Bearwood Restaurant Guide

This well-known border-country inn is “still one of the best places to eat in the area”, with “well prepared and flavoursome food”. Long-time regulars miss Steve & Nicola Reynolds, who retired a couple of years ago, but the new management team of chef Tom Tudor and his partner Vittoria Turolla, FOH, have settled in well and the place is now “performing better again”.

2021 Review: Between Ludlow and Leominster, this sixteenth-century, black and white pub was taken over and revamped in spring 2018. Feedback on the new regime is too limited as yet for a full rating, but all of it is upbeat.

Ideal for a “hideaway date night in the shires”, with a “combination of discrete modern features melded into an ancient, beautiful and comfortable building” (whose stone dining room was built at the time of the Norman Conquest) – Pippa & Willem Vlok’s country-house guarantees a “really great experience”. “Truly remarkable staff” include head chef Nick Bennett, whose “highly skilled cooking” produces meals to savour.

2022 Review: This “busy” seventeenth-century inn is appreciated for its “simple, tasty, well-executed dishes” of “good honest food”.

“Highly recommend if you are around Hay on Wye” – a “small but perfectly formed restaurant” which puts its emphasis on “very locally sourced dishes that are well prepared” from a “carefully-put-together tasting menu” (five courses for £60 per person) “with unexpected but lovely flavour combinations”.

2022 Review: A steak-led “relative newcomer” – named for the former use of these premises – where the main event graces a “short, meat-focused menu” that “clearly concentrates on what they are skilled at” (though there’s also praise for the “second-to-none” coffee and cakes). “Fantastic staff” and a “great ambience” round out its charms…“if you take clients they never fail to be impressed”.

2023 Review: The first bricks-and-mortar venture from Hereford’s 10 year-old ‘A Rule of Tum’ hospitality group, this local hit serves “top burgers in a great atmosphere”, with a focus on locally produced beef and other produce. A branch in Worcester has followed.

“A lovely setting – tucked away in a quiet-but-central location” beside the remains of Hereford’s castle moat adds to the joys of the Watkins family’s Grade II-listed Georgian hotel. Reports are limited, but all approve the cooking from Hungarian-born chef Gabor Katona (with much produce from the owners’ farm at Ballingham Hall, nearby).

“Interesting and well-prepared local food” – “now with a Middle Eastern influence” – is on the menu at this idyllic spot from the four Crouch brothers, aka the CSONS. “The pleasure of dining here is derived not just from the good food but also the location at Dirham Weir, beside the River Teme, with wildlife to watch and even the chance of spotting an otter”.

2021 Review: Just across the River Teme from Ludlow Castle, a short walk from Dinham Bridge, this small hotel incorporates a conservatory restaurant extension with garden views, and terrace for the summer. Reviews of Ian Pugh’s modernised but relatively traditional cooking are very positive: “consistently delivering a good quality dining experience, with an imaginatively presented, seasonal menu”.

This “great little French brasserie serves all the classics in an unpretentious, enjoyable and charming way”, close to the centre of this historic market town. In summer 2023, proprietors Olivier & Lynette Bossut took over the shop next door, launching it as a café and deli called Marmalade, with their son Ryan in charge.

“This lovely Ludlow restaurant” makes a suitable setting for “old-fashioned high-end dining” that showcases “top-notch” cooking from well-travelled chef Wayne Smith, who has worked for luminaries including Pierre Koffmann, Richard Corrigan, Tom Aikens and Claude Busi – the latter having put this address on the gastronomic map as Hibiscus. The venue “has been a little inconsistent over the years”, going bust as La Bécasse, but Wayne has brought stability since 2015, and “recent meals eaten there have been excellent, each course finely prepared and very tasty”.

“What a pub dining experience should be like” – this “lovely old drovers’ pub at the foot of Black Hill” may be remote (the Welsh border isn’t far off) but “if you can find it, you will not be disappointed”; after long lying idle, it was reinvented by John Stead of Longtown’s Wild By Nature group, and its ingredient-led gastropub menu is winning highly positive reports. Watch out for rooms coming soon.

A “lovely restaurant with a view of distant Clee Hill, and situated in a pretty conservatory on one side of the gorgeously restored Fishmore Hall hotel” (replete with fancy spa since 2016). Chef Phil Kerry worked his way up from sous chef, and turns out “superb” tasting menus and à la carte dishes that are “really innovative”. The venue also hosts a more casual bistro.