South Petherton, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“A great addition to the food scene in Somerset” – this two-year-old operation from chef-patron Nicholas Balfe (previously of the team behind Peckham’s Levan, now flying solo) occupies a converted bank, with a dining room in the original vault, open kitchen and diners’ counter. Foodwise, the focus is on reasonably priced modern bistro fare not a million miles from its original stablemate’s ‘bistronomy’. Other features include an outside terrace (for coffee or snacks) and rooms for a stay. Top Tip – “good value lunch menu”.

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: Cass Titcombe's “small, cosy and friendly restaurant overlooking the village square” offers “just the perfect balance of everything”, say fans – whether that’s the much-foraged, Mediterranean-style food, or the fine interiors, courtesy of partner Louise. The duo also run an excellent shop, Brassica Mercantile, across the road, mixing homewares, foodie books and gourmet treats (including from Borough Market).

A “great and reliable gastropub in an area that’s not blessed with super eating venues”, this sixteenth-century coaching inn, on the Devon/Dorset border, was a hit with all reporters this year; “prices are a bit high”, but given that the “lovely food” (modern British with a Euro slant) “keeps getting better”, no one seems to care too much.

2023 Review: This “quaint pub in the tiny village of Evershot” – immortalised as the ‘Sow and Acorn’ in Thomas Hardy’s ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ – offers “beautifully presented, consistently good and interesting” food from Kenyan-born chef Robert Ndungu. It is the more informal sibling of Summer Lodge on the other side of the village, from the Red Carnation hotel group.

The Red Carnation group’s “very comfortable and traditional country house hotel is set in a time warp”, in prime Hardy Country (Evershot having been fictionalised as Evershead by the novelist, who also designed part of the hotel when he was an architect). The “very accomplished food” (“but at a high price!”) has some “nice touches”, with “desserts especially good”.

A “small restaurant in Sherborne, owned by an Australian couple”, and where the “good” and “unusual” food pays testament to chef Paul Merrony’s Gallic training with the likes of Albert Roux at Le Gavroche; there’s an “interesting list of well-chosen wines at reasonable prices to match the excellent food”.

“Great modern European food using locally sourced ingredients at very reasonable prices” again wins praise for this local fixture. Chef-patron Sasha Matkevich grew up in south Russia but has lived in England for 30 years.

This “newly refurbished family-owned pub with rooms” – originally a mid-Victorian cider house – in a “lovely village” near Sherborne, makes for a “perfect stop-over en route to Devon or Cornwall”, with “agreeable service” and “reliable food including interesting fish dishes”. Co-owner Doune Mackenzie-Francis has a foodie background as a former marketing manager for Leith’s School of Food & WIne.

A “small but perfectly formed bistro-style” venue which was set up by Richard Guest and FOH Cedric Chirrosel in 2011, and has since firmly made its mark on the local dining scene with its impeccable local sourcing and “nice French-style cooking” (also inflected by British and Asian touches). Fans say that the “idiosyncratic” venture is “as good as it gets locally” (“when it is open we never go anywhere else”).

“We’re so lucky to have this on our doorstep”, agree locals who enjoy the “top-class pub grub” served in this smart 18th-century inn run by locally born chef Alasdair Clifford (ex-Chez Bruce & Glasshouse) and his wife Victoria Collins – who make “a brilliant team, well regarded by the village and their other customers”. Now in their sixth year here, the couple recently bought the farm next door to provide extra accommodation, a bakery, orchard and kitchen garden.

2023 Review: This 500-year-old building in a “beautiful part of Somerset” now houses an “excellent dining pub” that “serves up top-class modern British dishes using brilliant local ingredients”. Chef Olly Jackson and his manager wife Rebecca “used to run the nearby and sadly missed Langford Fivehead hotel”.

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.

A “beautifully renovated building” – originally an 1860s school, with impressive vaulted ceilings and now a mezzanine bar – plays host to this exceptional outfit on the Dorset/Somerset border. Chef Luke Sutton (ex-the acclaimed L’Ortolan, in Berkshire) oversees the “varied” and “very interesting” British menu, which remains of note for its particularly “good-value” set menu.