Craswall Restaurant Guide

2024 Review: “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.

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

It has a Michelin Green Star for its excellence in sustainability, but Charmaine & Mark McHugo’s ‘Dining & Bottle Shop’ in the centre of town, attracted only limited feedback in our annual diners’ poll this year regarding its focused menu with many items sourced from the kitchen garden. Such as we have, though, says results are “consistently excellent” and the overall style “very personable and welcoming”.

2023 Review: This “fab former stately home” set in “beautiful grounds” in the Welsh countryside was restored by Laura Ashley co-founder Sir Bernard Ashley. Known for its “exceptional food”, it has lost two highly regarded head chefs in recent years, Nick Brodie and Sam Bowser, but still achieves strong ratings across the board.

A “warm, friendly atmosphere and good-quality food” have made this comfortable gastropub-with-rooms on the edge of the Brecon Beacons a “favourite” countryside retreat for many diners over the past 25 years. New head chef Gwenann Davies presides over a seasonal menu with just half a dozen or so choices of starters and mains. It’s the flagship of Charles & Edmund Inkin’s Eatdrinksleep group, which also comprises the Gurnard’s Head and the Old Coastguard in Cornwall.

“It’s always a pleasure to visit” this lovely Georgian former coaching inn, whose “ever-changing menu full of flavour and skilful cooking never disappoints” – and whose afternoon tea is a large part of the equation. Declared Britain’s ‘Best Foodie Hotel’ by the Sunday Times last year, it makes a good base for a gourmet break near the Welsh border, also taking in a meal at The Walnut Tree, its famous sibling two miles away.

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.

2024 Review: “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).

“Classy” French cuisine presented in an “attractively converted” Victorian school building in the city centre by a pair of “fabulous” and highly experienced chefs, Bruce Havard & Cédric L’Herbier – add “perfect service” to the package, and you get a “very welcome addition to the barren provision of Hereford”.

2024 Review: This “stylish café” – directly inspired by the coffee culture experienced by founder Jess Fletcher in New Zealand – is a “lovely spot for brunch and always the best coffee”. There’s a short menu of plant-based goodies, and on Friday and Saturday evenings wine and cocktails are served.

“A fantastic find!” – “local produce is used to create some stupendous flavours with just the right amount of spice” at this venue in the basement of an old 19th-century chapel (two minutes away you’ll find their art shop). Open for breakfast and lunch, there are “varied vegetarian options” on the menu (but not just), plus “great coffee” and herbal tea (“a standout for me, I could have bathed in it!”).

2022 Review: A newly refurbished hotel dining room offering pub lunch favourites by day and – courtesy of seasoned head chef Krishna Bhandari – by night a “very quirky” menu of “refined Nepalese cuisine” of “consistently excellent quality”.

“A very good small plate style restaurant run with passion by a local team” overseen by owners Danielle Phillips and Dan Saunders and occupying three art-lined converted sheds in the town centre, complete with a large courtyard.