The Old England

They called this guest house and restaurant as The Old England. Well it wasn't old, is one of the newest house building and most visited place in Cing Jing Nantou, charms from the moment you set eyes on it, especially when the weather is clear.

Old England is full of character with its charming Tudor style exterior and traditional interior decor. The intimate and sophisticated public areas make the hotel ideal for relaxing out of the city.

The rustic, homely appearance of the building set amongst its own secluded garden area, fountain ,statues , and the clock tower can been seen.

They even manage to mimic the English Tudor style faux chimney with dark terracotta timber roof and beams. Just the perfect environment to attract customers.

Regretable there is no view from inside the restaurant, but the view from the parking lot is the best to see the mountain terrain. Behind the stable block are the entrances to the lavatories. Along the lavatory wall, beside a narrow path. If you can manage to walk on the terrace with decking and covered seating area it is absolutely dazzling.

The mansion has a separate guest house with full dining and living area. When I walked in, it was like being transported into England, however if you never been to Europe you really get this feeling, it's beautiful in here. You'd think you were really transported magically to England! When I was looking around, one thing it caught my eyes is the fireplace it stand on the middle of  restaurant. But then when I'm tried to warm up my hand, I found it just a decoration. Since it was built in the cold and snowy mountain region, we should attached the real thing and functionable. The fireplace is a very vital part and proving warmth and comfort during cold weather isn't it? The ambiance of the restaurant is intimate and cozy-elegant look.

The dining tables are scattered around and the tables are too closed from each other. And a buffet table with enough heating elements to keep the entire area, I'm kidding.

Since it's everyone has gone, I got opportunity to sneak around the other dining section. If you are planning to  dine here just book this table in advanced and not too noisy when its packed. This place is flocked with families during weekend.

The Old England featured one of the best weekend buffet style  in the region, offers a selection of European and some Chinese cuisine. I was disappointed, we come here for afternoon tea set meal but they provide a eat all you can for amount NT$450 or 475 per person with a small selection in the buffet table. The quality of food slipped and the sideshows became unbearable before the closing on the noon snack. We were seated beside the bar and people are walking around us. After 30 minutes the staff came in to inform we should finish our meal at 5 o'clock and they will start to prepare for dinner. They should let us to know before going inside specially it was 4 o'clock when we started. However we still had time to eat in rush. We got pears in red wine and seasonal salad were ok.

And I had on my plate for the next round was a mixed of creamy broiled fish, roasted herb chicken, spicy squid, and sauteed mushroom was delicious.

The croquembouche or puff pastry, a small pastries filled with cream was nice.

For my last plate I had a baguette with cheese and smoked chicken, puff pastry, chocolate tart, and frozen pumpkin mousse cake.

I then moved on to the hot blueberry tea.

Green tea and ricotta cheese chocolate tart.

The texture of chocolate cake it wasn't soft and its very cold and dry but still delicious.

A decadent pumpkin pie with creamy pumpkin mousse filling on top.

The chocolate tart was extremely smooth and creamy. It melt on your palate and slid down your throat gently. It was the best dessert amongst all the other sweets on offer. A few more that I could remember but didn’t take photos of pasta in green color, sauteed vegetables, steamed chicken, beef stew, bread and cheese, walnut rice, soup of the day, they serve a range of tea and coffee on the bar.

***

Verdict; The service was good they always keep your table clean. As many will tell you, it has a fabulous restaurant. While the quality of the food is equally good and some just bland. The atmosphere it was noisy and chaotic and not elegant at all, at the very end you realized your dinning in a very ordinary buffet restaurant. The Old England it is more of an English themed guest house if not a bit tad. But priced higher than the Music Villa and Shangrila hanging resort. However it was a good place for photographer and this would be a great place to explore.

***

The Old England-老英格蘭莊園
546南投縣仁愛鄉大同村壽亭巷20-2號
N0.20-2, 20-2 Shouting Ln, Da Tong Village, Ren-ai Township Nantou County 546. Taiwan
Contact No: 049-2802169
Website:
http://www.theoldengland.com/