Looking for restaurants in Devon? Want to know where to eat in Totnes? Photographer and travel journalist Suzy Bennett takes us on a foodie road trip through Devon, eco-friendly fruit growing projects, organic pubs and dairy farms selling goat’s milk kefir.

In a field beside lushly wooded hills in south Devon, Geetie Singh-Watson is sampling the first of the season’s strawberries. Postbox-red and as big as golf balls, they are exquisite. What makes them even more extraordinary is that they have been grown outside, rather than in a polytunnel, and organically, using crab shells as fertiliser and sheep’s wool for mulch.

Devon may be best known for its meat industry, but it is rapidly gaining a reputation for its progressive, eco-friendly fruit and vegetable growing projects. At one of them, Baddaford Farm, near Ashburton (which Geetie owns with husband Guy, founder of the nationwide organic vegetable box scheme Riverford), the team are experimenting with growing traditional varieties of fruits and vegetables robust enough to withstand the vagaries of the British weather.

“Growing produce in polytunnels is weakening many varieties and running them into the ground,” says Geetie, who was awarded with an MBE after opening the UK’s first organic gastropub, The Duke of Cambridge, in north London in 1998. “Anything that’s grown in natural, tough conditions will be stronger and more resilient to bugs and weather. Here, we are experimenting with strong varieties that are viable in the open air and grown for taste rather than shelf life.”

Come autumn 2019, produce from Baddaford Farm will be on the menu at Geetie’s new venture, The Bull Inn, a Grade-II organic pub with nine bedrooms, in nearby Totnes. The setting couldn’t be more fitting. Totnes is one of the UK’s greenest towns, with a high street made up of independent and eco-friendly businesses, including the UK’s first zero-waste shop, just around the corner from The Bull Inn.

• Check out where to eat and drink in Totnes here

Brought up on a self-sufficient commune in the shadow of the Malvern Hills, Geetie has felt deeply in touch with the land from an early age. Just as at The Duke of Cambridge, The Bull will be organic and run with minimum environmental impact. Water will be warmed by solar panels and heat recaptured from the kitchen, furniture will be reclaimed, organic linens will come from local firm Greenfibres and mattresses for the bedrooms will be handmade (using Dartmoor sheep’s wool) by Exeter-based Naturalmat. Interiors will largely be left in a natural, stripped-back state, with lime plaster and exposed stone walls. As for the food, chef James Dodd will be cooking veg-heavy meat and fish dishes. Think tender grilled monkfish with braised white beans, fennel and oregano, or roast local venison with bright salt-baked beets.

Naturally, everything will be responsibly sourced and seasonal, with a menu that changes according to the day’s produce. Meat will be wild or reared locally, and Geetie aims to eventually breed her own poultry. Even the bread boards will be sourced ethically, from LandWorks, a charity that rehabilitates former prisoners at nearby Dartington Hall Trust, in Totnes.

Geetie and Guy are not the only people to be experimenting in their wildlife-friendly oasis. One of their fields is about to be taken up by Fred Groom and Ronja Schlumberger who, in October 2018, set up Vital Seeds to fill a gap in the organic, British-grown seed market. The walls of their Dartmoor office are lined with shelves stacked neatly with paper packets of unusual vegetable, herb and flower varieties, including rare red Solix lettuce, Meruhen squash, Scarlet Emperor runner beans and Red Russian kale. “Everyone is talking about the local food movement but the produce is mostly grown using seed from thousands of miles away,” Fred tells me. “Seed is increasingly being grown by men in white coats, rather than gardeners themselves. We want to change this, and grow seeds that adapt naturally to the changing climate.”

Over at the Dartington Hall Trust, a 1,200-acre estate and charity near Totnes, I visit the Apricot Centre, a biodynamic, organic fruit and vegetable farm run by Marina O’Connell. Marina tells me how she used chicken manure to transform the farm’s once poor soil. “Chickens are mini nutrient bombs, with highly fertile poo,” she says, illustrating her point by showing me “before and after” samples of soil – the former a compacted lump that looks as if it’s come from the moon, the latter airy, loose soil teeming with microbial activity. She explains how treating it with a combination of green manure (decaying plants), biodynamic preparations (a concentrated form of cow manure) and 150 free-roaming chickens reconditioned it in just three years. Marina also explains how the woodland bordering her fields act as barracks for an army of natural pest controllers, including hover flies, lacewings, ladybirds and wasps, negating the need for chemical pesticides. The resulting produce is legendary at Totnes’ farmers’ market for being ultra flavoursome, and it’s no surprise to learn that Geetie will be serving it alongside her own produce at The Bull Inn.

Up the track, at Dartington Dairy, a handful of mischievous goats have chewed through their hedge fence and are sprawled across picnic tables, basking in the sun. I’m tempted by farmer Jon Perkin’s flyer inviting me to join a goat yoga class and “find my inner kid” but am drawn instead to the shop, where ice cream, and goat’s milk, yogurt and kefir fill the fridges. I sit at a table in the barn outside, drinking a chilled bottle of honey-and-cinnamon-flavoured goat’s milk kefir while two cheeky young escapees try to nibble my shoes. Never mind food miles, this is food millimetres.

More than 70 miles to the north, another innovative food venture is taking shape. Xochi and Michael Birch, founders of social network Bebo, are turning the sleepy village of Woolsery into a major food destination. Over the past three years, the couple, who live in San Francisco but have strong family ties to the village (Michael’s grandmother was born above the village shop), have bought up a number of ailing businesses and properties, with the aim of bringing back Woolsery’s “vitality and energy”. Under their care is the village pub, chippie, a farm, guest cottages and a Georgian manor, which they plan to launch in 2022 as a hotel and restaurant. The latter will offer an immersive dining experience, giving guests the chance to eat each course in a different part of the farm, including the potting shed, root cellar and possibly even an abattoir. The aim? “To take people out of the dining room and on to the farm where their food is being produced,” project manager Emily Harmon explains. If the new-look pub, which reopened in September last year, is anything to go by, the result will be a success. When the couple bought the Farmer’s Arms in 2014, it was so dilapidated that it had a tree growing out of a bath upstairs. It is now a serene and intimate space, with exposed stone walls, windsor chairs, church pews and splashes of taxidermy and modern art.

The restaurant, housed in an airy timber-framed extension, is furnished with rustic tables flanked by long tweed banquettes and a huge marble fireplace. Headed by Gidleigh Park’s former head chef, Ian Webber, dishes are built around ingredients foraged by staff from hedgerows and coastlines. The aim is that all food, including meat, will either be foraged or produced organically on the farm, with fruit, vegetables and herbs grown under a ‘no-till’ sustainable agroforestry system (it’s currently being planted with organic seeds from Vital Seeds, in consultation with Marina at the Apricot Centre). Until then, produce is sourced from local suppliers. Dinner is a riot of colours, shapes and flavours so layered and clever that I find myself grateful to be dining alone, without the distraction of conversation. My starter has no less than 21 carefully curated ingredients, centred around a buxom scallop topped by a gravity-defying fan of sea kelp, dulse, sea lettuce and bladder wrack foraged by staff on the shores of nearby villages Clovelly and Bucks Mills.

A main course of hogget, served with a hedgerow harvest of ramson, nettle and cleavers, is tempting but I opt for turbot poached in Cornish Knightor vermouth, served on an oystery dulse seaweed mash, and buttery leeks charred over the pub’s fire. Dessert is an astringent sea buckthorn parfait hidden under a tent of crispy fruit-leather sheets, with a floral hibiscus and pink peppercorn sorbet on the side.

The following morning Emily tells me how Michael and Xochi are planning a programme of food workshops, a relaunch of the village’s beer festival and to bring back the farmer’s market. A north Devon food destination with style, substance and scruples? Roll on 2022.

Words and photographs by Suzy Bennett, August 2019

Follow Suzy on Instagram @suzybennett.photography

More places to eat and drink in South Devon

South Devon Chilli Farm

On a 10-acre farm outside Totnes 10,000 chilli plants a year are grown in the South Devon sunshine. Visit and you can bask in the tropical heat of the Show Tunnel, lined with stunning bursts of colour from 200 varieties of chilli plants in every shape and size, see seedlings being propagated in the nursery or buy some plants to take home and grow on your windowsill – choose from Padron peppers, ancho poblanos, habaneros and many more. End your visit at the on-site café with a savoury cream tea (fresh, fluffy scones, cream cheese and homemade chilli jam) or a chilli-laced drinking chocolate. The farm shop also sells chilli sauces, chilli chocolates and freshly-picked chillies.

southdevonchillifarm.co.uk

Sharpham Estate

Wander around the Sharpham Estate and you can take in stunning views – a bend of the River Dart to the east and miles of lush, rolling hills to the west. Join a tour of the estate’s winery and an informal tasting of its award-winning wines (we liked the elegant, floral Sharpham Estate 2014 made with Madeleine Angevine grapes, and refreshing and ripe Summer Red 2013 made from Rondo and Pinot Noir grapes). British cheese is also produced here, made mainly from unpasteurized Jersey milk. We loved the Sharpham Cremet – a ripe goat’s cheese enriched with Jersey cream to create a mousse like texture – and the Sharpham Rustic, a creamy and mild, but richly flavoured, semi-hard cheese. Sign up for the full Sharpham Experience tour and you’ll enjoy a great insight into English winemaking, as well a picturesque river walk and a boozy lunch.

sharpham.com

Wild Artichokes

In the most unlikely of places, tucked away on an industrial estate in Kingsbridge, Jane Baxter and Samantha Miller host lunches and suppers amid the pared-back surroundings of their kitchen (the pair, who met at the nearby Riverford Kitchen, also run a catering business, supplying the food for corporate and private clients across the county). Dinner or lunch at the Wild Artichoke HQ is not to be missed, however. Taking place at large wooden tables, they’re all about sharing Jane’s hearty, Southern Italian-influenced dishes – think crisp truffle arancini, deep-fried Brussels sprouts, cured salmon with beetroot, grilled leg of lamb with salsa verde, creamed parsnip, potato and fennel gratin, and spring greens with parmesan. Make sure you try a bit of everything, especially when it comes to desserts: panettone bread and butter pudding, perhaps, alongside rhubarb and strawberry crumble, and pavlova with pears and chocolate.

wildartichokes.co.uk

Nkuku Café

From the company’s base in an uber-cool barn conversion, Nkuku sells its range of ethical, handmade homewares online. What many customers don’t realize as they’re buying its beautiful ceramic cereal bowls or wooden serving platters is that Nkuku also has a shop and café at its Devon HQ. A calming, earthy, stripped-back space, it’s the perfect setting for artisan, wood-roasted coffee from the nearby Curator Café, homemade cakes and brownies and deli boards laid with locally sourced cheeses and cured meats. Its sunny, south-facing courtyard is a great spot to while away an afternoon. And watch this space for upcoming evening food events…

nkuku.com

Manna from Devon

At this well-established, family-run cookery school in Kingswear, you can learn to make all manner of things in a wood-fired oven. If you’ve managed to get hold of one of these hefty items at home the school’s owners, David and Holly Jones, will be delighted to pass on their wood-firing expertise. From pizzas and crusty breads to more surprising dishes – scallops, roast vegetables and even desserts – they’re a great introduction to this type of cooking. Choose from classes at the couple’s Victorian home or, for a true kitchen garden experience, join them in the beautiful setting of Deer Park Country House Hotel, near Honiton, and then stay overnight in your own private tree house.

