The Old Rectory Hotel

The deliciously remote setting in a tiny Exmoor hamlet is as ‘exceptional’ as the food at this small hotel just 500 yards from the coast path, with views over hog-backed cliffs to the Bristol Channel. ‘Attentive’ hosts Huw Rees and Sam Prosser bought the hotel in 2008, chucked out the chintz and made it over in restrained good taste, with soft-hued paint finishes and wallpaper of the gentler kind. They took to hospitality as our readers took to them, praising everything from the ‘friendly staff’ to the ‘attractive garden with waterfall and stream’. Dinner is a highlight, served after drinks and canapés, and cooked by Michael Caines alumnus Thomas Frost. He uses produce from surrounding land and sea with vegetables from the garden to create a short, nightly menu of dishes such as turbot with Noilly Prat sauce. Bedrooms, some in the coach house, have Noble Isle toiletries, spring water on tap, perhaps a roll-top bath and separate shower. A two-bedroom duplex suite should by now be ready, a perfect base from which to explore Exmoor’s national park. Just be sure to return in time for tea – Huw’s cakes get a special mention.