Shropshire, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

Nothing but praise for this “fabulous” and “consistent” all-day café run by the four Crouch brothers, and offering inventive brunches and beyond. Its globetrotting dishes come in small-plate versions or as (fancified) mains, and there are some “very tasty” dishes to enjoy. Every first Thursday of the month they offer a five-course ‘Mystery Menu World Tour’ that momentarily halts the globe and zones in on a specific country.

A meal “certainly hits the spot” at this restaurant – part of a family-owned hotel and wedding venue that is a “star of the Shropshire scene”. Chef-owner Stuart Phillips, who trained at the Chester Grosvenor and Kensington Place, uses 50 varieties of herbs, edible flowers, fruit and vegetables from his own kitchen garden on his “well put-together menu”, along with game from the surrounding Apley estate and meat from nearby farms.

2024 Review: “In the centre of the gorgeous village of Upton Magna”, Martin Board & wife Mel’s “lovely country pub-with-rooms” won nothing but praise this year; despite the seventeenth-century setting, the “food is far from traditional and leans towards modern British – all absolutely delicious and expertly served” (with “particularly good fish dishes” a highlight); add in “sensible prices”, and it’s a “standout restaurant in Shropshire”.

Tudor-era Drapers Hall – dating from 1483 and still owned by its founders, the Shrewsbury Drapers Company (these days a charity) – makes a “beautiful location” for chef Adrian Badland’s “outstanding meals”, which are served in a candlelit dining room with heavy drapes and original dark wood-panelled walls (the six bedrooms are equally atmospheric). There’s a five-course tasting menu at £49.50 per person as well as a standard menu of, say fans, “unfailing” quality.

“Imaginative dishes with a modern twist” are on the menu at this “well-drilled” operation from chef couple Ben Hall & Carla Ernst, who met while cooking at the esteemed Gidleigh Park in Devon. Their tasting menu is “very good without being over-bearing”, while an à la carte option is also available at most times and lighter meals are served in the bar. The restaurant takes its name from the Beatles song famously covered by Oasis.

This “lovely old coaching inn” in a village of picturesque Tudor houses is a “real addition to a part of Shropshire not awash with good places to eat” and achieves an impressive level of feedback for somewhere out in the boonies. Owned by Sir Algernon Heber-Percy, who lives close by in Hodnet Hall (the kitchen garden supplies the vegetables to the inn); his son Tom was responsible for the inn’s “gorgeous makeover” a few years back. “The food covers fine dining to light lunches and afternoon tea” and all reports say it “functions well as a foodie pub while still catering as a bar for locals… one of the best around”.