mannafromdevon.com

Glazebrook House Hotel

For a food experience unlike anything you’ve tried before, book in at the fabulously eccentric Glazebrook House Hotel for an immersive Alice in Wonderland experience. From your bed in the Mad Hatter room you can spy the rooms of a dolls house protruding from the wall, or go for the Tweedle Deez room and spread out in one of its twin (double) four-posters. Chef Anton Piotrowski ensures the theme translates through to the restaurant with an innovative tasting menu that makes the most of seasonal produce sourced within 50 miles. Places are set with five sets of cutlery and all sizes of wine glasses for the wine flight of German Rieslings, Californian reds and even Lebanese wines. A picnic basket of snacks kicks off the menu, followed by gurnard with buttermilk and tonka bean on punchy wild garlic risotto with crab bisque, and an exquisite roast fillet of beef carved theatrically on a trolley by your table before finishing up with spiced pineapple with coconut and lychee sorbet, coconut macaroon and squishy marsmallow.

glazebrookhouse.com

The Curator Cafe and Kitchen, Totnes

In a clean and bright first-floor space, Ancona-born Matteo Lamaro creates seasonal Italian dishes in the Curator Kitchen, a modern osteria he launched last year. Amid decor that’s part rustic Italian and part pared-down Scandi (large windows, painted floorboards and menus handwritten on brown paper) Lamaro serves fortnightly-rotating menus that are heavy on produce from the Totnes area, as well as Matteo’s home in Le Marche, where he has built up a network of artisan producers – his ‘Italian Food Heroes’.

Typical dishes include slow-cooked lamb ragu with orange zest served on freshly-rolled fettucini; red mullet and agrodolce lentils jewelled with soaked raisins, toasted spelt and oven-roasted tomatoes; and warming Italian panettone bread and butter pudding with orange caramel sauce and vanilla gelato. The wine list is pretty special too: Matteo is the only business in the UK to serve Col di Corte wines from Le Marche, including refreshing Verdicchio Superiore and Verdicchio Clasico.

The Cary Arms

The Cary Arms must be the most tranquil place for a pint in Devon. Happily sat inside the curve of Babbacombe bay, right next to Oddicombe beach, the view from the inn stretches to Portland Bill in Dorset and takes in the pink-soil cliffs of the English Riviera and an old pier where both seals and locals like to fish. For breakfast, try grilled kippers or the Devon full English; for lunch it’s all about the succulent local white crab meat and lemon mayonnaise bloomer. Dinner centres around fish – pick one of the chef specials for the freshest catch, such as delicately poached John Dory with basil pesto and seasonal vegetables, or Lyme Bay lobster. The wine list is plentiful and each week the De Savary family (who own the inn) choose the house white and red. Read Charlotte Morgan’s full review of The Cary Arms.

Café ODE

Every detail of this stable block conversion above Ness Cove in Shaldon – sedum roof sewn with wild flowers; solar thermal heating; lambs’ wool wall insulation – was chosen for its green credentials. The food at this modish, family-friendly hang-out (also home to the Two Beach microbrewery, try the elderflower-tinged ODE Ale, pint £3), is regionally-focused and versatile. Dishes change daily depending on the availability of, say, sand eels or smoked River Teign salmon, which is served on a homemade English muffin with Hollandaise and a poached egg. Local venison is big in autumn, used in, for instance, a root vegetable stew or to make a burger with pickled cabbage, chilli jam and aioli. Read Tony Naylor’s full review of Cafe ODE.

We love foodie weekend getaways, but prefer to save our pennies for great food and drink. Here are our favourite cheap hotels that are stylish and comfortable but don’t break the bank. From pop up restaurants in an arts hotel in an up-and-coming area in London, to a full continental spread in a stylish hotel in Paris, to a cheap base in Tallinn to discover New Nordic cuisine, all of these hotels are in prime foodie neighbourhoods. We’ve also found some budget foodie retreats on the coast and in more rural settings for a great-value getaway.

Pilgrm, London – under £100 per night

Rooms are small so book the largest you can afford, and if you’re a light sleeper, ask for one away from the road. There are tiny (but very comfortable) bunk rooms, if you’re on a budget, or on a one-parent, one-child getaway. Decor is pared back and stylish, with slate-coloured walls contrasting with white sash windows and Egyptian linen-clad beds, and floors of reclaimed 200-year-old parquet giving a warm homely feel.

For grab and go, there’s a small coffee bar downstairs, by the entrance, that’s run by Workshop Coffee, selling their own blends of coffee, teas and homemade cakes. Between 3 and 10pm, the lounge serves snacks, juices (including Square Root London’s small-batch sodas) and cocktails.

Breakfast is the thing here, kicking off at 7am and continuing until 3pm in the vintage-chic first-floor lounge. There’s full-cooked Pilgrm (with house-baked beans) or a vegan version of smashed avocado, butternut squash hummus and a knock-out beetroot falafel. But the top seller is smashed avocado on toast with crumbled feta, which comes with the unexpected addition of a tomato and olive salsa.

Being in the heart of London, you’ve plenty of dinner choices nearby – from the cheap-and-cheerful Paramount Lebanese Kitchen, next door, to Basque-styled Lurra and Donostia a short walk away. Read our guide to Paddington restaurants here

Book a room at Pilgrim here

Grassmarket Hotel, Edinburgh – under £100 per night

Comic strip wallpaper and complimentary Tunnocks teacakes are just two of the quirky touches at the Grassmarket Hotel, a playful retreat in Edinburgh’s lively Grassmarket area.

One of a clutch of hotels launched by the G1 Group in Edinburgh (the others are The Inn on the Mile, Stay Central and the Murrayfield House Hotel) the focus might be on fun rather than food (there are copies of Beano in reception, the distance to local attractions is measured in footsteps and you have to stumble next door to Biddy Mulligan’s pub for breakfast) but you’re in the heart of Scotland’s culinary capital and the Grassmarket is peppered with pubs and restaurants.

For breakfast you can count the footsteps to nearby Swedish bakery and café Peter’s Yard for a moreish cardamom bun and coffee. Just round the corner on Victoria Street mooch around gourmet stores such as champion cheesemaker I J Mellis and liquid deli Demi John – fill the glass bottles with everything from signature malt whisky to olive oil – while on Saturdays there’s a weekly farmers’ market right outside your door.

Book a room at Grassmarket Hotel here

Hotel Henriette, Paris – under £150 per night

Designed by a fashion editor-turned-hotelier Hotel Henriette is on the Rive Gauche, tucked along a quiet cobbled street in the Mouffetard district. Its 32 rooms are decked out with vintage fabrics and flea market finds and there’s a lovely courtyard garden, plus a breakfast room with a distinct Scandinavian vibe. Breakfast can be eaten inside or out and runs to a full continental spread, from cake and croissants to charcuterie.

Almost 200 restaurant suggestions are split by neighbourhood, from Montmartre’s Café Lomi coffee shop to pretty patisserie Carette in Trocadero. Recommendations closer to the hotel include everything from Moroccan to contemporary French. Even Breton – the menu at L’Auberge du Roi Gradlon features haddock tart with Roscoff onions, galettes and, for dessert, Kouign amann with salted caramel. For where to drink in Paris, check out our guide here.

Book a room at Hotel Henriette here

Conscious Hotel, Amsterdam – under £150 per night

There are four Conscious Hotels in Amsterdam, but the newest, Westerpark, is the first hotel in The Netherlands to be powered entirely by wind energy. There are 89 rooms, Roetz bikes to rent (made from discarded frames), and a vegan-friendly restaurant to try. There are seven types of room to choose from, but all are airy and uncluttered, with iron-frame furniture, light wooden panelling, navy blue feature walls, monochrome bathrooms and spacious Auping beds.

The main draw is the hotel’s Kantoor bar and restaurant, open all day until late. It’s not exclusively vegetarian, but organic ingredients are transformed into meat-free stars such as nettle risotto, tofu cheesecake with dried tangerine, and broccoli crumble. Carnivores can enjoy lamb shank with adzuki cassoulet, huge seafood platters while there’s also a great children’s menu (young guests can pick everything from the “I don’t like that” fried fish with steamed vegetables to the “I don’t know” tomato soup). The signature cocktail menu is also worth perusing –  try The Boss, made with vodka, kimchi purée and tomato juice.

The 100% organic breakfast includes avocado, quinoa and watercress on rye, croissants with homemade compote, omelettes made with eggs “from the happiest chickens” and healthy granola.

Book a room at Conscious Hotel here

Merchant’s House Hotel, Tallinn – under £100 per night

Estonia is a worthy member of the New Nordic food scene, with stylishly simple cafes and restaurants tapping into local ingredients. To experience this first-hand, check into Merchant’s House Hotel, in Tallinn’s Old Town. Its 32 rooms are centred around 14th and 16th century buildings that are rich with ancient fireplaces and beamed ceilings, hand-painted frescoes and hidden stairways.

Bedrooms themselves are fairly modern in style, though the Merchant’s Suite (scarlet walls, hand-painted wooden ceiling and clawfoot bath) and Courtyard Suite (large fireplace, exposed stone walls and private sauna) have a little more history.

There’s also a bar and restaurant on site but location is key; it’s an ideal base for exploring the city’s restaurants. You’ll find a guide to our favourite places to eat in Tallinn here but they include Art Priori, whose veg-focused seasonal cooking is minutes away, and New Nordic pioneer, Leib.

Book a room at Merchant’s House Hotel here

Rosa et Al Townhouse, Porto – from £150 per night

Though one of the more expensive hotels on this list, Porto makes such a great-value destination and prices include a hearty breakfast. This six-room hotel is a lesson in boutique design. Rooms blessed with original wooden floorboards, cornicing and sash windows that lead to balconies are made even more beautiful with claw-footed baths, contemporary furniture and local art.

Soak up Rosa et Al’s chic and cosy vibe over brunch. 50 jars of tea (some made with herbs from the garden) cover a large serving table; you can choose your own Portuguese tinned cod or sardines; and there’s a dinky walled garden out back where you can sit around tiled tables, eating eggs with spruced-up sides and drinking freshly squeezed orange juice in the sunshine.

Book a room at Rosa et Al Townhouse here

Rosy’s Little Village, Agistri, Greek Islands – under £75 per night

A cluster of whitewashed buildings splashed with bright bursts of bougainvillea, hibiscus and geraniums, Rosy’s perches above a small rocky cove (grab a kayak to explore sea caves nearby). A family-run hotel serving simple but excellent food, the extensive menu at its terrace restaurant includes marinated anchovies, zucchini pie, rosemary lamb and glasses of local retsina, a salty-sweet wine made using pine tree sap. Best of all, freshly caught fish (sold by weight) includes sardines, red mullet and swordfish, all of which is simply grilled and served with organic vegetables grown on-site. Eat looking out across the Saronic Gulf towards the neighbouring island of Aegina.

