Devon Restaurant Guide

Down a narrow lane on the edge of Dartmoor, this famous Shrangri-la of fine dining occupies a large ‘Tudorbethan’ manor in beautiful grounds that border the wildness of the moor itself. It’s a “beautiful venue” with plush lounges and a series of panelled dining rooms, with “an outstanding welcome on arrival” especially for an overnight stay, from staff who contribute hugely to “a thoroughly relaxed but very smooth-running operation from start to finish”. All reports this year rated the cuisine as very good or better, with lots of diners reporting a “wow experience of old-world style and service” (“I’m frankly gutted that it took me this long to get there”). So we’ve rated it on this basis, despite the June 2024 departure after our annual diners’ poll had concluded of chef Chris Eden.

“Such a good spot, always developing and always aware of customers’ needs and likes”, say fans of this thatched country pub, which landlady Binka Caven has restored in stages since bringing it back to life 10 years ago. The building was originally five Tudor-era cottages, knocked together into a pub during the 1800s.

2023 Review: Beautifully situated on Dartmoor, this rural pub was consistently well-reviewed this year for its hearty and enjoyable bistro-style menu (it’s not a pub grub kind of place). There are nine bedrooms, too, and – if you stay – there’s the additional option of a lighter early bird supper.

“There‘s a dearth of good restaurants in Exeter, so Rendezvous stands out” – a “lovely little place tucked away downstairs” and fusing a “charming” and “calm” restaurant and wine bar. “High-quality locally sourced ingredients are cooked carefully and imaginatively” and abetted by an “interesting wine list with a good selection by the glass”.

“Good-quality food at reasonable prices”, including “brilliant local seafood”, is the attraction at this restored Georgian inn from locally born chef-patron Tom Williams-Hawkes (ex-Gordon Ramsay and Gidleigh Park) and his wife Amelia. In summer 2024 they rejigged the venue to operate as a café by day and a restaurant by night, with a new bar area.

Near the quayside of this beautiful Devon estuary town, a rustic bistro (“small, but that only adds to its charm”) which makes a “great place for a celebration dinner” based around “wonderful” locally sourced fish and shellfish. As of 2023, Jack Harvey, who learnt his craft alongside Marcus Wareing, is at the pass, having stepped in for former MasterChef: The Professionals finalist James Checkley.

A meal “never fails to please” – “there’s always something delicious and different on the menu” – at this small spa-hotel in a Georgian manor house on a hillside in north Devon. The long-term contribution of Richie Herkes is key to its success – he joined as head chef in 2003, assumed the dual role of general manager eight years later, and is behind the “great menu (with particularly good fish)” – which is notably good value for cooking of this quality, at £55.50 for 3 courses. Top Tip – “don’t skip canapes before a meal in the lounge with a log fire in winter”.

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.

“Located in a charming chocolate box north Devon village”, this “quintessential country pub” in a thirteenth-century cottage is “well worth the outing” by all accounts. Chef Mark Dodson, formerly of the famed Waterside Inn, is in charge of the seasonal food, which a couple of reports note is still “worthy of its Michelin star”. “If the cuisine isn’t wow wow in its originality, the whole package is what you want from a place like this”: an “all-round special experience” that spans everything from the “warm welcome” to the “fabric of the building itself” to “a great selection of dishes, all lovely”.

“Just wow! This is vegetables supreme” – eating in the canteen at the organic veg box operation’s farm guarantees a “variety and intensity of flavours that’s a feast for both the eyes and palate”. “The last time I came to Riverford I thought it had lost its mojo – but on this occasion its mojo has returned!” – “Covid means you no longer share large bowls of food on long tables and the dessert buffet is no more, so it’s more like a traditional restaurant – but you’re here for the interesting salads and veg, freshly harvested from the farm”. Top Tip – “in the summer, eating on the terrace with the smells from the surrounding hen garden is a delight”.

2023 Review: “We love the Rockfish chain” – and “Exmouth is our favourite”, say fans of Mitch Tonks’s West Country seafood group, which had eight branches as we went to press, with two more (Salcombe and Topsham) about to open, along with an online seafood market and a pioneering canned-fish operation. Despite being a multiple, it offers “top seafood, and the staff seem really passionate about the subject”.

“Right by the beach with lovely sunset views across to Dartmoor” (particularly from the terrace), this is the place to “indulge yourself with a huge seafood platter of fresh crab and oysters”; these days it’s “no longer just a ‘shack’” as of yore (reflected in the prices, a perennial quibble), but is “now serving up a more sophisticated menu” spanning cocktails and roast lobster.

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!”.

A couple of miles from the entrance to Dartmoor National Park, John & Emma Hooker’s attractive coaching inn is no stranger to awards lists, currently ranking at number two on Estrella Damm’s Top 50 Gastropubs list. You’re “always guaranteed an absolute corker of a meal” (British, unpretentious, but “lavished with care”), and a “fab atmosphere” too – no wonder reporters just “love it here”.

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.

“Very relaxed but with always interesting food” – this organic and ethical pub-with-rooms won the Sustainable Restaurant Association’s coveted Sustainability Award last year – recognition of the efforts made by the team led by founder Geetie Singh-Watson, a self-styled ethical publican who sold her flat in London to rescue what had been a run-down local boozer. The locally sourced food does not just tick the sustainability box: “the local ingredients are varied and excellent, in intriguing combinations. eg. beetroot and sheep’s curd starter is simple, yet tasty and on a recent visit a cod’s head was on the menu”.

“This outstanding hotel overlooking the Tamar Valley on the border of Devon and Cornwall is a joy and the restaurant is one of its selling points” – another being the country pile’s “magnificent views”. One reporter who last visited in its heyday (in the 1980s) found it a little more average these days, but other diners praise its “well presented and tasty cooking” at “fair prices”.