Terravina, Netley Marsh

10:44am Saturday 16th February 2008

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IDLY, I wondered as I walked in what it was the chef was whisking away at.

Clearly visible from my table, Rory Duncan was hard at work yards away in his open kitchen that is the heartbeat of the New Forest's newest hotel and restaurant, Terravina.

Moments later I found out, when my starter of crab and leek lasagne turned up, amidst a foaming, fleshy- pink sauce that had literally been prepared before my eyes moments earlier.

And so it tasted - fresh, beautifully balanced and artfully constructed, much like the rest of this stunning new hotel.

Opened late last year by Gerrard and Nina Basset - half the team behind the legendarily successful Hotel du Vin chain - Terravina is consciously different from its lauded forerunner.

It looks across the Atlantic rather than the Channel for its inspiration, specifically California, which affords a modern, airy feel a world away from its previous incarnation as the lace-draped wedding favourite that was the Buskett Lawn hotel.

The most visible inheritance from the US West Coast is the open kitchen, which next produced my main course of halibut with a vierge sauce. A revelation in every mouthful, this was fish at its epic best - immaculately cooked, tender white flesh, with rosy cherry tomatoes and the zesty green vierge sauce going off like fireworks in your mouth.

Such flash-harry culinary heroics are a little out of step with the quiet excellence exuded by the rest of the place, which really allows the food to shine.

The service and the wine list deserve special attention, as they are the respective specialities of the husband and wife team that run it.

A former hotel inspector, Nina's eye for detail is evident everywhere from the attentive but not interfering, smart yet casual staff through to the eye-catching oak tile floor, to the twisting locally made staircase in the foyer leading to the beautiful bathrooms of the hotel rooms above.

One of the world's top wine experts, Gerrard's influence is best seen underground in the brick arches of his specially created cellar, packed with great wines from around the globe. And yet, the wine list isn't going to scare your bank manager and he's approachably on hand to guide you through the maze of matching bottle to plate.

Essential really, considering how here booze can crop up in the most unusual and delightful places. Not least the ice cream. Guinness ice cream, to be exact, which despite some initial hesitancy, proved to be stunning, managing to be both dark and beery while sweet and creamy at the same time. Absolutely fantastic.

Terravina fills a yawning void in the restaurant offer in and around Southampton (it's just five minutes out of the city by car). Nowhere else around here serves food this good in such a relaxed environment. Surely it can only be a matter of time before it wins a Michelin Star.