Get great deals on a stay at Rosy’s Little Village here

Mellby Klockargård, Sweden – under £150 per night

Mellby is what Swedes call a smultronställe (wild strawberry place) – a little gem that you would really rather keep to yourself. Newly renovated in a romantic and charmingly bohemian way, this b&b opens its seven individually decorated rooms (think painted wooden floorboards, splashes of colour and pattern and fleamarket finds) only in the summer months.

Guests can also enjoy Mellby’s magical garden, full of secret spots for drinking freshly brewed espresso and day dreaming. Breakfasts are simple and delicious (and largely organic and local), with many of the fruit, vegetables and herbs served grown in the garden.

mellbyklockargard.se

Club Marvy, Izmir, Turkey – under £125 per night all-inclusive for two

Despite its size (the boho chic resort stretches across 16 hectares of hillside and sandy beach on Turkey’s Aegean coast), Club Marvy retains a sense of intimacy and a commitment to local flavours.

There are plenty of little alcoves to explore: palm trees rock gently in the breeze beside olive trees, sandy coves are home to private beaches (one is adults-only and comes with an Ibiza-esque bar) and neat beds of cacti and exotic plants frame wooden decks and a glistening infinity pool. Rooms continue the stylish, boho theme with muted greys and taupe palettes, Turkish throws on the beds and brushed concrete walls. 

Eat at the main restaurant for a buffet-style tour of Turkey and beyond. The Turkish station showcases traditional dishes such as deep-fried manti dumplings filled with minced lamb, glistening vegetables and spiced chicken stew. There’s a whole section dedicated to mezze, a grill-to-order fish stand and a dessert table heaving with baklava and pomegranate ice cream.

The adults-only Değirmen restaurant, named after Club Marvy’s farm, offers a more intimate atmosphere. Perched on top of a cliff, it enjoys sensational sunset views – tuck into an à la carte menu (still included in the price) of artichoke salad, lamb shish kebab, and deconstructed pavlova while the sun paints the sky blood orange as it disappears behind the mountains.

Book a great-value stay at Club Marvy here

The Rose, Deal – under £125 per night

The genteel coastal town of Deal, on the Kent coast, has gone hip in recent years. What sets this chic new pub with rooms apart is the joyful use of colour. Downstairs is a bar, restaurant and lounge full of bright vintage furniture, while upstairs are eight bedrooms, each painted in a unique bold hue, inspired by the bright beach balls and deckchairs of the local seaside, just a few steps away.

Fine local brews from Kent including Ripple Steam Brewery Ale, Arden Pale Ale and award-winning Chapel Down wine and beer. The bar snacks are well worth ordering alongside a brew – they include cauliflower cheese croquettes and Welsh rarebit.

The Dealston vibe continues in the kitchen, which is headed up by chef Rachel O’Sullivan (previously of Polpo and Spuntino but most recently running the cult Towpath Cafe in East London).  Rachel is originally from Australia and, although the menu is big on British comfort food, there’s a fresh Aussie feel to many of the dishes, like chicken schnitzel jazzed up with fennel slaw, and a creative veggie option of violet artichokes, white beans and dandelion and goats curd.

Breakfast is particularly impressive at The Rose. There’s a relaxed vibe in the morning, with magazine and papers piled high and the menu chalked on a blackboard. Vegetarians can fill up on roast Swiss brown mushrooms, oregano, goats cheese and toast, while the Nordically inclined can opt for the Scandi breakfast plate – smoked salmon with avocado, egg, dill, whipped cream cheese and toast. The signature dish is Scotch Woodcock – scrambled egg and gentleman’s relish on sourdough. Most importantly the restaurant passes the morning coffee test, with punchy Climpson & Sons coffee and properly made flat whites.

therosedeal.com

Green Rooms, London – £50 per night

After a ‘rough luxe’ revamp, the old offices of the North Metropolitan Electric Power Supply Company in gritty Wood Green are now a hip budget hotel and restaurant, Green Rooms. A social enterprise, it offers affordable accommodation for visiting creatives (other guests are also welcome, at higher rates).

In its bedrooms, studio apartments and dormitories the vibe is back-to-basics with style, with simple white bedlinen and vintage wooden furniture. The hotel’s restaurant is an incubator project running pop-up residencies for would-be restaurateurs.

Supported by Johnny Smith, who took The Clove Club from supper club to Michelin-starred restaurant, the first resident was Esteban Arboleda of Colombian Street Kitchen, who dished up plump sweetcorn croquettes, fragrant chicken tamales and pink and black salads. Here are our other favourite London foodie hotels.

Book a room at Green Rooms here

Written by Tatty Good, Lucy Gillmore, Alex Crossley & Rhiannon Batten

First published January 2017, updated August 2019

Looking for restaurants in the Scottish Highlands? Want to know where to eat in Sutherland? Food and travel writer Clare Hargreaves shares here insider tips for the best restaurants, along with where to find bowls of mussels, mugs of marshmallow-topped hot chocolate and jars of rhubarb jam.

• Want to enjoy a taste of Scottish botanicals at home? Try one of our favourite Scottish gins here…

olive’s must-visits for foodies in Sutherland

West Coast Deli, Ullapool – best deli

Cradled by mountains, and on the shore of Loch Broom, Ullapool is the northwest coast’s main hub. So before heading to remote Sutherland, our advice is to do a big shop at this well-stocked deli/café. Its impressive range of Scottish cheese includes Errington’s Lanark Blue, made from unpasteurised milk from the farm’s own Lacaune ewes, and both the heather honey and Arran wholegrain mustard dressing come from Saladworx in Dornoch, on Sutherland’s east coast. If the weather is fine, enjoy a cup of Matthew Algie coffee on the terrace outside.

westcoastdeli.co.uk 

Elphin – best weekly market

Blink and you could miss this cluster of houses on the scenic route between Ullapool and Lochinver. On Wednesdays, however, Elphin’s village hall buzzes with a food and crafts market. The cured meats on the Highland Charcuterie stall are all sourced from local estates or farms, and many of them are rare-breed – don’t miss the wild highland venison salami, flavoured with local blackcurrants and bog myrtle, and the bite-sized “walking sticks” (a great hiking snack), made from free-range Elphin-reared pork and pepper dulse seaweed. On the same stall you’ll also find local chanterelles, bog myrtle, seaweed and wild garlic, all of which are foraged from the surrounding mountains, woods and shores. Climb the track opposite to Elphin’s tea rooms, for homemade cake (try a slice of lime polenta) and views of the mighty Suilven mountain.

facebook.com/Elphin-Market

Summer Isles Hotel, Achiltibuie – best for views

Choose between the airy dining room or no-frills bar (where the locals drink) at the Summer Isles Hotel. Wherever you eat, the views across to the Summer Isles from this old-timer hotel in beachside Achiltibuie are mesmerising – make sure you stay a while after dinner, for the sunset. As you’d expect, seafood dominates the menu, so get your hands messy with a bowl of mussels or battered haddock and chips in the bar. At the more formal restaurant, feast on dishes such as bourride of hake, mussels and scallops in a smoky broth.

summerisleshotel.co.uk

Choc-O-Latté, Point of Stoer – best for patisserie

Most visitors beat a path to Sutherland’s rocky Point of Stoer to peer at its lighthouse, 200-foot-high Old Man of Stoer sea stack and the chance to spot whales and dolphins. For foodies, there’s another draw, in the shape of Choc-O-Latté. Belgian owners Philip Dendale and Sophie Van Oyenbrugge moved here in 2016 to set up a B&B (called Philosophy, an amalgamation of their names), and now they’ve added a tiny café to the business that revolves around Belgian chocolate.

Transport yourself to a Brussels salon de thé with a mug of real hot chocolate (the special comes with added cream and mini marshmallows), a chocolate merveilleux (or ‘marvie’ as the locals call it), or a slab of Sophie’s ganache-topped chocolate cake. It’s all served on vintage china that’s been foraged from local junk shops or been donated by locals, and the view includes sheep-studded fields and Suilven mountain.

bnbphilosophy.com

The Jammery, Point of Stoer – best for jam

The Jammery, housed in a cabin in the hamlet of Culkein, is another good reason to venture onto this wind-blasted promontory. Steve and Amanda Webb, who moved here from Bedfordshire in 2010, bake fresh cakes daily (we loved their cappuccino Victoria sponge) and, occasionally, made-from-scratch bread. The latter can be hard to buy in these parts, so snap up one of their loaves or filled rolls to fuel your coastal hike. The pair are actually best known for their jams made from local ingredients, including plum, raspberry, apple and Culkein-grown rhubarb. There’s also a range of chutneys and jellies, including a rowan jelly that’s perfect with venison, and tablet (the Scottish answer to fudge). On Monday and Wednesday evenings between June and August they also bake pizzas to take away.

jammery.co.uk

Kylesku Hotel – best for sustainable seafood

With its dreamy location at the mouth of three lochs, seafood is naturally the order of the day at this friendly family-run hotel and restaurant. Owners Tanja Lister and Sonia Virechauveix go to great lengths to ensure that all their produce, including seafood, is responsibly sourced. Lunch might include a bowl of mussels from Loch Glendhu, and kedgeree topped with local hand-dived scallops. Or shell your way through a vibrant platter of creel-caught langoustines, crabs and lobsters landed by Kylesku boys Darren and Callum, who work out on the loch or jetty as you eat. Meat is free-range and sourced from local crofts.

kyleskuhotel.co.uk

Shorehouse restaurant, Tarbet – best seafood restaurant for bird-spotting

There can’t be many restaurants with a view of the bay your seafood was caught in plus (if it’s the right season) guillemots and puffins. This modest shack-style eatery perches on rocks above the ferry jetty for Handa Island, an outcrop famous for the sea birds that nest on its ragged red sandstone crags. Shorehouse has been in the same family ever since it opened in 1977, serving seafood caught from their own boat. It’s simply prepared and presented, mainly as salads or sandwiches, and you can’t fault it for freshness.

shorehousetarbet.co.uk

Mackays, Durness – best breakfast

If it isn’t local, homemade and delicious, it isn’t on the breakfast menu at this cabin-style B&B, which sits at the entrance to Durness, on Scotland’s wild north coast. Owner Fiona Mackay cooks eggs (from village hens) as you like them, tattie scones, local sausages and dry-cured bacon for guests every morning. But her organic porridge – topped with fruit, seeds, bee pollen and home-produced honey – is our must-order, as is the compote of garden-grown rhubarb that comes with homemade yogurt and cake. If you can fit it in, there’s homemade sourdough and raspberry jam too, all served with enthusiasm by Spanish-born waiter, Paco Colomina.

