Birch Vale, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: This Grade II-listed former coaching inn incorporates fourteenth-century Whitehough Hall, whose dining room with a minstrels’ gallery provides a medieval setting for the “excellent food” served here. Former banker Daniel Capper took over the running of his childhood home when a leaseholder failed.

2023 Review: Fooderati insider Thom Hetherington was amongst those sending out an SOS on behalf of this well-regarded neighbourhood restaurant in his hometown, which was gutted by fire in September 2022. By the end of the month it had crowdfunded the money to re-open and restore its mix of funky small plates (typically you would order 7-8 in a meal), plus gins, cocktails and a thoughtful small selection of wines.

“A pub that can serve ultra-fresh, skillfully cooked seafood is a rare treat” – “this country inn in the hills above Macclesfield” has a “light and comfortable small dining room adjacent to the old bar”. It enjoys “strong support from the village”, which clubbed together 20 years ago to buy the freehold when the pub was threatened with closure.

It’s “well worth a trip out” to the Peak District National Park to find this “exceptional” small village gastroboozer; chef Luke Payne’s “upmarket food with a northern twist” has won the seal of approval from many a national restaurant critic, and there are excellent walks from the door.