The Leonardslee team is overjoyed to announce that Tripadvisor has named Michelin Star Restaurant Interlude as a 2022 Travellers' Choice award winner in the Restaurants category. 

We are so delighted to be recognised by our visitors for what is most important: delivering a great experience for all who come, dine, and stay with us. This award is a testament to our dedication to providing wonderful cuisine and service, as well as a recognition of all of our hard work over the years. 

Our team would like to thank everyone who has visited us and hopes that you will return. 

This award recognises businesses that regularly provide extraordinary dining experiences to guests all around the world, as evidenced by excellent Tripadvisor ratings in the previous year. Despite the fact that the last few years have been difficult for many in the industry, Restaurant Interlude has stood out by consistently pleasing guests. 

Executive Chef Jean Delport and his staff at Restaurant Interlude recently won a Michelin Star for a further year. It is one of the first UK restaurants with its own vineyard to receive the accolade and is located inside historic Leonardslee Lakes & Gardens estate near Horsham in West Sussex. 

The tasting menu is inspired by the Grade I-listed woodland gardens, with food foraged or cultivated on the 240-acre Leonardslee estate. Other ingredients are supplied by carefully chosen local farmers. Dining at Interlude is available weekly from Thursday through Sunday. 

Guests are greeted warmly in the majestic corridor of the 1855-built Italianate-style Leonardslee House, to the dulcet tones of the self-playing piano. After cocktails in the bar at 18:00, visitors are then seated in the restaurant. To the east and south, there are extensive views of the South Downs, as well as of the woodland gardens in the valley below. 

Restaurant Interlude dinner guests experience a seasonal menu that might include estate rabbit, winter purslane, hogweed cider and charcoal; also, fallow deer venison with local braai and sour raspberry, or oyster, foraged greens and juniper. 

Chef Jean incorporates excellent wines from his home nation of South Africa into his innovative tasting menus, including those from the award-winning Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate near Cape Town. 

"Winning the Tripadvisor award has enabled us to further extend our objective of offering fresh, seasonal meals with an emphasis on local sources and sustainable processes. We now have a forum for discussing these issues with guests and other restaurants in our neighbourhood, as well as informing them about all of the ways we're working toward better food for everyone,” say Chef Jean.