visitdurness.com

Cocoa Mountain, Balnakeil village, near Durness – best for hot chocolate

A disused 1950s MOD station just opposite Cape Wrath is an unlikely place to find some of Scotland’s best chocolate. But a Cocoa Mountain beverage is just the thing after a bracing walk along the wind-blasted coast of Britain’s most northwesterly point. The Cold War station has been converted into a community of artists and food producers called Balnakeil village, and Paul Maden and James Findlay, both former academics in Glasgow, set up Cocoa Mountain here in 2006. As well as hot chocolate (which you can also buy in powdered form to take home), the pair make chocolate truffles using as many local ingredients as they can find, from raspberries and strawberries to fresh cream and crème fraîche. The bestseller, though, is their chilli and lemongrass flavour.

cocoamountain.co.uk

Smoo Lodge, Durness – best for Asian cooking

At this newly refurbished beachside B&B, you’re more likely to find kimchi and sushi than black pudding and tatties. Korean ex-fashion designer Kyunghee Hendy-Cho runs it with her photographer husband Merlin Hendy. She cooks authentic Korean dinners such as seafood pancakes and bibimbap, a combination of tender marinated Highland beef, vegetables, sushi rice and gochujang hot red pepper paste. You end on a Scottish note, with a cranachan of local raspberries and toasted oatmeal steeped in honey and single malt whisky. Make Kyunghee’s homemade kimchi part of your breakfast – it’s great fuel for a wilderness walk, swim, or visit to the nearby Smoo caves.

smoolodge.co.uk

Côte du Nord, Kirtomy, near Bettyhill – best for gourmet dining

In Kirtomy, a hamlet halfway between Cape Wrath and Thurso, family doctor Chris Duckham (a MasterChef contestant, back in 1992) devotes his Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings to cooking immaculate feasts. Chris’ 10-course tasting menu, served in the front room of his house, features produce such as lobster, langoustine and garden vegetables, alongside foraged ingredients including bog myrtle, wild thyme and sea lettuce. We loved the tian of crab, avocado and apple, with its crowning tomato purée discs, and the Scotch duck egg deep-fried in pork crumbs.

cotedunord.co.uk

Clare stayed at Smoo Lodge, formerly an 18th-century sporting lodge, on Durness’ seafront. It has four stylishly comfortable en-suite bedrooms; smoolodge.co.uk

Words and images by Clare Hargreaves

Chocolate box Baroque and Art Nouveau architecture, a river romantically spanned by pretty bridges and pedestrian- and bike-friendly policies make Slovenia’s capital city one of Europe’s most civilised. It’s also one of the continent’s most foodie destinations, with a position between the Alps and the Adriatic that lends the local cuisine both an excellent range of produce and a real variety of culinary influences.  

Open Kitchen Market – for a taste of Slovenia

Every Friday, from March to October, Ljubljana’s Pogačar Square comes to life as the city’s Open Kitchen Market. There’s a festival atmosphere beneath the shadows of the green-domed Ljubljana Cathedral, and all manner of vendors, from farms to gourmet restaurants, sell dishes and drinks for visitors to graze on.

Sample vibrant pumpkin seed oil and Broken Bones gin (distilled with linden flowers and rosehip from Slovenia’s Karst region), or tuck into dishes from the country’s top restaurants – Gostilna Mihovec, Vander and JB Restaurant. Finish your visit like a local by stopping off at Jezeršek’s corner stall for comforting kaiserschmarrn (shredded pancakes), topped with apple, mixed berries or chocolate sauce.

odprtakuhna.si

Monstera – for upmarket bistro vibes

The handful of tables at this neat little bistro fill up quickly, so book one in advance. Slovenian chef Bine Volčič is a big name here, one of the first to introduce a zero-waste policy. White brick, pale tiles and taupe chairs create an elegant look against a background of concrete walls and industrial piping while a five-course tasting menu elegantly showcases Slovenia’s produce. Typical dishes include grilled asparagus on a light goat cheese espuma with bee pollen panna cotta and baked walnuts. Deer heart is served with wild herb salad tossed in blackcurrant vinaigrette and fermented onions, and lamb shoulder is accompanied by wispy wild hops, a pastry cigar filled with feta and raisins, parsley purée and a sprinkling of dehydrated spring onion dust. Other highlights include homemade parmesan, spinach and baked morel ravioli, coated in mushroom velouté, and star anise meringue with fresh strawberries, baked white chocolate crumbs and a punchy red peppercorn ice cream.

Monstera’s wine list is equally persuasive when it comes to fine grapes from Slovenia and its neighbours. Start with Slovenia’s Dolfo Spirito sparkling wine for toasty, exotic bubbles. Then move on to elegant Prulke Zidarich from northern Italy (the cellar has its own Michelin star) and Reddo’s floral, youthful blend of blue frankish, red rebula and refosco from western Slovenia’s Burja estate.

monsterabistro.si

Črno Zrno – for coffee

Črno Zrno translates as ‘black bean’ and this hole-in-the-wall spot is a temple to just that. Alexander Niño Ruiz sources coffee beans from his native Colombia, roasts them at renowned Slovenian roaster Stow, then serves the resulting brews in his perfectly formed coffee shop. The space is enveloped in blue and white Valencian tiles – chat with local coffee geeks over a meticulously prepared pour-over inside, or sit in the sun next to painted wooden shutters. Alexander’s niche is cold brew: try it on the rocks in a wine glass, or as an addition to a funky non-alcoholic cocktail made with Ruiz’ grandmother’s elderflower syrup.

crnozrno.com

Pekarna Osem – for baked goods

The minimalist decor at this artisan bakery allows its products to shine. Dedicated young baker Andrej Gerželj is on site every morning, from 5am, preparing dough for crunchy spelt baguettes intertwined with Slovenian Tolminc cheese, and flaky pastry ribbons sprinkled with chocolate beads. The open bakery at the back means you can watch perfectly formed balls of dough being transformed into golden loaves, their comforting aromas filling the space.

pekarnaosem.com

Suklje – for Slovenian wine

With its vaulted ceilings, riverside terrace and 300-strong wine list, Suklje is the place to spend a few hours sipping local wines. There are 200 bottles from Slovenia alone – grapes include fruity sauvignon blanc from the north east, the south west’s rounded and woody rebula epoca, and blue frankish from Suklje’s own vineyard in the south east, bursting with leathery notes and, red currant aromas. To go with it, order a charcuterie board of salty, silky prosciutto and marbled salami from Slovenian Krškopolje pigs, alongside aged kosect cheese and French comté.

winebar.suklje.com

Lajbah – for Slovenian craft beer

With 16 beers on tap and more than 130 bottles from around the world to choose from, this contemporary pub is a great place to taste some of Slovenia’s best-loved brews. Treat yourself to a beer flight and sample the likes of Pelicon’s Yess Boss! pale ale, Green Gold Brewing’s tropical IPA, and smooth, chocolatey HumanFish Baltic Porter.

lajbah.si

Vigò – for gelato

The queue for this popular gelato spot can stretch all the way to Ljubljana’s famous three bridges. The pull? Indulgent cooling concoctions to rival those of neighbouring Italy. Try the Vigo (fresh mascarpone, chocolate, hazelnuts and Nutella) or lemon tiramisu with mascarpone and chocolate sauce from a tap. The vegan sorbet is some of the best we’ve tried – rich dark chocolate laced with aromatic dried orange pieces. Order a cone to go and mooch through the surrounding streets as you lick it, or bask in the sun out on Vigò’s large terrace.

vigo-icecream.com

Tabar – for Slovenian tapas

Tabar, its chairs spilling out beneath sycamore trees, forms part of a buzzy courtyard set back from the city’s river. It specialises in Slovenian small plates – beef tartare with burnt aubergine, octopus with “half way” kimchi (not fermented, but cooked in spices), and warm rabbit terrine with burnt baby leeks surrounded by a moat of buttermilk and horseradish. Inventive vegetarian options include white asparagus with wild garlic, and ground chickpeas topped with bright peas and freshly picked salad leaves from the chef’s garden. The menu must-order is the “olive potatoes” – super-crispy little potatoes with notes of paprika and hidden olives. There’s also an impressive orange wine list to navigate, from mineral malvasia to raisiny jakot. Or go for Gordia’s unfiltered sparkling wine from the coastal town of Kolomban.

tabar.si

Gostilnica 5-6 kg – for pizza

This rustic, brick-walled restaurant takes its name from the weight of a typical Slovenian suckling pig, cooked here in a bread oven. The slow-cooked pork is well worth a visit but so, too, are the pizzas (as they should be this close to the Italian border). The blistered crusts of Neapolitan-style pizzas wrap around bases topped with baked cherry tomatoes, confit garlic and basil. Toppings add extra punch – Pizza 5-6 kg is an indulgent combination of fior di latte, sausage, porchetta made from that slow-cooked suckling pig and roasted red pepper sauce. Or, go coastal and try the seafood pizza, complete with cuttlefish ink, sea bass fillet, royal prawns and capers.

facebook.com/gostilnica56kg

Stow – for coffee

Cut through City Museum of Ljubljana’s striking courtyard and you’ll find this speciality coffee roaster. Light pours in through glass walls onto canary-yellow tables scattered across cobbled floors. Baristas treat the La Morzocco coffee machine with respect, and beans are treated as a seasonal fruit, procured from small-scale growers around the world and roasted on-site. In spring, go for the floral, honeyed notes of African burundi, or enjoy delicate jasmine and bergamot in Panama’s legendary geisha coffee. If the sun is out, sit and sip beneath a shady parasol in the museum courtyard.

stow.si

Ek bistro – for brunch

Sit by the city’s Ljubljanica river to enjoy a backdrop of forest-blanketed hills, or settle into an exposed brick nook at this popular brunch spot. The eggs (benedict, scrambled, royale) are what draw the crowds, but larger lunch plates also shine – try plump pink duck on seasonal vegetables and sweet potato mash, or wild asparagus polenta fritters with fresh salad. Homemade ice teas include sparkling elderflower and lemongrass with mint, thyme and lavender.

ek-bistro.business.site

For more info look for #oliveeatsslovenia or see visitljubljana.com

This week we have a special podcast recorded by editor Laura at Wilderness Festival, in Oxfordshire where she catches up with two of the chefs hosting feasts at the festival. We hear from Andrew Clarke of St Leonard’s in Shoreditch about the joys of live fire cooking, his own battles with mental health and why cooking and being a chef saved his life. Then Laura talks to Yossi Elad co-founder of The Palomar in London about Israeli cooking, his incredible 40 year career and why he can’t quite retire yet.

Looking for restaurants in Milan? Want to know where to eat in the Italian design capital? Local food and travel writer Jaclyn DeGiorgio shares her insider tips for the best restaurants in Milan, along with where to find  the best saffron risotto, pillowy pizza and gourmet gelato.

olive’s top 10 foodie must-visits in Milan

Ratanà – for risotto

Each plate at Ratanà fuses old-school Milanese food culture with contemporary flair. Chef Cesare Battisti is a carnaroli whisperer, so make sure you order risotto, either a seasonal speciality or “alla Milanese” (with saffron and bone marrow) to go with ossobuco.

ratana.it

Tipografia Alimentare – for lunch

Speciality coffee and artisanal baked goods are available all day at Tipografia Alimentare, while the lunch menu changes weekly, with at least four vegetarian choices. Recent dishes include tacos stuffed with wild Nero di Parma pork belly, Lucca red beans, spring onions, chillies and coriander.

tipografiaalimentare.it

Crosta – for baked goods

Crosta is a bakery, pizzeria and bottega rolled into one. At lunch, try the pillowy pizza alla pala topped with marinara sauce and stracciatella cheese or prosciutto. Dinner is all about the pies: try the fior di latte, sausage and friarielli (greens typical of Campania).

