Powys, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2024 Review: This well-known border-country inn is “still one of the best places to eat in the area”, with “well prepared and flavoursome food”. Long-time regulars miss Steve & Nicola Reynolds, who retired a couple of years ago, but the new management team of chef Tom Tudor and his partner Vittoria Turolla, FOH, have settled in well and the place is now “performing better again”.

2023 Review: This “fab former stately home” set in “beautiful grounds” in the Welsh countryside was restored by Laura Ashley co-founder Sir Bernard Ashley. Known for its “exceptional food”, it has lost two highly regarded head chefs in recent years, Nick Brodie and Sam Bowser, but still achieves strong ratings across the board.

2022 Review: This “busy” seventeenth-century inn is appreciated for its “simple, tasty, well-executed dishes” of “good honest food”.

It has a Michelin Green Star for its excellence in sustainability, but Charmaine & Mark McHugo’s ‘Dining & Bottle Shop’ in the centre of town, attracted only limited feedback in our annual diners’ poll this year regarding its focused menu with many items sourced from the kitchen garden. Such as we have, though, says results are “consistently excellent” and the overall style “very personable and welcoming”.

A “warm, friendly atmosphere and good-quality food” have made this comfortable gastropub-with-rooms on the edge of the Brecon Beacons a “favourite” countryside retreat for many diners over the past 25 years. New head chef Gwenann Davies presides over a seasonal menu with just half a dozen or so choices of starters and mains. It’s the flagship of Charles & Edmund Inkin’s Eatdrinksleep group, which also comprises the Gurnard’s Head and the Old Coastguard in Cornwall.