Tavistock Restaurant Guide

John Hooker and wife Emma’s “lovely pub” en route to Cornwall was praised this year for some “really clever cooking without being fussy or complicated” (including “good venison from local stalkers”). Despite the “exciting things happening in the kitchen” of late, it has reassuringly “not lost its ‘pubbiness’”.

Expanded over its 50 years in operation – now to 16 rooms – this converted mansion on the Devon/Cornwall border enjoys good views of the Tamar Valley from its dining room. Dinner is a three-course table d’hôte or you can opt for the (only somewhat more expensive) six-course tasting menu for £85 per person. It was well-rated all round this year.

2023 Review: The “stunning” combination of “really good, classic food” and the “lovely setting” of “Humphry Repton’s last garden, overlooking the Tamar”, makes a meal in the original wood-panelled dining room here a real pleasure. There’s also a notable cream tea in the afternoon. Sibling to Hotel Tresanton in the Polizzi Collection, Endsleigh was originally the Duke of Bedford’s private lodge for hunting and fishing.

“Without a doubt this was well and away my best meal of the year!” – “Dan Cox’s delightful, new regenerative farm-to-fork project” opened in February 2023 and is destined for great things, inspiring rapturous early reports. “You can instantly tell that he owes a lot to his long tenure under Simon Rogan at L’Enclume and then Fera”. He took over this former sawmill and organic farm on the Devon/Cornwall border in 2018 and spent five years planning and planting and raising rare-breed livestock in order to open this 25-cover ultra-sustainable restaurant with an open kitchen which occupies an old barn on the farm. The result is a “a wonderfully sparse, yet cosy and warm place” whose cuisine inspires a full-on rave: “we had the 13-course tasting menu, which was innovative and totally delicious, with everything sourced from the farm or like-minded local producers with the menu dependent on availability. The matching wines were also excellent. Well worth a journey!” – “The Lion’s Mane steak was powerful and full of umami notes, so much so that even our diehard carnivore of a daughter enjoyed it. The pork belly and leg dish was exquisite. Hit all the right notes in this unstuffy dining experience where the chef serves your food. After only three months open it thoroughly deserves its Michelin Green Star and is destined to go far”. (In his August 2023 review, The Telegraph’s William Sitwell also pronounced himself a fan: “I can honestly say this was a collection of magnificent, original and quite breathtaking food”.)

2022 Review: “Good all round” – the consistent ratings at this famous sporting hotel on the edge of Dartmoor have not been ruffled by its 2020 sale by the Fox-Edwards family that owned and ran it for 60 years to new custodians and former guests Simon Village & Arabella Monro. The 300-year-old former coaching inn has 20 miles of private riverbank and a fly-fishing school established in the 1930, and also caters for game shooting and deer-stalking parties. Meals are served in the dining room and bar, and there is a new deli providing picnic hampers.

2021 Review: A “perennial favourite local relaxed foodie joint”, this ex-pub turned “bistro-cum-cafe-cum-restaurant” goes from strength to strength as a showcase for the “inventive food” of chef-owner Dave Jenkins, whose dishes “always delight, with lovely little touches and innovations that make total sense once you’ve tasted them”. They serve “great breakfasts, good-value lunches”, and “the best Sunday roast in town”.

“Gorgeous and remote”, this “inviting farm-to-fork restaurant” from well-known big-city chefs April Bloomfield (New York’s Spotted Pig) and Tom Adams (London’s Pitt Cue) goes “super-local and super-rustic with their menu – and you can’t help loving the wonderful converted stone barn dining room and attentive service”. Some find it “a marmite experience”: “the dishes are so few and so stripped-back that a nagging voice kept asking ‘is this it?’, even while the quality of cooking was superb”. But a large majority reckon it’s “well worth the journey”, as you “come away having fallen in love with the place”. Its influence stretches far: Coombeshead bread crops up regularly on smart menus in London.

“Wow, what a treat… old world style and service… food all locally supplied, including from the hotel’s own kitchen garden… thoroughly deserving their new Michelin star!” – chef Chris Eden has delivered the goods at Andrew Brownsword’s stalwart destination, which lost its long-held accolade from the tyre men in 2019 and finally won it back in spring 2023. There’s nowhere else quite like this large, comfortable property, whose “lovely country house vibe” isn’t completely of a piece with its Tudorbethan styling, which would not be out of place in Surrey – yet here it is down a winding lane, beautifully situated in gardens on the fringes of Dartmoor. It became famous over 40 years ago under the Hendersons who were pioneers of the boutique hotel format, and has been owned by Brownsword since 2005.

“On a summer’s day, there isn’t a better place to sip vino!” than this wine shop/deli, which has an excellent setting with views over Sutton Harbour. There’s a selection of generous (not inexpensive) sharing platters, cheeses, and nibbles. The best bets are the Honkytonk Creole Dishes (say spatchcock chicken with fries and slaw for £25).