@crosta_milano

Trippa – for meaty dishes

Diego Rossi’s minimal menu at trattoria Trippa might include snails, spleen and horsemeat, and the more familiar gnocchi al ragù; however, the lustrous vitello tonnato (veal with tuna sauce) and crispy slivers of fried tripe are the must-tries.

trippamilano.it

Pasticceria & Dessert – for sweets and pastries

Don’t miss Pasticceria & Dessert, Marcello Rapisardi’s pastry shop in the tranquil Piazzale Bacone. As well as classics like cannoncini (little pastry horns filled with vanilla cream), there are chocolates flavoured with marine plankton, and pâte de fruit in edible bonbon wrappers.

pasticceriarapisardi.com

Nebbia – for an Italian-style bistro

Located on a sleepy street near the Naviglio Pavese, Nebbia melds Italian traditions with French bistronomy. Keep an eye out for risotto with sweet Montoro onions and tart Calabrese bergamot, finished with a sprinkling of dehydrated capers.

nebbiamilano.com

Gelato Giusto – for gelato

Vittoria Bortolazzo puts her Cordon Bleu pastry degree to good use at Gelato Giusto, concocting gourmet gelato from top-quality ingredients. Flavours range from a creamy fior di latte to a velvety Tonda Gentile Romana hazelnut, and there are plenty of vegan choices to boot. If it’s on the list, order a scoop of the refreshing Uva Fragola grape.

gelatogiusto.it

QuBi – for cooking classes

Where better to master risotto than the Lombardian capital? During a specialist cooking class, QuBi chefs Gabriele and Mariagiulia teach participants how to prepare the city’s signature broth-based rice dish step by step (vegans get to prepare a version senza butter and cheese).

qubipersonalchef.com

FUD Bottega Sicula – for al fresco dining

When the comfort-food craving hits, turn to FUD Bottega Sicula. Its burgers, sandwiches and salads are crafted from the finest Sicilian ingredients. Order a Littel Itali salad (with orange, fennel, olives and thyme honey) and eat it at one of the outdoor tables to soak up the energy of the buzzing Navigli quarter. Dip into the bottega before you go, for edibles such as Sicilian olive oil and honey.

fud.it

Where to stay in Milan – La Favia urban guesthouse

The four-bedroom La Favia guesthouse, an urban hideaway tucked inside a refurbished 19th-century building, takes its inspiration from owners Fabio and Marco’s travels: no two rooms are the same. On sunny mornings, start the day with breakfast in the rooftop garden – eggs cooked to order, pastries, cakes, bread, homemade jams, fruit and juice squeezed from oranges grown in the owners’ own citrus grove.

lafavia4rooms.com

Words above by Jaclyn DeGiorgio. Jaclyn is a Milan-based food and travel writer who runs food tours (asignorinainmilan.com). Follow her on instagram @jaclyndegiorgio

More places to eat and drink in Milan

Rossi & Grassi – for deli products

At Rossi & Grassi pack yourself a gourmet picnic from the seductive deli counter (try the lentils with artichoke or arancini), or stock up on artisan cheese, dried porcini and homemade pasta.

rg.mi.it

La Latteria – for simple cooking

Its handful of tables and no reservations can make La Latteria a tricky place to get a seat. But simple is sensational here: bottarga with juicy tomato, plump slices of goose roasted with potato, and a carafe of house wine costs €60 per person. (Mon to Fri only.)

0039 2 659 7653

La Rinascente – for cocktails on the roof

Have cocktails on the roof at La Rinascente, a department store with the best Duomo views in town. Drink an Aperol spritz within near-touching distance of the cathedral’s curling gothic spires. Inside, buy this season’s Bialetti Moka Alpina coffee pot, styled to look like an Italian Alpino mountain guard, complete with a neat feather-capped lid.

rinascente.it

N’Ombra de Vin – for a boozy dinner

Under N’Ombra de Vin’s vaulted ceilings eat fish crostini, veal meatballs and burratina salad, plus a bottle from the 1,000-strong list. At weekends, kitsch crooner acts encourage the polished crowd to push plates aside and dance on the tables.

nombradevin.it

Princi – for flashy bakes

Princi, the flagship bakery in Rocco Princi’s growing international empire, is still the flashiest and buzziest. Cure foggy heads with a stracchino-filled focaccia (a Lombard cheese sarnie) and cappuccino.

princi.it

Viale Papiniano – for an outdoor food market

Try Milan’s outdoor food markets. At Viale Papiniano’s you’ll find pungent cheese and fennel-scented salsiccia.

Ponte Rosso – for lunch

Lunch at the playfully decorated Ponte Rosso to eat puntarelle (winter chicory) with a punchy anchovy dressing and ‘stinco alla birra’ (beer-marinated ham hock) with Milanese saffron risotto. Find room for a glass of pistachio gelato.

trattoriaponterosso.it

Enoteca Cotti – for wine

At cavernous Enoteca Cotti buy regional Italian wine ranging from a €10 chianti to a 15-year old-Barbaresco for €399. Staying at Antica Locanda Solferino? Make a quick bottle stop; it’s just opposite.

enotecacotti.it

Da Rita e Antonio – for pre-theatre dinner

Tuck into Neapolitan pizza, cotoletta alla Milanese (breaded veal cutlet) and a carafe of house for around €30 per head at Da Rita e Antonio. This is the perfect pre- or post-theatre dinner spot; Teatro dal Verme is next door, a more affordable experience than La Scala.

0039 2 875 579

Words above by Sarah Barrell

Photographs: ALAMY, Matteo Carassale/SIME/4Corners, Stefano Amantini/4Corners.Guido Baviera/SIME/4Corners

Looking for places to stay in Scotland? Want a vegan hotel in Perthshire? Read our hotel review, and check out more veggie and vegan hotels across the world here…

Saorsa 1875 in a nutshell

Perching on the edge of pretty Pitlochry, in Perthshire, 11-bedroom Saorsa 1875 is the UK’s first totally vegan hotel. Thanks to its exciting young Italian chef it’s a place for ‘plant-curious’ travellers, as well as vegans.

• Want to enjoy a taste of Scottish botanicals at home? Try one of our favourite Scottish gins here…

The vibe

‘Saorsa’ is Gaelic for freedom, and 1875 is the year this stately residence was built. From the outside it’s grand gothic, but step across the threshold and it’s a very different story. The dark, rock ’n’ roll, entrance hall is lit by a fluorescent Saorsa 1875 sign (owner Jack McLaren-Stewart’s background is in cocktail bars), and there’s no traditional reception – just a contemporary glass desk for check-in.

The lounge and bar are light and bright with high ceilings, sash windows and bare boards, and there’s an eclectic mix of vintage sofas and chairs in retro florals and velvets. The dining room, where supper club-style dinners are held, is hung with dramatic modern artworks. This is a family affair – Jack’s mother and co-founder Sandra designed the interiors. Their vegan and eco-conscious philosophy is evident in all aspects of the hotel, from the cleaning products to the bedding. Even the energy comes from Ecotricity, a green energy company certified by The Vegan Society.

Which room should I book at Saorsa 1875?

There are five bedroom categories, each one named after a type of Scottish wildlife: Red Squirrel, Capercaillie, Wild Cat, Golden Eagle and Lynx. Lynx rooms come with bold geometric wallpaper and a navy and pink colour palette, while the vibrant parrot-themed wallpaper in Golden Eagle rooms lends a tropical vibe. Expect vegan snacks on your tea tray, and lush wild nettle and heather toiletries from the Highland Soap Co in the bathroom (you can stock up on the latter in their nearby store) but no TVs. As you might expect, there are no goose-down duvets either; but beds are cotton wool-cloud soft and sumptuous, with a high thread count. Bathrooms are due to be upgraded.

The food and drink

Luca Sordi has stellar credentials. He’s worked in Turin’s Soul Kitchen, Italy’s first vegan hotel, La Vimea, and London’s Vanilla Black. His plant-based five-course tasting menus change every day, and are served at a large communal table. The aim of Luca and the McLaren-Stewarts is to show that vegan food is not about abstinence, or what is missing from the plate. Instead, plant-based dishes can be the height of indulgence.

Luca plays with ingredients and his sense of fun shines through. Watermelon is cooked to the consistency of roasted red pepper, with the texture of tuna sashimi, and is accompanied by tapioca that mimics crunchy caviar. Sourdough wood-fired bread comes with almond-infused butter, capers, olive and dill. Asparagus and truffle with hollandaise ‘mayo’, black salt caviar and wild garlic is followed by pea and mint risotto with mangetout, beetroot gel and black rice crackers. The final course, ‘A Land of Sheep’, is inspired by some scraps of wool Sordi found snagged on bushes nearby. It’s a decadent dessert that’s created from baked apricot, dark chocolate, wild flowers, and spun sugar ‘wool’. A glass of natural vegan wine, chosen by Jack, is paired with each dish.

Breakfast

The breakfast buffet is all fresh fruit, homemade granola, bowls of berries, seeds and nuts, vegan croissants, peanut butter, homemade preserves and gnarly loaves to toast. Choose beans on toast from the cooked to order menu – black beans soaked overnight, then cooked with tomato paste, smoked paprika, black pepper and bay leaves. The coffee is from local artisan roaster, Glen Lyon, and cappuccinos are made with pea milk from Swedish brand, Sproud.

What else can foodies do?

Mooch around picturesque Pitlochry. It’s touristy and twee but has a smattering of good food stores and cafés among the knitwear and outdoors shops. Check out Drinkmonger, a specialist bottle shop, while two nearby whisky distilleries – Blair Atholl and Edradour (the smallest traditional distillery in Scotland) – both offer tours and tastings. Continue the plant-themed experience with a visit to Explorers Garden, which is bedded into the hillside above the town’s Festival Theatre. It’s planted with specimens brought back from far-flung continents by the Scottish plant hunters who travelled the world between the 1600s and 1900s.

Is it family friendly?

There are two lovely dogs, Roxy and Lizzy, and this is a family-run venture, but it’s not particularly child-friendly. It’s more gourmet vegan break than family escape.

olive tip

Before dinner, grab a stool at the bar, Faodail, and order one of Jack’s champagne cocktails. He whips up a mean take on the French 75 (champagne, gin, lemon juice and sugar) using Edinburgh Gin, caramelised lemon peel and Angostura bitters.

saorsahotel.com

Words and photographs by Lucy Gillmore

Looking for the best rooftop bars? We’re lucky if summer lasts a whole weekend in the UK, so when we do get a glimmer of sunshine, you need to know exactly where to go to make the most of it. With that in mind, we’ve put together our pick of the best  across the UK, places with great drinks and even better views.

