The Red Lion Freehouse

A thatched pub in a quiet village tucked into the folds of Salisbury Plain is home to a highly praised restaurant, with a swish guest house across the road. It has been quite a journey for chef/proprietors Guy and Brittany Manning, from New York’s vaunted Per Se restaurant, where they met, to this leafy backwater, but our readers are delighted that they made it. ‘This place is going from strength to strength,’ runs a typical comment. ‘Highly recommended.’ Within, you will find flagstones and beams, beers on tap pulled by friendly bar staff, all the trappings of a popular local, and the garden is set up for outdoor dining. Guy uses local, home-grown and foraged produce in dishes such as herb-roasted guineafowl breast, wild garlic gnocchi, sauce soubise, trompettes, jus gras, while Brittany turns her hand to desserts. Maybe chocolate financier, goat’s curd, crapaudine purée and rosemary ice cream. Spacious and stylish bedrooms have decking beside the River Avon, a minibar, perhaps an in-room roll-top bath from which to contemplate the view, and a separate rainwater shower. ‘We ran out of superlatives.’ (TB, and others)