Park Gate, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

Michael Trawicki’s “popular thatched pub” serves particularly “good pub food in a nice sunny dining room” and there’s also a beautiful garden in summer. It’s not an especially ‘foodie’ operation but attracts consistent praise in our annual diners’ poll as one of the area’s better eateries.

2024 Review: “Great modern European food using locally sourced ingredients at very reasonable prices” again wins praise for this local fixture. Chef-patron Sasha Matkevich grew up in south Russia but has lived in England for 30 years.

“A remarkable place, not even in the centre of a country town” – a converted pub-with-rooms where Australian husband-and-wife team Paul & Tracey Merrony run the show, “she front of house, him in the kitchen”. “A wide range of French-style classic dishes are chalked up on the board” and you’ll find “different variations on these dishes when you visit again”. The “top quality ingredients, deliciously cooked” offer “extraordinary value for money at £28.50 for three substantial courses. What’s not to like…” – indeed a couple of best meals of the year are reported here.

All diners award high ratings this year to Red Carnation Group’s classic country house hotel, which enjoys a fine countryside situation set in 400 acres. Its most ardent fans claim the contemporary cuisine in its rather old-fashioned looking dining room is “as good as at many Michelin star places” and it’s certainly very consistently well-rated this year in our annual diners’ poll.

“The Acorn Inn is a must-visit” – a “charming” and “atmospheric” spot immortalised in Hardy’s ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ as the ‘The Sow and Acorn’, and whose dining room turns out “exceptional food that celebrates the best of local Dorset produce”, balancing “hearty classics and creative dishes”. The “burgers are highly sought after”, but “guests particularly love the Exmoor venison and line-caught cod, alongside the indulgent desserts” – and there are “great local beers” to accompany the “beyond average pub fayre”. The venue is linked to the nearby Summer Lodge Hotel, both being part of the Red Carnation hotel group.

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.

2023 Review: This “brilliant thatched country pub” has “lots of game dishes” on its menu – appropriately enough for a traditional establishment in the historical hunting landscape of Cranborne Chase. “Vegetarians and vegans are well provided for” too, while there’s also a “well-stocked bar with local ales and a reasonably priced wine list”.

“The stunning building” – a school built in 1854 that looks like a church – underpins the appeal of this bar-restaurant deep in the West Country (part of the swish rural group incorporating The Woodspeen). Reports lacked the inconsistency of last year’s feedback, with stronger all-round praise for its high quality, if rather ambitiously priced, fare.