For the best rooftop bars in London, click here

Frank’s Café, London

This is about as trendy and hipster as you get, but in the best possible way. On top of a multi-story car park in Peckham, Campari is the drink of choice here (try it in a sbagliato if you find it too bitter), but there are also other cocktails and the obligatory Pimm’s and lemonade. Snacks are pretty good, too, so get some smoked paprika sweetcorn or sardines with tomatoes and oregano to have alongside your negroni.

Frankscafe.org.uk

Varsity hotel and spa, Cambridge

With views out over many of the university colleges, this sky-high hotel bar is the perfect spot to enjoy a bit of lazy sight-seeing. It is a big space, with different seating areas including sofas to sink into as you consider the bar’s extensive champagne list. There are BBQs every Friday-Sunday from 12pm: order a classic bun or try a tuna steak burger with Niçoise relish.

Thevarsityhotel.co.uk

Angelica, Leeds

On the sixth floor of the Trinity Leeds shopping centre, Angelica has a wraparound planted terrace and panoramic city views. Seats on the terrace are highly prized when the weather allows – it’s the ideal place to relax with a cocktail and a sharing board or plate of fruits de mer. 

Angelica-restaurant.com

Bambalan, Bristol

From the team at Hyde & Co, Bambalan is an industrial space made welcoming with bright blue booths and a huge, colourful mural. It’s open all day, with food cooked in a wood-fired oven, charcoal robata grill or rotisserie. The drinks menu is equally good, with coolers, vermouth and tonic pairings and jug cocktails the perfect pairings for the restaurant’s sunny roof terrace.

Bambalan.co.uk

Rumpus Room at Mondrian, London

The Tom Dixon-designed Rumpus Rooms are so sexy they’re worth a visit for the décor alone. Everything here feels luxe, with red leather and purple velvet seating and gold tables. It sounds over-the-top but it works. There are floor-to-ceiling windows for when it gets chilly, but head out onto the terrace for views over the Thames to St. Paul’s while you sip champagne or a gin punch. Nibbles include lobster rolls and there are DJs from Thursday to Saturday; what more could you want?

Rumpusroomlondon.com 

Observatory Bar, Belfast

The Grand Central hotel’s 23^rd floor rooftop bar is a must-visit, before or after dinner. With its own private lift, it’s become something of a destination for trendy Belfasters. But don’t mistake that for exclusivity; the welcome as you reach the top floor is still very warm. Each cocktail refers to a local landmark – try Napoleon’s Nose (a heady mix of mezcal, Benedictine, fig and orange bitters), or the more floral Botanical Garden, made from gin, rhubarb, aperol, pomegranate, pink peppercorn and citrus.

Grandcentralhotelbelfast.com

20 Stories, Manchester

D&D London group has bagged the 19th floor of the No1 Spinningfields building in central Manchester. With 360-degree views, the swish space brings the outside in with glamorous interiors inspired by nature (plenty of wood, hanging plants, stone features). The bar and outdoor terrace is dedicated to cocktails, including the signature 20 Stories cocktail made with Tanqueray gin, vermouth, honey and herb cordial, and grapes shaken with fresh lemon.

Read our full review of 20 Stories here

The Sky Bar, Edinburgh

The Sky Bar at the top of the Hilton sits between the Old Town and Lothian Road in the centre of Edinburgh. It’s only open on the first Thursday of each month so get there early to bag yourself a table and enjoy one of the best views of the city (the panorama includes Edinburgh’s iconic castle) with a craft beer, a glass of wine or a glass of fizz.

Doubletree3.hilton.com

Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill, Birmingham

Set in the strikingly modern Cube building in Birmingham’s Mailbox district, this restaurant is 25 floors up with panoramic views across the city. To make the most of it, head out to its newly opened terrace and sip a glass of Laurent Perrier from their dedicated bar. mpwrestaurants.co.uk. For more great views, head to Rofuto, the newest opening from Des McDonald, the man behind the ever-popular conceptual restaurants on the roof of Selfridges Oxford Street. This latest project is a modern Japanese Izakaya-style restaurant and bar  with panoramic views.  The Kurabu cocktail lounge sits alongside with a bespoke cocktail list featuring drinks like Red Lotus (shochu, tequila, cranberry and lychee sorbet), and an extensive sake list.

Rofuto.co.uk

Pergola on the Roof, London

It’s not just the East End that’s turning its car parks into foodie hot spots. Shepherd’s Bush is getting in on the action with Pergola on the Roof on top of the multi-storey at Television Centre. With whitewashed woods, fairy lights and a giant pergola covered in blossoming vines you’ll feel like you’re on holiday. The food is great, too, with pop-ups from Salt Yard, Patty & Bun, LeCoq and Rabbit.

Pergolaontheroof.co.uk

Rooftop Playground, Manchester

Perched on top of The Old School House hotel, this south-facing rooftop oasis genuinely used to be a boys’ playground. There are plenty of sun loungers to relax on while you take in views over the city or, if you’re feeling really adventurous, step into the on-site hot tub. Food is available from the BBQ to munch alongside cocktails before the partying really starts.

Eclectichotels.co.uk

Sushi Samba, London

A vertigo-inducing 38 storeys above London, you’re guaranteed some of the best views over the city at this Japanese/Brazilian/Peruvian mash-up. The crowds gather quickly but make it through the scrum and you’ll be rewarded with fantastic cocktails from Richard Woods. Think padrón pepper caipirinhas, Green Tea-ni and the much talked about Kobe cocktail; a take on an old fashioned washed with kobe beef fat and stirred with maple and salted caramel.

Sushisamba.com

Looking for places to stay in Belfast? Want a luxury city centre hotel? Read our review of The Grand Central and book here.

The Grand Central in a nutshell

A large, luxury hotel in the heart of Belfast’s Linen Quarter. Expect panoramic views and Northern Ireland’s highest rooftop bar.

The vibe

There’s a definite dose of NYC swank about The Grand Central, from the uniformed top-hatted doormen to the huge, high-ceilinged glass and marble lobby. Despite the grandeur, however, there’s plenty of cosy Irish charm.

Which room should I book at The Grand Central?

Pick a high floor for sweeping views of Belfast’s skyline (the bedrooms overlooking the City Hall are particularly impressive). Rooms are spacious, calm and luxuriously furnished with king-size King Koil Cloud beds, smart white linen, and thick, noise-cancelling carpets. The bathrooms are particularly swish with double sinks, freestanding baths, walk-in rainfall showers and toiletries by ESPA.

The food and drink

The Seahorse restaurant on the first floor is an airy space, with floor-to-ceiling glass flooding it with light by day, and the twinkle of city lights by night. The dinner menu is a celebration of Irish and European classics, with modern touches and delicate portions. Starters include sweet, caramelised scallops in a silky Jerusalem artichoke velouté, and a punchy black olive oil and whipped Fivemiletown goat’s cheese with earthy salt-baked beets, walnuts and pear. A main course of juicy roast chicken supreme is made special with buttery spring onion champ, tender braised leek and super-chickeny reduced roasting juices. Other highlights include dense black treacle bread with whipped butter, and a dessert of rich dark chocolate delice with salted caramel and honeycomb ice cream.

The 23^rd floor rooftop Observatory Bar is a must-visit, before or after dinner. With its own private lift, it’s become something of a destination for trendy Belfasters. But don’t mistake that for exclusivity; the welcome as you reach the top floor is still very warm. Each cocktail refers to a local landmark – try Napoleon’s Nose (a heady mix of mezcal, Benedictine, fig and orange bitters), or the more floral Botanical Garden, made from gin, rhubarb, aperol, pomegranate, pink peppercorn and citrus.

Breakfast

Breakfast is a huge spread served buffet-style, in both The Seahorse and The Grand Café. The hotel is proud of the provenance of its ingredients, and even provides a little booklet to tell you the story behind each item. Try Gracehill black and white puddings, creamy Clandeboye Estate Yoghurt and baked scuffins (a cross between a scone and a muffin). There’s even a bottle of Bushmills whiskey by the porridge station, if you fancy a drizzle to perk you up in the morning.

What else can foodies do?

The hotel is a short walk from St George’s Market, an indoor treasure trove of arts and crafts, as well as produce stalls selling everything from specialist Irish cheeses to freshly-landed oysters and rare breed meat and game. There’s also a huge variety of food stalls for lunch – try the Cuban Sandwich Factory’s Pollo Barbacoa, a hot grilled sandwich stuffed with marinated chicken, salsa, cheese and chilli sauce. On weekends there’s live music in the communal table area to listen to as you eat.

Is it family friendly?

Large family rooms come furnished with extra beds (cots are also available on request) and the Seahorse Restaurant has a dedicated kid’s menu, which is also available on room service.

olive tip

Sleep in as late as possible then construct a three-course brunch from the huge breakfast buffet. That way you can skip lunch and spend the rest of the day exploring vibrant Belfast.

Book a stay at the Grand Central Hotel Belfast here

grandcentralhotelbelfast.com

Words by Janine Ratcliffe

Photographs by Jack Hardy and Kelvin Boyes

Looking for places to stay in Devon? Want a coastal retreat in the South West? Read our hotel review, and check out more British seaside holidays for foodies here…

Hope Cove House in a nutshell

This is one of very few hotels in the South West where you can fall asleep listening to the swish of the sea. Hope Cove House sits next to a sandy beach in the tiny hamlet of Inner Hope, a safe distance from crowds further up the coast.

The vibe

Salsa on the stereo, sea views and a sun-soaked terrace set the scene at this coastal retreat near Salcombe. It’s no oil painting from the outside, but this 1950s hotel has soothing and stylish interiors, with contemporary furniture plucked from Brick Lane stores by owners Oli and Ra Barker. Plus there are vibrantly-coloured fabrics chosen by family friend Tricia Guild, the interior designer who founded Designers Guild. In summer, bask on the terrace with a glass of prosecco in hand, or take a bracing swim in the sea (with seals if you’re lucky). During the colder months, hunker down by the wood-burning stove with a paperback from the colour-coded library.

Which room should I book at Hope Cove House?

10 simply decorated bedrooms let the sea views do the talking, although there are zingy yellow, turquoise and powder-blue accessories for colour (plus posies of wildflowers). King-size iron beds have firm mattresses and a choice of feather or hypoallergenic bedding, and there are stacks of interior magazines to leaf through in place of televisions. Room six has a big balcony and double-aspect windows, room nine the most modern bathroom, and room 12, tucked away on the second floor, has the best view. Bathrooms are dated, but L:A Bruket toiletries make up for it.

The food and drink

Run by London restaurateur and wine bar owner Oli Barker, Hope Cove House focuses on tightly-curated, seasonal, high-end coastal food with a Mediterranean feel. Expect starters such as octopus with chorizo and white beans, or fried baby squid with sumac and aioli and, for mains, tender pollack with braised fennel and crab bisque. Salads, herbs and vegetables come from Oli’s mother’s own vegetable patch, lamb and pork is from the Salcombe Meat Company, and fish is landed in nearby Plymouth or Brixham. The 80-strong wine list includes a good choice of natural wines, and there’s a refreshingly unpretentious bar that stocks just one of each spirit and an evolving range of London beers.

