2019 Editor's Choice Pubs-with-Rooms
The UK’s best gastro pubs-with-rooms
Beech House & Olive Branch - Midweek Break Special Offer
Clipsham
Readers write of the fun at this village pub/restaurant, but the food is seriously good. Options include tapas and creative, modern British fare, with fresh produce from the kitchen garden. The pub’s bedrooms in Beech House are rather glamorous.
The Cat Inn - Two Nights for the Price of One Special Offer
West Hoathly
A log fire warms the bar of this popular 16th-century pub, its oak beams hung with pewter mugs. There is pub grub of the highest order, freshly decorated bedrooms, each with a Nespresso coffee machine, a good breakfast. The terrace and herb garden are the cat’s whiskers.
The Colonsay
Colonsay
There are quiz nights and live music at the sole hostelry on this remote island. Simple bedrooms have views of hillside and sea, across to neighbouring Jura. A new chef is making waves. Why not come for the annual book festival?
The Bildeston Crown
Bildeston
Ancient timbers, a roaring fire in winter, alfresco dining in summer, characterful bedrooms (one with antique four-poster), the chef’s ways with local produce and an excellent breakfast won over our inspectors in 2018 at this historic coaching inn.
The Punch Bowl Inn
Kendal
You can sleep in a four-poster bed made of reclaimed elm at this atmospheric 300-year-old inn in a pretty south Lakeland village inn. The chef makes inventive use of prime Cumbrian produce. Vegetarians have a field day.
The Old Coastguard
Penzance
Casual chic, a laid-back vibe and local art are the style at this former coastguard’s station turned dining pub in a picture- postcard fishing village. Enjoy Cornish produce, clever cooking, foraging walks, yoga weekends and sub-tropical gardens.
The Gunton Arms
Thorpe Market
Venison from the surrounding deer park appears on the daily-changing menus at this extraordinary converted country house near Cromer, crammed with Victorian paintings, vintage novelties and Brit Art. One room has a marble bathroom from Egypt.
The Greyhound Inn
Wantage
Real ale, wine tastings, jazz evenings and quiz nights assure this 18th-century pub of a local following. The friendly staff, superior pub fare and smart rooms
supplied with freshly baked biscuits make it a Guide shoo-in.
supplied with freshly baked biscuits make it a Guide shoo-in.
The Glenelg Inn
Kyle of Lochalsh
You can eat in the garden overlooking the Sound of Sleat, or cosily in the bar, at this traditional inn and music venue in a remote and beautiful landscape. The young chef works magic with local produce.
The Pipe and Glass Inn
South Dalton
Beyond a beamed bar serving hand- pulled Yorkshire ales, there are menus for children, for vegetarians, for everyone, in the Michelin-starred restaurant at this friendly former coaching inn. Jazzy, high- spec bedrooms surround a herb garden.
2018 Editor's Choice Pubs-with-Rooms
The UK’s best gastro pubs-with-rooms
The Rose & Crown - Summer Escape Special Offer
Barnard Castle
In a ‘beautiful setting’, beside the Saxon church in a ‘picturesque’ North Pennines village, Cheryl and Thomas Robinson’s 18th-century inn is ‘an absolute gem’.
Beech House & Olive Branch - Midweek Break Special Offer
Clipsham
‘We collected the room key from a young lady dressed in the uniform of checked shirt and jeans. Everyone was so cheerful, I assumed something humorous had taken place.’
The Star Inn at Harome
Helmsley
‘Wow, what a wonderful place this is!’ A regular reader lauded Andrew Pern’s restaurant-with-rooms on the edge of the North York Moors, which has a Michelin star and ambience on tap.
The Felin Fach Griffin
Brecon
‘Our puppy absolutely loved the place!’ writes a reader, of this dining pub in a hamlet between the Brecon Beacons and the Black mountains.
The Beckford Arms
Tisbury
At an ancient crossroads on the edge of the Fonthill Estate, Dan Brod and Charlie Luxton’s Georgian pub-with-rooms is a ‘popular, good-value’ spot.
The Feathered Nest
Chipping Norton
Far-reaching views across sheep-spotted countryside spool away from this ‘splendid’ 300-year-old malthouse-turned-restaurant-with-rooms above the Evenlode valley.
