2024 Editor's Choice Restaurants-with-Rooms
Best restaurants with rooms in the UK
The Whitebrook
Whitebrook
You won’t get a mobile-phone signal at Chris and Kirsty Harrod’s Michelin-starred restaurant in the Wye valley, but you will get delicious locally sourced, home-grown and foraged food – perhaps brill with nettle, purple sprouting, hedgerow shoots and flowers. After a night in the unfussy rooms, a six-dish breakfast awaits.
Yalbury Cottage
Dorchester
The simple shepherds’ fare once served in this thatched cottage has made way for more creative cuisine. Ariane and Jamie Jones plunder Dorset’s larder to create daily changing menus, which might include Lulworth estate venison, Portland crab and Dorset snails. Don’t miss the afternoon cheese tea.
Lake Isle
Uppingham
Even the ‘lunch for less’ menu at this town restaurant left readers drooling over the quality of dishes such as sea bass with crab kedgeree and Japanese salad. Smart, contemporary bedrooms were appreciated, as were kippers for breakfast. In sum: ‘A delight for the palate and easy on the purse.’
1863
Pooley Bridge
Our inspectors ranked their meal in this former village smithy at the head of Ullswater among their best dining experiences. Of note was Phil Corrie’s ‘exquisitely presented’ turbot with edible flowers and ‘perfectly pink’ Cumbrian lamb. The seven bright bedrooms feature complimentary prosecco and gingerbread.
Number One Bruton
Bruton
They pay equal attention to your stomach and your sleep at this restaurant and hotel partnership. Dine on unusual, minimalist food at Osip, Merlin Labron-Johnson’s Michelin-starred restaurant, before retiring to a townhouse room with artistic wallpaper and vintage furniture, or a courtyard room with exposed beams and stonework.
Pensons
Tenbury Wells
Possibly Britain’s smallest Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms, Pensons has only two bedrooms. They lie across the courtyard from the swish double-height barn where Chris Simpson serves his tasting menus for meat-eaters, pescatarians and vegetarians, all preceded with individual loaves and tasty yeast butter.
The Ginger Pig
Hove
Ben and Pamela McKellar gingered up this restaurant by adding guest bedrooms in 2017 – and what rooms, with sleek minimalist décor, modern art, and cocktails in the minibar. The traditional food doesn’t disappoint either: try the twice-baked Tunworth soufflé with roast salsify and wild garlic velouté.
Rafters at Riverside House Hotel
Bakewell
They really look after the details at newly refurbished Rafters, from the Yorkshire artisan chocolates in the elegant bedrooms to the ‘quality’ pre-dinner nibbles. Our inspectors enjoyed the ‘short but tempting’ menu, especially the Orkney scallops, with madras purée, yuzu and coconut.
The Angel Inn
Feast your eyes on the artwork in this former Tudor inn while your palate revels in Ruben Aguilar Bel’s ambitious cooking, from Iberico pork secreto to chestnut and chardonnay-vinegar ice cream. Breakfast is just as good, with Catalan and Benedictine options among the usual suspects.
Mingary Castle
Kilchoan
Enjoy a side-serving of history at this restaurant with just four bedrooms set in a medieval castle on Scotland’s Ardnamurchan peninsula. Chef patron Colin Nicholson creates delicious and unusual offerings, such as oyster ice cream, for guests to savour in the oak-panelled dining room.
2023 Editor's Choice Restaurants-with-Rooms
Best restaurants with rooms in the UK
Locanda on the Weir
Porlock Weir
Pio Catemario di Quadri brings Italian foodie flair to this superb restaurant with just five rooms. While he cooks up a storm for his nightly-changing four-course menu featuring foraged finds, kitchen-garden veg and local produce, co-owner Cindy Siu presides over the beautifully styled rooms.
The Whitebrook
Whitebrook
Stay at Chris and Kirsty Harrod’s Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms and you can expect a delicious six-dish breakfast in the morning. Dinner is a treat, too, featuring ingredients foraged from the surrounding countryside. Think Cornish plaice, Jack-by-the-hedge butter, Wye estuary greens and a sauce of the cooking juices.
Kilberry Inn
Tarbert
The setting might be rustic, in a whitewashed crofter’s cottage with a red tin roof, but Clare Johnson’s food is outstanding – think monkfish stew with mussels and rib-eye of dry-aged beef with watercress and celeriac remoulade. Partner David Wilson provides banter and negronis. There are five comfortable rooms.
