Yeovil Restaurant Guide

“A remarkable place, not even in the centre of a country town” – a converted pub-with-rooms where Australian husband-and-wife team Paul & Tracey Merrony run the show, “she front of house, him in the kitchen”. “A wide range of French-style classic dishes are chalked up on the board” and you’ll find “different variations on these dishes when you visit again”. The “top quality ingredients, deliciously cooked” offer “extraordinary value for money at £28.50 for three substantial courses. What’s not to like…” – indeed a couple of best meals of the year are reported here.

2024 Review: “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.

2024 Review: 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.

“The Acorn Inn is a must-visit” – a “charming” and “atmospheric” spot immortalised in Hardy’s ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ as the ‘The Sow and Acorn’, and whose dining room turns out “exceptional food that celebrates the best of local Dorset produce”, balancing “hearty classics and creative dishes”. The “burgers are highly sought after”, but “guests particularly love the Exmoor venison and line-caught cod, alongside the indulgent desserts” – and there are “great local beers” to accompany the “beyond average pub fayre”. The venue is linked to the nearby Summer Lodge Hotel, both being part of the Red Carnation hotel group.

All diners award high ratings this year to Red Carnation Group’s classic country house hotel, which enjoys a fine countryside situation set in 400 acres. Its most ardent fans claim the contemporary cuisine in its rather old-fashioned looking dining room is “as good as at many Michelin star places” and it’s certainly very consistently well-rated this year in our annual diners’ poll.

Nicholas Balfe – who honed his art working at hip London venues like St John, Rochelle Canteen and Moro – decamped to this rural village in 2021, and has transformed a bank into a “charming” modernist dining room where you can opt to sit at the chef’s counter for added drama. The “terrific value lunch” (£35 for three courses) remains a highlight of the “interesting and inventive menu”, with added charms including the “convivial atmosphere” and beautiful rooms available if you wish to stay overnight. Reflecting the restaurant’s focus on seasonality, Balfe leads occasional foraging experiences in the fields and woodlands around the venue.

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).

An “understated” but “comfortable” inn dating back to the fourteenth century, and where the “very experienced and charming owner” (Silvana Bandini, who honed her talents at the Bath offshoot of the Pig hotel empire) oversees the “cheerful staff”. “The decision to focus on small plates continues to prove spot-on” – a lengthy selection, outweighing heartier mains including burgers, steaks and pizzas – while there are a range of appealing spaces in which to eat them, such as “a more formal dining room; a conservatory, and a garden for when outdoor dining is possible”. For a more casual visit, “the bar is very popular” too.

“A wonderful, exclusive, if rather pricey place for a meal” – this glam hideaway is the centrepiece dining-wise of billionaire Koos Bekker and wife Karen’s luxurious estate, which they launched in 2019. With its oak panelled dining room and “attention-grabbing, glass-house courtyard add-on” it’s an “extremely pleasant environment” (“tables are well spread out within the more formal area within the original hotel building and the large glass walled and roofed extension is slightly more informal”). “Staff are so welcoming and motivated” providing service that’s “proficient and leisurely” and the food is simple but very well executed using lots of ingredients either sourced from the estate or nearby farms (including venison). Round off your meal with “a magical after-lunch stroll through the grounds… fabulous!”

This “lovely family-run hotel” in Thomas Hardy’s ‘Vale of the little dairies’ is “personal and exquisite” – host Richard Prideaux-Brune inherited the family‘s Jacobean manor at the age of 21, opening it as a restaurant with rooms with his wife Alison 51 years ago, brother Brian in the kitchen and daughter Katharine these days part of the team. The “excellent” dinner menu is notably “affordable” at £45 per person for two courses and £55 per person for three, “complemented by wines at sensible prices”. Top Tip – don’t forget to pronounce the B in ‘Plumber’.

This “very classy hotel, restaurant and bakery” in a snazzily converted 18th-century congregational chapel anticipated Bruton’s gastro boom by several years when it opened back in 2008, and remains “an experience not to be missed” under relatively new ownership – a menu mixing wood-fired pizza with modern British and European small plates “always comes up with the goods”, while the venue takes full advantage of its double-height ceilings and south-facing terrace for al-fresco dining.

A menu of Italian small plates confounds expectations at this traditional Grade II listed 16th-century pub opposite the Abbey, where West Country ingredients are converted into a very wide choice of pizzette and pasta (all made in-house). You are advised to order two to three dishes each. Top Tip – Menu del Giorno lunch for two at £16 per person, served for tables up to 6, available Tuesday to Friday lunchtimes, 12pm to 2pm, and on Happy Wednesdays (4th Wednesday night of the month).

“The stunning building” – a school built in 1854 that looks like a church – underpins the appeal of this bar-restaurant deep in the West Country (part of the swish rural group incorporating The Woodspeen). Reports lacked the inconsistency of last year’s feedback, with stronger all-round praise for its high quality, if rather ambitiously priced, fare.

“Everything a country pub should be” on the edge of the Somerset Levels – locally born chef Alasdair Clifford (ex-Chez Bruce and Harwood Arms) serves “excellent and interesting variations on well-liked dishes” in the dining room, there’s a “friendly reception” from his wife Victoria Collins, and a “separate (dog-friendly) bar” that still feels appropriately pubby. They also run a bakery in an old cider barn on the farm next door, and offer three different accommodation options.

From “recommended for brunch with quality ingredients” to “friendly staff and very good atmosphere, but the Somerset burger was really not good!” – This new venue backed by the team from the nearby The Newt country estate hotel inspired somewhat mixed food (too limited for a rating) reviews in our annual diners’ poll, but everyone liked the general scene. They’ve spent a packet on the place, gorgeously scrubbing up the brick-walled, 1912 ‘Milk Factory’ next to Castle Cary station to create a ‘community hub’. On a November 2024 visit, The Sunday Times’s Charlotte Ivers found it akin to “the countryside designed by someone who has never left Notting Hill”.

“An excellent addition to the Bruton food scene” – this unpretentious farm-to-table restaurant from former River Cottage alum’ Sam Lomas has banished the ghost of former incumbent Osip, now located out of town, taking over the dining room of this attractive Georgian hotel in summer 2024 (the huge stone fireplace and earthy décor nod to its past as an ironmonger’s). The food is “based on small plates (plus snacks, sharing dishes and proper puds) using carefully sourced ingredients”, and it’s all “absolutely delicious and extremely good value for money” too.

This latest new happening at Swiss art dealership Hauser + Wirth’s flagship property is billed as a farmstead in Italian style with aims of ‘legendary Italian bonhomie through dishes rooted in traditions, care and imagination’. When it comes to the whole set-up though, our early reports include ups-and-downs: from very good all-round experiences, to that of a “very ordinary restaurant with sporadic service”. Even the latter, though, say “all would be fine if the prices were set appropriately”.

The 17th-century coaching inn exterior belies Ayesha Kalai’s decidedly different outfit (but then again it does exotically draw its name from the tarot deck, in a nod to its mystical Glastonbury setting). On the menu, “interesting Middle Eastern food” served in small-plates style (including “wonderful [laver]bread” falafel or hogget and apricot merguez). Playfulness is the order of the day at this outfit, overseen by ‘kitchen mumma’ (as she calls herself on the website) Ayesha and team.