Vicar of Bray. A monolithic dining table hewn from a single trunk of oak dominates the room, under a pair of parlour chandeliers depicting the heads of Queens Mary I and Elizabeth I of England.

The team at Bray worked with Stephen Saunders, from interior designers Fabled Studio, to reawaken the hidden history of The Hinds Head, in a playful and eccentrically British manner. This latest chapter promises to deliver a truly unique guest experience in one of Britain’s most quintessentially English villages.