Lake Isle

Satisfied diners have been coming for years to this restaurant-with-rooms in the heart of the pretty market town. ‘In all the time it has existed we have never had a less than perfect evening meal,’ writes a fan. Owned by Richard and Janine Burton, the Grade II listed, 18th-century whitewashed building sits right on the High Street. Bedrooms mix traditional and contemporary, with pale-painted furniture, bold-striped wallpapers and button-back armchairs. Some have a bathroom with whirlpool bath. They may be on the cosy side – ‘a smallish room but plenty big enough’ – though ‘beds are really comfy, and they have all the extras’. Besides, point out readers, ‘the reason you stay at Lake Isle is the food’. Exciting and imaginative dishes might include grilled sea bream with samphire and oysters, or guineafowl with sherried lentils and black pudding crumb, served in ‘an attractive room looking out at the High Street’. Breakfast keeps up the standards; no cold buffet but a ‘proper feast’ with ‘each course brought to our table’. (John and Elspeth Gibbon, CH, and others)