The Dabbling Duck

They have all their ducks in a row at this wisteria-decked gastropub-with-rooms overlooking the green in a village where mallards glide on old abbey fishponds. ‘It is an excellent pub, serving good food,’ our inspectors found. Under the expert management of Mark and Sally Dobby, ‘the young staff are absolutely lovely, very well trained’. Rooms above the pub are presented in cottage style with a king-size or double wrought iron bed. Larger rooms in a garden annexe are a shade more contemporary, with a touch of rustic chic, and there are individually styled premium rooms in a refurbished house adjacent to the pub. All have home-made vodka and biscuits and luxury toiletries. A few doors down, three-bedroom Duckling Cottage is available for self-catering. You can eat in the bar, library, conservatory or, if you fancy tuck into wood-fired pizza in the barn or garden. The menu, with blackboard specials, includes pub classics, game from local estates, fish and shellfish from the Norfolk coast – maybe fish and chips, ‘great burger stacks’, or smoked buttermilk squash with girolles and chicory. ‘We certainly would stay there again.’