Breakfast

The buffet includes crunchy homemade granola and fruity jams, with toast-your-own bread from Bakehouse Salcombe. Cooked options include a Full English, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, kippers with oozy parsley butter, perfectly-cooked boiled eggs with anchovy soldiers and (highly recommended) shakshuka.

What else can foodies do?

A 20-minute walk along the South West Coastal Path takes you to South Milton Sands, home to the Beachhouse. Here you’ll find some of the freshest seafood on the south coast: plump prawns, lobster doused in garlicky butter and crispy squid are served up on rustic communal tables, or on picnic tables outside that overlook the beach and dramatic Thurlestone sea arch. In Salcombe, you can make your own gin at the Salcombe Distilling Co. and watch ice cream being made at Salcombe Dairy.

• Check out the best British gins here

Is it family friendly?

There are two small family rooms, sleeping three and four. The proximity of the beach makes life easy for those with tots in tow on sunny days, but distractions are more limited when the weather is bad.

olive tip

Book a visit for a summer weekend, if you can, to make the most of fish barbecues on the terrace and Salcombe Dairy ice cream served from a vintage bike.

hopecovehouse.co

Written by Suzy Bennett, July 2019

Photos by James Bedford

Looking for the best hotels in London? Want to know where to stay in central London? Our guide to London’s best boutique hotels…

The Buxton, Shoreditch

The Buxton in a nutshell

A former Brick Lane boozer turned polished pub-with-rooms, reimagined by the team behind Commercial Street’s The Culpeper.

Why foodies stay here

The heart of the action occurs in the slickly refurbished Victorian pub, on the ground floor (there are bedrooms and a roof terrace above). Tall, graceful arched windows introduce plenty of light, while a sweeping rosso levanto marble counter acts as a stylish focal point.

Food is affordably priced, with an emphasis on prime produce and seasonality. Meat (high-welfare native breeds from Swaledale in Yorkshire) is butchered in-house, and fish comes from day boats on the south coast. Simple dishes don’t stray far from British and European classics – the pithy menu covers everything from cottage pie to homemade tagliatelle – but they are well executed and deliver on flavour.

What are the rooms like?

Bedrooms are on the small side, which is one reason for their affordable pricing. Clever design and attention to detail, however, ensures they don’t feel cramped. High ceilings and original features add space and character while whitewashed walls and smart navy accents lend a fresh and contemporary feel.

Breakfast

Head downstairs for breakfast after a night in the bar and you’ll find the space transformed, and surprisingly serene. Sip local Exmouth coffee while grazing from a continental buffet that includes sourdough toast, homemade jams and granola. Or order a cooked breakfast, including thick-cut English ham with poached eggs, mustard mayonnaise and, best of all, a brick-shaped potato rosti, all golden crispy edges and soft, fluffy interior.

Where to eat and drink nearby

On bohemian Brick Lane, you’ll find no shortage of places to eat and drink; try the street’s many curry houses, 24-hour bagel shops (salt beef is a must) plus nearby restaurants such as Lahpet, Blanchette, Smokestak and Sichuan Folk. Good local bars include The Cocktail Trading Co. and Apples & Pears.

Click here to book a room at The Buxton

The Pilgrm, Paddington

The Pilgrm in a nutshell

A quirky, design-led, 73-bedroom hotel with lounge-bar and cafe that’s brought a fine Victorian building in London’s Paddington back to life.

Food and drink/why foodies stay here

For grab and go, there’s a small coffee bar downstairs, by the entrance, that’s run by Workshop Coffee, selling their own blends of coffee, teas and homemade cakes. Between 3 and 10pm, the lounge serves snacks, juices (including Square Root London’s small-batch sodas) and cocktails. The hotel is soon opening a terrace too, where guests will be able to enjoy alfresco tapas using ingredients from companies like Brindisa and Belazu.

What are the rooms like?

Rooms are small so book the largest you can afford, and if you’re a light sleeper, ask for one away from the road. There are tiny (but very comfortable) bunk rooms, if you’re on a budget, or on a one-parent, one-child getaway. Decor is pared back and stylish, with slate-coloured walls contrasting with white sash windows and Egyptian linen-clad beds, and floors of reclaimed 200-year-old parquet giving a warm homely feel.

Breakfast

Breakfast is the thing here, kicking off at 7am and continuing until 3pm in the vintage-chic first-floor lounge. There’s full-cooked Pilgrm (with house-baked beans) or a vegan version of smashed avocado, butternut squash hummus and a knock-out beetroot falafel. But the top seller is smashed avocado on toast with crumbled feta, which comes with the unexpected addition of a tomato and olive salsa.

Where to eat and drink nearby

Being in the heart of London, you’ve plenty of dinner choices nearby – from the cheap-and-cheerful Paramount Lebanese Kitchen, next door, to the newly revamped Cleveland Arms around the corner, and Basque-styled Lurra and Donostia a short walk away. Read our guide to Paddington restaurants here

The Zetter Hotel, Clerkenwell

The Zetter Hotel in a nutshell

Victorian warehouse turned hip boutique hotel in Clerkenwell, with 59 retro-styled rooms and all-day modern British restaurant.

Why foodies stay here

In the hotel’s two AA rosette restaurant, head chef Ben Boeynaems (The Goring) serves up delicate, precise plates of food that celebrate British ingredients. Highlights include opening snacks of soda bread served with bowls of whipped butter and (indulgently addictive) beef fat, and an expert touch with fish and game – try the lightly poached south coast brill with Japanese mushrooms and bonito dashi, or the blushing pink loin of fallow deer, earthily matched with heritage beetroot, caramelised endive and glazed faggot.

The wine list comes with lots of options by the glass, and a robust collection of English sparkling wines. Staff were knowledgeable and helpful with pairing suggestions – we tried a well-balanced riesling and a fruity, full-bodied chianti on our visit.

If you have time for pre- or post-dinner cocktails, head across St John’s Square to elegant sister hotel Zetter Townhouse. The bar mixes a punchy martini, and from July is welcoming a new collaboration with drinks maestros Matt Whiley (The Talented Mr Fox) and Rich Woods (The Cocktail Guy).

What are the rooms like?

Rooms have a sleek mid-century vibe, and an attention to detail that elevates the guest experience, from plush UK-made REN toiletries in the bathroom to a well-stocked honesty tray of food and drink, and a mini library of Penguin paperbacks.

We suggest choosing one of the hotel’s seven rooftop bedrooms, each of which comes with a private terrace and panoramic views of the city. We stayed in one of the spacious and light-filled rooftop deluxe studios, which have funky geometric interiors, sweeping floor-to-ceiling windows and a freestanding rolltop bath on the terrace. Those into their drinks will also love the locally sourced minibar, which on our visit had bottles of East London Liquor Company rum, gin and vodka, Redchurch beer and JARR kombucha – all made in east London.

Breakfast

Start the day with either a lavish continental spread ­– including fresh-baked pastries, housemade granola, baked ham and continental cheeses – or choose from an array of classic hot dishes: we recommend the old-school grilled kipper with grilled tomato, poached local eggs and lemon.

Where to eat and drink nearby

It’s a 10-minute walk to Moro in Exmouth Market, for North African and Spanish-influenced tapas.

thezetter.com

The Boundary Project, Shoreditch

The Boundary Project a nutshell

A trendy hotel with 17 individually-designed bedrooms, a rooftop bar and an all-day British café, Albion.

Why foodies stay here

Dodge busy Shoreditch streets at the sky-high rooftop bar, where the view of London is uninterrupted and the cocktails are excellent. Try the Serendipity – a concoction of Monkey Shoulder whisky, Drambuie, mango purée, lime and chilli – and share plates of garlic tiger prawns and grilled lobster.

On the ground floor is Albion, an all-day café, bar and food shop that serves British classics such as fish and chips, sausage and mash, and kedgeree. In the evening, seasonal produce is at the centre of the menu: expect Jersey royals, English asparagus and lamb rump during spring.

What are the rooms like?

Each bedroom (there are 17) is truly unique, taking inspiration from a particular designer or design movement. Take your pick from Mies van der Rohe, Charles & Ray Eames, Andrée Putman or Eileen Gray. Most share a restful, simple colour palette and a restrained but very carefully curated collection of furniture. The Tang Suite is an exception with its Chinese silk wallpaper and tassled green silk lampshades. Regardless of which room you stay in, a mid-afternoon delivery of freshly baked brownie and copy of the Evening Standard is guaranteed.

Breakfast

There’s a grown-up vibe but an on-trend menu, stretching to cold-pressed juices and ‘healthy’ cooked breakfasts. Baked goods are where it’s at, though, with a choice of cinnamon – or pistachio and white chocolate – swirls, croissants and Danish pastries.

Where to eat and drink nearby

BRAT, just a minutes’ walk away, is a Spanish-inspired spot that serves grilled sharing platters.  Click here for more places to eat in Shoreditch

Book to stay at The Boundary Project here

Kettner’s Townhouse, Soho

Kettner’s Townhouse in a nutshell

Playing on its 1920s heyday, this Georgian building (brought up-to-date by the Soho House Group) is home to an all-day French brasserie, Champagne bar and 33 glamorous hotel rooms.

Why foodies stay here

The all-day menu served in the brasserie sticks to classic French comfort food (steak tartare, roast chicken and Toulouse sausage). Try perfectly pink fillet of Lake District beef with fluffy chips and a creamy pepper sauce; or head to the Champagne bar for its take on a French 75, The Romilly, made from exotic Star of Bombay gin, mango cordial and sparkling Ruinart. The Kettner’s Fizz – refreshing clementine and grapefruit juice laced with Grand Marnier and Runiart rosé – is also a good shout.

What are the rooms like?

Rooms vary dramatically in size. Compact Tiny rooms are fitted with Tudor-style beds and slick en-suites, while Cosy rooms are a bit larger with pretty green velvet scalloped headboards. If you want to wallow in a freestanding bath tub and super king-size bed, book one of the Medium or Big rooms (they have double sinks and walk-in rainforest showers, too). All rooms, no matter what size, cater to every whim, making for a luxurious stay. An almost overwhelming array of Cowshed bath and shower products await in the rainforest showers (cleansing toner and lip balm, as well as the usual staples).

Breakfast

Opt for a glass of fizz and a decadent lobster royale with hollandaise and Exmoor caviar in the Champagne bar, or keep it classic in the brasserie: blueberry muffins, or citrusy pink grapefruit served with thick sheep’s milk yogurt and a sprinkling of bee pollen and micro mint. Soho House has zingy breakfast drinks sorted, with its own pre-bottled house press juices.

Where to eat and drink nearby

For dinner with a difference, try Taiwanese XU, where stylish interiors hint at 1930s Taipei. Tuck in to XO carabinero prawns, crisp chicken wings and silky mapo tofu topped with spring onions in an umami Szechuan peppercorn and chilli oil sauce. Read more about where to eat in Soho here

The Hoxton, High Holborn

The Hoxton in a nutshell

A cool, open-house hotel with 174 bedrooms, designed by local illustrators.

