Croydon has just welcomed its first Michelin Guide recommended restaurant.

Each month the UK’s definitive handbook for good dining adds new restaurants, pubs and bistros to its growing list of venues that are at the top of their game.

Elodie, the flagship restaurant at Birch Selsdon, was one of the eight London establishments to be added to the guide this month.

The restaurant, along with Birch community’s second site, opened this summer. Birch Selsdon is an 181-room “lifestyle” hotel created out of a 19th century manor on the edge of London which is set in 200 acres of rewilded land.

Elodie’s five course tasting menu is as focused on bringing nature to you as the hotel is. Created by head chef Lee Westcott, who set up the Michelin-starred Worcestershire restaurants Pensons, the seasonal menu utilises nature’s bounty through veg-forward dishes made from foraged and home-grown ingredients alongside top British Isles produce. Even the cocktails use locally foraged ingredients.

The Michelin Guide praised the restaurant for towing Birch’s nature loving ethos, commenting that “the whole place [Birch] has a theme of reconnecting with nature, which is reflected in a seasonal tasting menu that features produce from their own garden and gives plenty of attention to vegetables – dishes like grill courgettes are worth looking out for”.

It also stated: “The sprawling Selsdon Park dates back to the reign of King Henry VIII. Today, its 200 acres of land and enormous 17C red-brick mansion are home to one of two Birch Hotels which houses, among other things, this large restaurant with wood-panelling and some retro '70s décor.”

You can read a Newsquest review of the restaurant, which describes the dishes as “the sort of thing a well-to-do woodland fairy living in the rewilded land nearby might eat”, here.

The restaurant is housed in the impressive manor, in a large dining room that retains its original features, and which interiors evoke a nostalgic retro tone.

To read the  full list of new additions to the Michelin Guide, visit guide.michelin.com

Find Elodie at  32 Selsdon Road, South Croydon CR2 6PB and for more information visit birchcommunity.com