The Neptune
Old Hunstanton
Although he has a Michelin star for his cuisine, Kevin Mangeolles insists that the real stars are the locally sourced ingredients he uses in dishes such as scallop mousse with Brancaster mussel sauce. The four rooms are stylish, with lots of whites and soft greys, and there is even home-made jam at breakfast.
Grassington House
Grassington
Step into John and Sue Rudden’s village restaurant and you’ll receive a hearty Yorkshire welcome as a side serving to John’s creative cuisine. Practically everything is made in-house, including ice cream and cheese biscuits, and you can even try their own-label gin before retiring to one of the luxurious rooms.
Padstow Townhouse
Padstow
A five-minute walk from Michelin-starred Paul Ainsworth at No.6, the chef’s townhouse offers six sybaritic suites. They’re the ideal foodie retreats for anyone wanting to sample Paul’s superb food and they come with foodie hints – candy-striped wallpaper or bedside tables made from flour bins.
The Cottage in the Wood
Braithwaite
They charm both the eye and the palate here, with views to Skiddaw accompanying Ben Wilkinson’s Michelin-starred food. He uses fish and shellfish from the West Coast harbours, hogget from the fells and food foraged from Whinlatter Forest to create considered set menus that are never contrived.
Moor Hall Restaurant with Rooms
Aughton
Choose between one-star cooking in the beamed barn or two-star cooking in the glass-walled restaurant at this Jacobean manor. Chef/patron Mark Birchall uses produce from the impressive kitchen garden to create dishes such as guinea hen with morel, ramson and white asparagus ragout. Stay in one of seven chic rooms.
Pensons
Tenbury Wells
With just two rooms across the courtyard from its impressive double-height barn, Pensons is possibly Britain’s smallest Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms. Chris Simpson’s estate-to-plate tasting menus for meat eaters, pescatarians and vegetarians all start with delicious individual loaves and yeast butter.
2022 Editor's Choice Restaurants-with-Rooms
Best restaurants with rooms in the UK
Tyddyn Llan
Corwen
Bryan and Susan Webb’s dining room in the Vale of Edeyrnion has built a loyal following over the years, and no wonder. Local meat, such as aged Welsh black beef, comes from their ‘vigilant butcher’; the fish ‘straight from the coast’.
The Peat Inn
Cupar
The modern Scottish cuisine served in this attractive restaurant, decorated in soft teals and greys, is so good it has held a Michelin star since 2010. Expect home-cured sea trout pastrami, or roe deer with butternut squash.
Read’s
Faversham
This is an established favourite with Guide regulars, who say it’s like paying a visit to a more civilised era. Roast loin of Kentish lamb, potato gnocchi fricassée, and the freshest vegetables feature on Frederick Forster’s classic menus.
The Angel Inn
Skipton
Michael Wignall prides himself on a ‘contemporary, less formal approach to fine cuisine’ in his Michelin-starred gastro pub, with dishes such as turbot with courgette tempura, and potatoes cooked in seaweed.
From £70 per night
The Neptune
Old Hunstanton
Kevin and Jacki Mangeolles’ welcoming coaching inn, a stone’s throw from the sea, has held a Michelin star since 2009. Kevin’s contemporary British menus use the best Norfolk produce, served in a crisp, elegant dining room.
The Crab & Lobster
Sidlesham
Go birdwatching in Pagham Harbour Local Nature Reserve before dining at this picturesque 17th-century pub. The menus specialise in locally caught fish, but you’ll also find roast lamb alongside the beer-battered loin of hake and crab cakes.
Old Downton Lodge
Ludlow
Readers love this rural haven for its ‘faultless attention to detail’. Sip English fizz in the parterre garden before dining on Nick Bennett’s ‘exquisite’ menus: halibut with nasturtium root, or lamb with pea, mint and wild garlic.
The Cottage in the Wood
Braithwaite
Enjoy Michelin-starred dining at this 17th-century cottage with views of England’s highest mountain forest. Ben Wilkinson’s menus are brief, and his cooking blessedly unpretentious – hogget with lentils, or cured trout with oyster cream.
Moor Hall Restaurant with Rooms
Aughton
Mark Birchall’s Scandi-style dining room in five acres of gardens has two Michelin stars and features delicately balanced dishes such as baked carrots with Doddington cheese and chrysanthemum. There is a tasting menu at breakfast.
2021 Editor's Choice Restaurants-with-Rooms
Best restaurants with rooms in the UK
The Whitebrook
Whitebrook
Michelin-starred chef Chris Harrod forages for plants and herbs in the Wye valley to create his original dishes. They might include suckling pig with lamb’s sorrel, pigeon with wild chervil or pumpkin with three-cornered garlic.
