Somerset Restaurant Guide

Adam & Martin Fellows’s “homely”, “small bistro” continues to inspire nothing but good vibes. “Very friendly and competent staff” deliver “good quality”, “expertly prepared” French food in “copious portions”. In 2024 it will hit its twentieth anniversary.

“Excellent food in a converted former bank” is the ‘elevator pitch’ for this November 2021 newcomer from Nicholas Balfe, Mark Gurney and Matt Bushnell of south London’s Levan and Larry’s. Initial reports are upbeat all-round on all aspects of the 30-cover dining room in the original vault, complete with open kitchen and bookable diners’ counter. Or you can now also eat on the newly added outside terrace (also available for drop-in coffee, drinks and snacks) and next year will see the opening of seven bedrooms.

“Love this place” – set in historic Hadspen House and its famous gardens (operated since 2019 as a luxury hotel, shop and restaurant by South African billionaire Koos Bekker and his wife Karen Roos, an ex-editor of Elle Decoration). It’s “beautifully done”, and the “wood-panelled restaurant in the old house, with its candlelit atmosphere”, makes an ideal setting for “a wonderful, surprising tasting menu”, which is “certainly not your usual country house hotel food” – and which includes pairings with cider produced on the estate. (“Perfect on a late summer evening as the sun finally sets after some great pre-dinner cocktails”).

“A local ‘go-to’ restaurant” where co-owner Richard Guest is at the stoves, and where “there are always some surprise choices on the excellent modern European/French menu”. Co-owner Cedric Chirrosel runs the front of house, with dining in the courtyard in warmer months.

“Kind of a romantic and fantastic Scandi-Bristolian take on dining!” – “You’d have to go a long way to replicate this really original experience”, where you eat in the “special location of a marvellous Victorian walled garden with lovely views (of the Mendips)”. There’s a “very individual” menu prepared by head chef Mark McCabe with 14 courses for £150 per person: “just superbly executed, if expensive”.

This “beautiful” eighteenth-century chapel was converted 15 years ago into an all-day restaurant-with-rooms, artisan bakery and wine shop, centred around a “fantastic” modern dining room. (In August 2022, after our annual diners’ poll concluded, founder Catherine Butler sold the business to the Stay Original Company, which has five other boutique hotels and pubs in the southwest, and pledged to carry on without major changes).

“Every mouthful is divine” at ex-Portland and Clipston chef Merlin Labron-Johnson’s “tiny restaurant in rural Somerset” that “dares to be different” – serving a set meal with no menu, “so you just sit back and await the surprises (you receive a menu sheet at the end of the meal)”. “I was absolutely stunned by the intensity of flavours, the simple presentation and responsible sourcing of ingredients”. “Some ingredients I had never tasted before, and the flavour pairings were creative and so exciting” – “what an incredible surprise, superb from start to finish”.

This “canteen in a converted barn” with “one or two more upscale menu items – for example, smoked local trout and excellent Devon scallops, with very good chips” – is attached to the rural gallery of Swiss contemporary art dealers Hauser & Wirth, and is named after Dieter Roth: one of the artists they represent. The venue kick-started their Artfarm hospitality spin-off, which has spawned rather grander projects in Mayfair and Los Angeles, and last year snapped up London’s Groucho Club.

2021 Review: This “lovely” thatched village pub opened in 1680 as an inn for passing travellers, and still makes a “delightful stopover” just off the A303 near Crewkerne. Ratings for its “high quality”, “classical” food have revived in the past 12 months under new owners backed by Nick Jones of Soho House (who also own the Beckford Arms at Tisbury and the Talbot Inn at Mells). Steve Hill and Michelle Payton, who ran it for 15 years, have retired to France.

2022 Review: After 15 years, the Michelin-starred Pony & Trap gastropub in Chew Magna – owned by chef Josh Eggleton and his sister Holly – is to reopen in a new guise in 2022. The Eggleton siblings have also opened Pony Bistro, in Bedminster (see also) and this, their former HQ, will operate ‘no longer as a gastropub, but as a wedding venue, cookery school and restaurant’.

2022 Review: Opened in June 2021, this tastefully revamped old pub is the work of the Eggleton family – the team behind The Pony & Trap (now known as The Pony Chew Magna). The offering, realised by chef Jordan Meagher, “centres around proper ‘pub classics’”.

“Excellent food at very reasonable prices” is the proposition at this townhouse with a focus on local West Country produce. Chef-patron Sasha Matkevich, who has lived in England for almost 30 years, was inspired to cook by the food he ate as a child at his grandmother’s house in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains in southern Russia.

“Fantastic for a foodie weekend” – this comfortably boho country-house hotel in the Mendip Hills from the Pig group owes its vibe to the shabby-chic interior designed by Judy Hutson, wife of Robin Hutson (ex-Hotel du Vin and Soho House) who founded the chain a dozen years ago with backing from Ineos billionaire Jim Ratcliffe. The 25-mile kitchen sourcing regime results in some “amazing local ingredients” on the table.

2019 Review: “A unique new spot on Clevedon’s historic Grade I listed pier, which transforms at night into a wonderful seafood restaurant serving fresh fish caught that day”. They also do coffee, cakes and cream teas. “If you are lucky you will get the added bonus of a stunning sunset”. Opened in late 2017, it won best newcomer at the Somerset Food and Drink awards.

2021 Review: “Vibrant stuff!” – the Lovells’ “buzzy” Middle Eastern venue (there’s also a sibling in Clifton) turns out an impeccable array of shakshuka, mezze and hummus and is particularly of note for its “very enjoyable brunch”; a location opposite the Tobacco Factory makes it ideal for pre-theatre dining.