The Brownlow Arms
Hough-on-the-Hill
‘A homely village pub within easy reach of the A1 and well worth the detour,’ writes a trusted Guide reader after a three-night stay at Paul and Lorraine Willoughby’s traditional inn.
The Rock Inn
Newton Abbot
The tramway that once carried Dartmoor granite from the Stover Canal is no more, but this granite inn, built in 1820 along with quarry workers’ cottages, still thrives.
The King’s Head Inn
Bledington
Ducks glide on a brook that bisects a village green, overlooked by a Cotswold stone pub, owned by Nicola and Archie Orr-Ewing, who also manage The Swan Inn at Swinbrook (see entry).
The Red Lion
Babcary
With its rough-cut stone exterior and thatch, the Red Lion is outwardly the archetypal olde worlde pub – ‘but’, say trusted readers, ‘in our granddaughter’s terminology, the place rocks.’
2017 Editor's Choice Gastropubs
The UK’s best gastro pubs-with-rooms
Beech House & Olive Branch - Midweek Break Special Offer
Clipsham
‘We collected the room key from a young lady dressed in the uniform of checked shirt and jeans. Everyone was so cheerful, I assumed something humorous had taken place.’
The Bell at Skenfrith
Skenfrith
‘A great base for exploring,’ Richard Ireton and Sarah Hudson’s ‘pleasing, white-painted coaching inn’ stands overlooking an old stone bridge across the River Monmow, while ‘behind it, green hills gently rise’.
The Stagg Inn
Kington
‘We were made so welcome and were well looked after,’ writes a reader, of a stay at this pub-with-rooms at the meeting point of two old drovers’ roads.
The Gurnard’s Head
St Ives
‘We cannot praise it too highly,’ says a report this year on brothers Charles and Edmund Inkin’s dining pub with rooms.
The Grazing Goat
London
In one of those atmospheric London entities – a street that feels like a village in the heart of the capital – this hip pub-with-rooms assumes the role of community hub, yet has ‘a great location’, within minutes of frenetic Oxford Street.
The Feathered Nest
Chipping Norton
Far-reaching views across sheep-spotted countryside spool away from this ‘splendid’ 300-year-old malthouse-turned-restaurant-with-rooms above the Evenlode valley.
The Talbot Inn
Frome
‘A rustic gem in an unspoilt village’, this ancient coaching inn, built around a cobbled yard, is a sister to The Beckford Arms, Tisbury (see entry).
The Red Lion Freehouse
East Chisenbury
Readers this year ‘ran out of superlatives’ after a ‘rather splendid visit’ to this thatched gastropub in ‘a delightful village’.
The Bridge Inn at Ratho
Ratho
Flanked by the 18th-century stone bridge after which it’s named, Graham and Rachel Bucknall’s ‘characterful’ restaurant-with-rooms on the water has much to like.
The Devonshire Arms
Long Sutton
An air of a country gentleman’s private study filters through this rural 19th-century hunting lodge, with appealing nods to the rural pursuits that might occupy him.
2016 Editor's Choice Gastropubs
The UK’s best gastro pubs-with-rooms
The Sun Inn - Sunday Sleepover Special Offer
Colchester
‘A convivial local gathering spot’, Piers Baker’s 15th-century, timber-framed inn stands ‘in a prime situation’ in ‘this endearing village of variously coloured houses’ in Constable Country.
The Cat Inn - Two Nights for the Price of One Special Offer
West Hoathly
Popular with locals, ramblers and foodies, this comfortably modernised Victorian freehouse-with-rooms welcomes visitors with ‘big smiles’ and a ‘warm-hearted atmosphere’.
The Brownlow Arms
Hough-on-the-Hill
‘A homely village pub within easy reach of the A1 and well worth the detour,’ writes a trusted Guide reader after a three-night stay at Paul and Lorraine Willoughby’s traditional inn.
The Victoria
London
‘Convenient for Heathrow,’ wrote readers flying from Australia. They so ‘loved the feel’ of this gastropub with rooms half a mile from Richmond Park that they were planning a return visit.