Barns and stables – some medieval – surround a courtyard laid out as parterre gardens, at Willem and Pippa Vlok’s restaurant-with-rooms, deep in the Shropshire countryside. The buildings offer ‘gorgeous, cosy’ accommodation, says a reader this year, retaining rustic features – beams, bare brick or stone. Each room is individually styled, perhaps with a modern oak four-poster; all are ‘tasteful, calm, understated’. Some have been updated since last year, with showers added to bathrooms. Most are approached by a flight of steps. The lounge playfully exploits its working past as stables; stall timbers have been used to provide seating, alongside ‘lots of oak furnishing’, a log-burner and honesty bar. The breakfast/dining room dates back to the Norman Conquest, with ‘dovecote windows, a large tapestry and heavy metal candelabra’; baronial chic, if you will. Here guests choose between chef Karl Martin’s tasting menus or a market menu with either/or choices including stone bass, keta caviar, wild rice, chives; duck, squash, kale, grape, seeds. It’s ‘absolutely fabulous’, ‘special occasion’ food, but perhaps not for hikers or trenchermen. Breakfast is ‘farmhouse, local and wholesome’. (Cath Jacob)