Glastonbury Restaurant Guide

The “personal service” provided by Adam & Martine Fellows’ “family team” for more than two decades has established their “very enjoyable” French-inspired bistro as one of the best local dining options. “Food and service are as good as ever since their move to new premises” a couple of years ago, and “the open kitchen is most entertaining”. Top Menu Tip – “very good duck”.

The more formal, oak-panelled dining room at “stunning” Georgian estate The Newt, which was launched by billionaire Koos Bekker and wife Karen, a former Elle Decoration editor, five years back. On the menu, a “sensational” three-course set (£95) which makes the most of “carefully sourced ingredients” spanning heritage-breed meats and catch from the West Country’s ports. Also on the grounds are more casual eateries the Farmyard Kitchen, in an old threshing barn, and the “pleasant” Garden Café (see also). There is the odd naysayer for whom the cuisine is more “sensible” than sensational, but there’s no denying the “atmosphere is chic”, and “after a lovely meal” you can “walk around the beautiful grounds” (“for a while, I felt I was in heaven!”).

On the high street of this trendy town, this strikingly converted listed chapel has been a staple of lifestyle mags since it opened in 2008 – not least for its bedrooms, where you wake below your own stained-glass window. Now under the Stay Original Company, the multi-tasking restaurant, artisan bakery and wine shop continues to deliver winning wood-fired pizzas and British plates with a Mediterranean twist – and, despite the odd slightly underwhelmed report of late, it remains “great after a walk at The Newt” country estate, with the Hauser + Wirth gallery also close by.

2024 Review: This “newly refurbished family-owned pub with rooms” – originally a mid-Victorian cider house – in a “lovely village” near Sherborne, makes for a “perfect stop-over en route to Devon or Cornwall”, with “agreeable service” and “reliable food including interesting fish dishes”. Co-owner Doune Mackenzie-Francis has a foodie background as a former marketing manager for Leith’s School of Food & WIne.

“A truly exciting experience where the menu belies the fascinating twists and complexity of the food” – Merlin Labron-Johnson inspires adulation for his “genius cuisine” at this hitherto tiny (but see below) operation. “Ingredients are honoured by being beautifully cooked, alongside other seasonal dishes, all with a mouthwatering and surprising approach that’s elegant yet not at all pretentious”. “It’s not solely vegetarian but many courses are meat-free and a real eye- opener for what an ultra-talented chef can do with a plant!”. Until recently, it inhabited “basic and tiny” premises at 1 High Street, but in August 2024 – following a successful kickstarter campaign – Merlin moved the operation to new, larger premises a few miles out of town. We’ve maintained last year’s (high) ratings, on the bet that any adjustments will likely be on the upside.

“Excellent food in a nicely converted old bank” make this three-year-old a “very handy stopover in an attractive Somerset village off the A303”. Fans of chef-patron Nicholas Balfe’s previous projects, Salon and Levan in south London, are happy to report “it didn’t disappoint – the set lunch came at a good price and à la carte just added to the experience”: “the roast was excellent, the starters precise and pretty, and even the bread was perfect – soft, moist and warm, wrapped in a crunchy crust”.

2023 Review: “Kind of a romantic and fantastic Scandi-Bristolian take on dining!” – “You’d have to go a long way to replicate this really original experience”, where you eat in the “special location of a marvellous Victorian walled garden with lovely views (of the Mendips)”. There’s a “very individual” menu prepared by head chef Mark McCabe with 14 courses for £150 per person: “just superbly executed, if expensive”.

2022 Review: After 15 years, the Michelin-starred Pony & Trap gastropub in Chew Magna – owned by chef Josh Eggleton and his sister Holly – is to reopen in a new guise in 2022. The Eggleton siblings have also opened Pony Bistro, in Bedminster (see also) and this, their former HQ, will operate ‘no longer as a gastropub, but as a wedding venue, cookery school and restaurant’.

A farm-to-table restaurant led by chef Sam Lomas on the former site of Osip (see also), which has moved to new out-of-town premises. It features a daily changing menu of small plates, snacks and sharing dishes that celebrate hyper-local produce and foraged ingredients. The collaboration with Claudia and Aled Rees aims to offer affordable and approachable Somerset fare, focusing on seasonal ingredients from local suppliers.

It’s “worth going out of your way” to find this “idyllic, picture-postcard country pub”that sits betwixt the medieval church and village hall and was launched amid much excitement in 2023 by art guru Max Wigram (aka Mr Phoebe Philo), with Margot Henderson of London’s well-known Rochelle Canteen sprinkling stardust on the kitchen. Former Six Portland Road chef Nye Smith is on day-to-day duties, delivering “delicious retro style cooking that really packs a punch”, with everything from the “gutsy” fish soup to the “amazing” sauces “just top-notch”. There’s the odd grumble – prices can seem toppish and one diner felt that “a little more attention to the finer points would help, although overall it deserves to do well”. Top Menu Tip – “The ambitious menu is unusual with items such as Venison and trotter pie or Roast pig’s head”; “amazing oysters to start followed by a gutsy flavoursome fish soup and the most fabulous dressing on a kohlrabi salad. A whole grilled plaice on the bone for two was a real treat and perfectly cooked, it came with chips and the most amazing tartare sauce which popped with tarragon”.

This “well-above average gastropub in a beautiful Somerset village” – from Exmoor-born chef Alasdair Clifford (ex-Chez Bruce and Harwood Arms) and his wife Victoria Collins – excels for its “refined cooking”: “Alasdair concocts amazing results from local ingredients” and from a “changing seasonal menu”. “Service is friendly and professional” and the “environment is open and spacious” – “never had a disappointing meal here”.

Set in a picturesque village, the latest addition to The Pony Group by Josh & Holly Eggleton, located in Chew Magna, Somerset. The project aims to complement the Eggleton's Pony restaurant and cookery school five minutes drive away and involves renovating The Pelican pub in two phases: opening as a pub for locals in November 2024, with subsequent plans for 10 bedrooms and guest experiences in 2025.