I thouroughly recommend you put your sat-nav / map-reading skills to the test and seek out this gem in little Triscombe, right on the edge of the Quantock hills in Somerset. We chose here as a midway point to meet some Devon-based friends for dinner and were absolutely delighted.
First the dinner compares to some of the best restaurants I've visited in the southwest. There isn't a trace of gastropub pretention. Most of the ingredients are made or sourced within a stone's throw of the village, including a beer brewed 150 years away. I chose hare starter, slow roasted belly pork with black pudding and apple (I know everywhere does belly pork these days but this was five star compared to the greasy hunks some places serve), and the somerset cheese board (vivid descriptions of local cheeses were too fascinating to resist).
Second, the setting. Who could not love being nestled upstairs in a narrow, thatched barn, timber beams arching above, wood stoves crackling gently, with a blissful view of north somerset and exmoor?
It was worth the slightly nervous drive down lanes so narrow the nettles brushed the car windows. Seek it out if you can! read more