Well, last Christmas we were lucky enough to get a Mr & Mrs Smith voucher as a Christmas present and I can't believe it took us until October half term to actually sort out a weekend when we could cash it in!

We looked at several different places but didn't want to be too far from Suffolk where the girls were staying. We had had a lovely stay previously at Ickworth House near Bury St Edmunds which is thoroughly recommended, as well as the slightly quirky Strattons in Swaffham which had the best cooked breakfast ever!

So we settled on Tuddenham Mill in a small village near Newmarket which had good reviews on the Mr & Mrs Smith website. We booked a two night stay with dinner there on the Saturday night. What I had failed to acknowledge until after I booked it was that it was the weekend on the rugby world cup final so we had to plan that in on the Sunday morning!

The room was large and light with a very comfortable bed, high ceiling and a view over the water. I can imaging in summer it is lovely to sit out in the garden over a glass of chardonnay! The bathroom was amazing with the biggest bath ever!

We were looking forward to dinner as the menu looked interesting to say the least. We had a nice cocktail in the bar beforehand and then settled down in the restaurant. To start, I had a Yorkshire hare with pickled celeriac, apple and mint and Jon had the carpaccio of pork with crackling and pickled turnip - both tasty and interesting. For main, I plumped for the lamb rump and shoulder with butternut squash, smoked paprika, and sea veg which seemed like a safe bet but was served with a kind of squash tapioca and wasn't to my liking. Jon went with the special dish which was muntjac deer which he thoroughly enjoyed.

I declined pudding but Jon caved in. The pudding was the most disappointing dish with fairly bland ice cream and little flavour.

In summary, I think they are trying too hard with the food - I found it a little over complicated but with fresh delicious ingredients. With a bottle of house wine the bill was £130 for two.

The stay at Tuddenham was relaxing and lazy (we had a nice country walk on the Sunday morning) but our overall feeling was that it is a little tired and in need of a little TLC. With rooms between £200 - £300 a night you want pure luxury!