The Cross at Kingussie
Kingussie
After working up an appetite in the surrounding Cairngorms national park, guests at this former Victorian mill can do justice to David Skiggs’s tasting menu which showcases Highlands produce, such as wild venison.
Morston Hall
Holt
Guests sit down at 8 pm for the seven- course tasting menu cooked by Michelin- starred Galton Blackiston. The hall is two miles from the north Norfolk coast so you can expect perhaps King’s Lynn brown shrimps or wild sea bass on the menu.
The Seafood Restaurant
Padstow
They specialise in simple seafood dishes with classic flavours at Rick Stein’s Padstow flagship, with a seafood bar in the middle. Whether it’s cod and chips or Indonesian seafood curry, you can be sure the fish is super fresh.
The Neptune
Old Hunstanton
A stone’s throw from Hunstanton beach on the north Norfolk coast, Kevin Mangeolles’s Michelin-starred restaurant is big on seafood dishes such as lobster tortellini and monkfish with Brancaster mussels. There are four immaculate rooms.
La Fleur de Lys
Shaftesbury
A passion for provenance means Marc Preston and David Griffin-Shepherd’s food wins high praise from readers. You can feast on dishes such as tart of local scallops and prawns on smoked salmon, and pan-fried saddle of Dorset lamb.
Lake Isle
Uppingham
Readers who have been visiting the Burtons’ restaurant for years tell us they have never had less than a perfect dinner. The irresistibly inventive menus feature dishes such as guineafowl with sherried lentils and black pudding crumb.
Coorie Inn
Muthill
It’s the perfect pairing: French cuisine using the finest Scottish seafood and game (you might even find haggis and onion tartlet on the menu). Chef/patron Fabrice Bouteloup also has the perfect partner in his wife, Alison, a wine expert.
The Cottage in the Wood
Braithwaite
The forest on the doorstep, the Lake District fells and west coast harbours all supply Michelin-starred Ben Wilkinson with ingredients for menus that might include Eden Valley pork with black truffle or salt-baked beetroot with sheep’s curd.
2020 Editor's Choice Restaurants-with-Rooms
Best restaurants with rooms in the UK
The Seafood Restaurant
Padstow
If you can't get enough of the freshest of seafood at this restaurant-with-rooms, you can learn to prepare your own lobster for grilling and the perfect hollandaise sauce at Rick Stein's cookery school across the road.
Lake Isle
Uppingham
There is no isle here, no lake, no bee-loud glade, but the name of Richard and Janine Burton's lauded restaurant-with-rooms draws inspiration from W.B. Yeats’s Innisfree, a place of serenity and escape.
Gordon’s
Inverkeilor
'The welcome and food are always wonderful,' write trusted readers on a return visit to this restaurant-with-rooms, occupying a Victorian terrace house in a coastal hamlet close to glorious Lunan Bay.
Grassington House
Grassington
In a 'near-perfect position in the village square', this handsome Georgian house, now a restaurant-with-rooms, is 'an absolute delight', write readers.
The Cottage in the Wood
Braithwaite
A whitewashed cottage on a steep woodland pass may seem an unlikely setting for Michelin-starred dining, but this restaurant-with-rooms charms both the eye and the palate.
2019 Editor's Choice Restaurants-with-Rooms
Best restaurants with rooms in the UK
Tyddyn Llan
Corwen
‘We’re not a hotel,’ say Susan and Bryan Webb, but rooms at their rural stone house are of a high standard, while Mr Webb’s Michelin-starred cooking showcases the best of seasonal Welsh produce.
The Three Chimneys and The House Over-By
Dunvegan
Long-standing owners Shirley and Eddie Spear are welcoming hosts at their loch- side island retreat. Suites are generously equipped. Chef Scott Davies uses excellent local produce in his highly creative cooking.
The Neptune
Old Hunstanton
Kevin Mangeolles’s Michelin-starred menus at this former coaching inn delighted Guide regulars this year. Pork and game are from surrounding estates, fish and shellfish locally landed. Jacki Mangeolles is welcoming front-of-house. Full marks for enthusiasm.
Lake Isle
Uppingham
Not on lake-lapped Innisfree but in a Rutland market town, Richard Burton’s romantically named former shop, with bijou bedrooms, rates highly for gourmet cooking. Chef Stuart Mead has a sure touch with local, seasonal ingredients. Breakfast includes fishcakes and fresh juice.
