Colyton Restaurant Guide

“Set in beautiful rolling countryside” in a “very rural part of Devon”, a “charming, civilised and completely individual” outfit – think Anglo agriturismo – set up by Hugo Guest and wife Olivia five years ago in the Georgian house where he grew up. The “interesting set menus” (three-, four- or six-course) are inspired by Italy and France and, by all accounts, ex-Fat Duck chef David Knapman’s food is simply “top-class”, making it an “absolute treat both to stay the night or to go for a meal”.

“Convivial” 14th-century pub-with-rooms in a picturesque village – “cosy in winter and very pleasant outside in the summer” – whose charms of a thatched roof and log fires have been boosted by a £2million refurb from newish owner, the St Austell Brewery. The “traditional pub food” is “very well cooked”, and the “great staff” guarantee a “warm welcome”.

2024 Review: Try to nab a window seat – or in fine weather a place on the terrace – if you visit this brilliantly well-situated venue. All reports rate its “good fresh fish” from “rather a short menu” (which also features local beef as an alternative to the seafood). One supporter also muses that it’s “quite expensive – is it trading on its excellent position”?

One of the better Pigs! – an Elizabethan mansion where the menu is “not haute cuisine”, admittedly, but where the solid cooking (much sourced from the “terrific kitchen garden”), and “brilliant breakfasts” (“the full works is a plateful”) mostly “deliver on expectation”, even given the considerable hype attached to the chain. The most hard-hearted review this year says: “It’s nice enough, and in an area of weak competition it’s worth the trip, but if the setting wasn’t so great, I don’t think the food would taste as nice!”. In autumn 2026, the litter is to expand to eleven with the birth of the Pig at Groombridge, Tunbridge Wells.

This “lovely local gastropub” – originally a 16th-century coaching inn where Devon, Dorset and Somerset meet – has won a dedicated following over 15 years for “food and service that make it stand out from all other local eateries”. Food and drink are sourced as far as possible from the three counties, and “though relatively expensive for the area, prices are absolutely worth it for the meal you get – the taster menu is just superb”.

2023 Review: Two vintage railway carriages near the sea and harbour in the former West Bay station constitute this “delightful” venue. The cooking is sometimes seen as the weakest link (“they try hard, without really hitting the spot”), but most reports are upbeat, citing “above average food” in an “unusual and quirky setting”. Since our annual diners’ poll concluded, change is afoot with a new arrangement introduced in autumn 2022, which sees fine dining from chef Chris Chatfield’s seasonal menu in the newer ‘Beeching’ carriage, and relaxed dining in ‘Brunel’, from the First World War, with both menus available in the dog-friendly ‘Station House’.

Radhika Mohendra’s and Jollyon Carter’s “wonderfully tasty” dishes that combine British and Asian flavours are the attraction at this “cosmopolitan” outfit, “tucked away down a back alley in a little town in West Dorset”. The menu is neatly divided between ‘Dumplings (steamed or fried)’ and ‘Not Dumplings (hot or cold)’; the former are filled with everything from organic curried lamb to Dorset red cheddar.

It’s all change at this well-known Exeter pub and restaurant (handy for the M5) where, in April 2024, longtime owner Paul Parnell, who ran the venture with his wife Judy for over three decades, handed over the keys to young couple Craig & Miranda Griffin. Easing the transition, Craig was head chef under the former regime for several years (his wife serving as pub manager) so we’ve retained the venue’s rating despite the change of ownership. According to the new website, “pub grub classics are given a delicious kick up the backside”, and there’s also a £65 per person tasting menu.

2023 Review: Landlord James Garnham took over this lovely thatched pub in his boyhood village with his wife Charlie five years ago, building an excellent reputation for its food and hospitality. “We have now visited 3 times in as many weeks – which says it all!”.

2022 Review: Former River Cottage chef Dom Moldenhauer is now “cooking whatever he can source that day” and serving it in “very different” four-course evening set menus at this new venture, following on from a pop-up during the first lockdown. The venue is open Wed-Sat, and by all accounts the “food is superb!”.

2022 Review: “Like being on the Med, only with local IPAs and bitters” instead of a carafe of wine or Campari – an “excellent” two-year-old seafood restaurant (primarily) where diners can enjoy “friendly service”, “superb” sharing platters and the “most extravagant Niçoise ever!”. After a meal, make sure to check out the neighbouring arts hub Town Mill.

2024 Review: As the name suggests, “a great, intimate atmosphere” is found at this seventeenth-century village inn, which is “a cut above the usual for style and service”. Charlotte Vincent was crowned ‘pub chef of the year’ in the 2023 Great British Pub Awards – she sends out “a varied range of dishes, nearly all locally sourced and precisely cooked”, such as a bar snack of roasted marrow bone and Porlock Bay oyster with garlic butter and sourdough bread.