‘The attention to detail, excellent service and quality of cooking at this brilliant restaurant-with-rooms have set the standard by which other hotels will be judged.’ Guide readers this year continue to endorse this ‘great’ enterprise, managed and run by Tim Sunderland, in a pretty town on the River Ore. ‘To find somewhere that gets it all right without a single false note is a joy.’ Some guests may be rattled by the house rules that accompany each booking (gadgets discouraged at dinner, etc), but others find them ‘clear, helpful and very welcome – a major delight’. In the much-praised restaurant, dine on ‘an interesting, Italian-influenced mix’ of ‘knock-out food’ – perhaps Orford-landed cod, sautéed salsify, girolles, potato gnocchi – accompanied by a ‘fun, eclectic’ wine list. (‘A request for gluten-free options was acknowledged with no fuss.’) Spend the night, afterwards, in one of the ‘tastefully styled’ bedrooms. ‘Our immaculate suite had a good-sized sitting area, a splendid modern bathroom, even a little balcony. Best of all: a big, really comfortable bed.’ (Gwyn Morgan, Iseult Beatty, Tony and Ginny Ayers, and others)