Coorie Inn
Muthill
Modern French cuisine, local produce and warm Scottish hospitality are the prime ingredients at Alison and Fabrice Bouteloup’s former coaching inn. He cooks with flair (perhaps brisket of beef sous vide); she is a wine expert.
Tuddenham Mill
Newmarket
The name sounds folksy, but this 17th- century converted mill has contemporary rooms with perhaps an alfresco hot tub or a Philippe Starck bath. Chef/patron Lee Bye’s cooking is ambitious; breakfasts are first class.
2018 Editor's Choice Restaurants-with-Rooms
Best restaurants with rooms in the UK
Tyddyn Llan
Corwen
Four nights a week, Bryan Webb cooks exciting menus of local produce at this restaurant-with-rooms, with elegant, traditional bedrooms in the Georgian house, where he and wife Susan have been welcoming guests for more than four decades.
The Peat Inn
Cupar
A dream destination for golfing gourmets, Geoffrey and Katherine Smeddle’s restaurant-with-rooms offers Michelin-starred cooking just a 12-minute drive from St Andrews.
The Three Chimneys and The House Over-By
Dunvegan
Decorated in cool Scandi-Scots style, this former crofter’s house on the shores of Loch Dunvegan is a celebrated restaurant showcasing local produce, with, across the courtyard, spacious, split-level bedrooms painted in restful shades.
Read’s
Faversham
A Georgian manor house is home to a restaurant with spacious, old-fashioned bedrooms, where Frederick Forster, a former Roux Scholar, has been winning plaudits for his creative ways with locally sourced ingredients.
Tuddenham Mill
Newmarket
A watermill in meadowland is run as a hotel with rustic-chic and contemporary bedrooms, by chef/patron Lee Bye, whose exciting dishes can be enjoyed in the oak-beamed restaurant among the mill’s workings.
The Black Swan at Oldstead
York
Raise a nasturtium martini to chef/director Tommy Banks, renowned for his wildly creative cooking and use of foraged ingredients, at the family’s Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms, with country-style bedrooms, here on the North York Moors.
2017 Editor's Choice Gourmet
Best restaurants with rooms in the UK
Tyddyn Llan
Corwen
Four nights a week, Bryan Webb cooks exciting menus of local produce at this restaurant-with-rooms, with elegant, traditional bedrooms in the Georgian house, where he and wife Susan have been welcoming guests for more than four decades.
The Peat Inn
Cupar
A dream destination for golfing gourmets, Geoffrey and Katherine Smeddle’s restaurant-with-rooms offers Michelin-starred cooking just a 12-minute drive from St Andrews.
The Whitebrook
Whitebrook
In a mobile-phone not-spot, deep in the rich foraging grounds of the Wye valley, Chris and Kirsty Harrod’s restaurant-with-rooms holds its Michelin star for a ninth year.
Fischer’s at Baslow Hall
Baslow
An Edwardian homage to 17th-century style, this beautiful manor house with rich Jacobean-inspired interiors is run as a luxury hotel with fine-dining restaurant.
Morston Hall
Holt
Birdwatchers and bon vivants beat a path to Tracy and Galton Blackiston’s Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms in a flint farmhouse with Blakeney nature reserve on the doorstep.
The Neptune
Old Hunstanton
The well-equipped bedrooms are no afterthought at Jacki and Kevin Mangeolles' restaurant-with-rooms in a former coaching inn, but the big draw here is Kevin’s Michelin-starred cooking.
Eckington Manor
Eckington
Amid water-meadow pasture, this foodie restaurant with beautifully presented rooms and a cookery school are spread across an ancient, timber-frame farmhouse and converted outbuildings.
2016 Editor's Choice Gourmet
Best restaurants with rooms in the UK
Read’s
Faversham
A Georgian manor house is home to a restaurant with spacious, old-fashioned bedrooms, where Frederick Forster, a former Roux Scholar, has been winning plaudits for his creative ways with locally sourced ingredients.
Leave room for dessert is probably the best advice when visiting these restaurants with rooms. Ranging from a ringside seat with the chef to the most exquisite fine dining, Michelin starred chefs are never far away in the gourmet restaurants that are peppered around the country – as long as you know where to find them. Set in charming inns and beautiful country house hotels, good food is always combined with excellent locations and atmospheres, not to mention wonderful customer service. Here are the Good Hotel Guide’s Editor's Choice Restaurants-with-Rooms.