Why foodies stay here

At the helm of the hotel’s restaurant, Hubbard & Bell. A big open kitchen produces a British-inspired menu that uses local produce – try burrata with blood orange and shaved fennel, or BBQ aubergine with mustard pickled swede and coconut yogurt. Head to the basement for Chicken Shop, where rotisserie chicken is served with a selection of sides, from crinkle cut fries to corn on the cob.

What are the rooms like?

Choose between four sizes, starting with Shoebox (the clue’s in the name), then Snug, Cosy and, the largest of the four, Roomy. Compact shoebox rooms still have queen-size beds and walk-in showers, while roomy ones are home to king-size beds and squidgy leather armchairs. With the exception of Shoebox, all are dog-friendly. If you fancy wine or beer in your room, head to the front desk where you can buy bottles at supermarket prices.

Breakfast

A light breakfast bag is delivered to your door, but for something more substantial head to Hubbard & Bell for ’nduja scrambled eggs, smoked salmon bagels and crispy bacon served on Bread Ahead rolls. There are cold-pressed green juices to wake you up, or a selection of 100% vegan coffees, including matcha and raw cacao lattes.

Where to eat and drink nearby

A pie at the Holborn Dining Room is a must, whether it be filled with chicken, girolle and tarragon, or mutton curry. Try the contemporary afternoon tea at Rosewood’s Mirror Room, too. Read our full review here

Click here to book your stay at The Hoxton

Ham Yard Hotel, Soho

Ham Yard Hotel in a nutshell

An urban village home to 91 individually designed bedrooms and suites, 24 apartments, 13 independent stores and a restaurant.

Why foodies stay here

With its super central Soho location, there’s no shortage of restaurant, bars and cafés to explore in the area. But the hotel itself has its own restaurant and serves a selection of afternoon teas, including a ‘healthy’ reduced sugar option. A roof garden is home to raised herb and vegetable beds, so expect to see purple sage and orange marigold featuring on the menu. Two bee hives also live on the roof, the honey from which is used in cocktails.

What are the rooms like?

Kit Kemp designed the quintessentially British interiors, so that means colourful, patterned textiles and original artwork. Superior rooms have queen-size beds and a separate sitting area with writing desk, while the two-bedroom terrace suite on the hotel’s top floor has a kitchen. All bedrooms have views of the leafy terrace or city skyline.

Breakfast

Antipodean-style eats and smoothies feature alongside lighter bites, including coconut chia seed pots with mango. Porridge is prepared with your choice of milk, water or cream, and is topped with berries, banana, mango, sugar, seeds or maple syrup.

Where to eat and drink nearby

Pop across the road to KILN for regional Thai dishes. Try aged lamb skewers, delicately fragrant with cumin and Szechuan pepper; or clay-pot baked glass noodles with Tamworth pork belly and brown crabmeat. Here are more places to eat and drink in Soho

Get great rates at Ham Yard Hotel here

The Culpeper, Spitalfields

The Culpeper in a nutshell

An east London pub with five bedrooms, a restaurant and rooftop garden.

Why foodies stay here

The ground floor pub takes classics up a notch: deep-fried black pudding balls, crispy ox tongue with tarragon mayo, and chicken liver on toast. The wine list is completely natural, local beers feature strongly, and all the cocktails are based on herbs that grow on the roof. The rooftop has a changing residency each summer, but in the past Piculpeper has set up camp with fire pits serving grilled broccoli, ash-roast potatoes and slow-roast camembert.

On the first floor, a restaurant offers three starters, three mains and three desserts that change weekly. It also makes use of what’s grown in and around The Culpeper, including nettles, sprouting kale, baby gem lettuce and swiss chard on its menu.

What are the rooms like?

Five bedrooms are in keeping with the rest of the pub, so expect plastered walls, bare brickwork, original fireplaces and simple-yet-colourful textiles.

Breakfast

Full English, yogurt and granola, croissants and juice. Breakfast is kept simple.

Where to eat and drink nearby

Som Saa is less than a minute away, so head there for sticky Burmese-style curry, whole deep-fried sea bass and palm sugar ice cream. Read our full review here

Find great rates at The Culpeper here

Vintry and Mercer, City of London

Vintry and Mercer in a nutshell

A 92-bedroom luxury hotel with a roof terrace restaurant, speakeasy-style bar and an all-day kitchen serving Asian plates.

Why foodies stay here

Both for the delightful roof terrace restaurant, which focuses on farm-to-plate food cooked over charcoal; and DND (Do Not Disturb), a fun bar that pairs barrel-aged cocktails with sliders. There’s also Vintry Kitchen, which serves tapas-style dishes including tempura shiitake and tomato miso steamed buns. Along with the usual spirits, there’s also a selection of sakes and Asian-influences cocktails. Try the Takhiriti, made with Don Q rum, lemongrass syrup, kaffir lime and Thai basil.

What are the rooms like?

Rooms comes with elaborate velvet headboards and dramatically tiled bathrooms. The standard is anything but, with a queen-size bed, walk-in shower and heated floor, while the deluxe comes with a king-size bed, turndown service and wet room. Every bedroom nods to its city location, be it through needle-and-thread wallpaper that references the mercers who used to import fine silks just a stone’s throw from where the hotel now stands, or antique-style maps that depict old trade routes.

Breakfast

At Vintry Kitchen you can get smoked salmon with scrambled eggs and toasted bacon sarnies, or green tea ricotta pancakes and coconut porridge with dates. Stay for brunch and tuck into fried tofu sandos or eggs benedict steamed buns.

Where to eat and drink nearby

Wander up to Brigadiers for an Indian feast of BBQ butter chicken wings, sikandari kid goat shoulder and on-tap cocktails. Read our full review here

Find available rooms at Vintry and Mercer here

Green Rooms, Wood Green

Green Rooms in a nutshell

A no-frills affordable hotel with stylishly simple bedrooms and a pop-up residency restaurant.

Why foodies stay here

It has to be the regularly-changing restaurant residency, which in the past has included tapas-style plates (sweetcorn croquettes) from Colombian Street Kitchen; and katsu curries, donburi and tempura soft-shell crab from Oita’s Kitchen. The ground floor lobby is a minimalist hangout space during the day and bar in the evening.

What are the rooms like?

22 bedrooms (everything from three-quarter to king-size beds, some with shared bathrooms, others en-suite), two en-suite studio apartments and two dormitories (one sleeps 12, one sleeps 16 people) make for an eclectic mix of accommodation. It’s a back-to-basics vibe, but with added style. Mattresses are good quality, furnishings are sparse but pretty (a few rooms have chairs and textiles by fashion brand Folk, but most have simple white bed linen and vintage wooden furniture), and frills extend only to a few coat hangers, a travel kettle, a small range of London Tea Company teas and Climpson and Sons coffee.

Breakfast

The menu is split into four sections: the classics, the romantics, the purists (all veggie or vegan) and the surrealists. Try the quinoa salad loaded with sweet potato, avocado and spinach, or go for toasted waffles with cream and fruit. Otherwise, it’s a simple affair of eggs, toast, yogurt and fruit.

Where to eat and drink nearby

In Turkish-influenced Wood Green, you don’t have to go more than 30 paces to find grilled halloumi and spinach omelettes. Try Antepliler for pides, spiced lentil koftes and pistachio kanafeh.

Great Northern Hotel, King’s Cross

Great Northern Hotel in a nutshell

A luxury, boutique hotel just 25 metres from King’s Cross station.

Why foodies stay here

Mark ‘Sarge’ Sargeant is chef-director, and while he’s not hands-on in the kitchen, his menu of comforting seasonal classics is well executed at the hotel’s restaurant, Plum + Spilt Milk. Tuck into beef croquettes with horseradish mayonnaise, or indulge in whole grilled native lobster with garlic butter and fries. For drinks, head to Anthracite, a luxurious, dimly-lit martini lounge with plush blue furnishings. Sip shaken-not-stirred vesper martinis, or try Offbeat Number for its almond and spiced chocolate notes.

What are the rooms like?

Comfort and class is the focus, with each bedroom sporting sash windows and high ceilings. Couchette is the cosiest, with queen-size beds tucked into leather-clad banquettes, while the Wainscot bedrooms on the top floor have walnut wood panelling and vintage-style bathrooms. Cubitt (named after the hotel’s builder) is the largest, with views of King’s Cross and a roll top bath.

Breakfast

From smoked salmon with steamed spinach on spelt muffin to avocado and chilli on toast, breakfast is trend-aware and healthy; but a full English is also on offer. Or buy a take-out continental breakfast from the hole-in-the-wall kiosk outside the hotel.

Where to eat and drink nearby

There’s no shortage of options in Coal Drops Yard, including wine bars and funky sandwich joints. Try smoky rotisserie chicken and mezcal negronis at alfresco Mexican restaurant, Plaza Pastor. Read our full review here

The London Edition, West End

The London Edition in a nutshell

A slick hotel in the heart of Fitzrovia with 173 bedrooms and a sophisticated restaurant, Berners Tavern.

Why foodies stay here

The in-house restaurant is under the direction of Michelin-starred chef, Jason Atherton. A striking dining room (ornate ceilings, plush leather booths and antique artwork in lavish gold frames) sets a grand tone, while the trendy-yet-accessible food is the kind you could eat every day: pork pie and aged beef tartare, BBQ pork chops, and mac ‘n’ cheese. Try a roast at the weekend, including beef wellington and Dingley Dell pork belly.

There are two bars to choose from: The Lobby comes kitted out with a snooker table and tufted sofas, while The Punch Room is an intimate space inspired by 19^th-century private clubs. The signature gin-infused EDITION house punch is a must.

What are the rooms like?

Stylish and simple, inspired by luxury yachts with oak floors, walnut wooden panels and tufted armchairs. There are four bedroom sizes (guest, superior, deluxe and loft) as well as two suites, the loft and the penthouse. All bedrooms come with the same features (king-size beds, rainforest showers, iPod docking stations and custom made Le Labo bathroom products). Suites come with a large living area, while the penthouse has a dining area, pantry, walk-in wardrobe and three outdoor terraces with city views.

Breakfast

Hearty classics are the order of the day, be it a slow-cooked smoked ham hock croque monsieur with aged cheddar, or oak smoked Scottish salmon with scrambled eggs. If you’re after something lighter, dairy-free mango smoothies and ginger, turmeric and orange shots are also on offer.

Where to eat and drink nearby

Book a table at Rovi, Ottolenghi’s restaurant with vegetables, fermentation and fire at its heart. Read our full review here

The Athenaeum, Mayfair

The Athenaeum in a nutshell

A luxury family-friendly Mayfair hotel with bedrooms, suites, apartments and townhouses.

Why foodies stay here

Michelin-starred Chris and Jeff Galvin are the team behind the hotel’s restaurant, Galvin at The Athenaeum, which focuses on British homegrown produce sourced from independent farms across the UK. Glastonbury farmhouse butter is served with bread, while Portland crab comes with Hampshire watercress. Order Brixham plaice with brown shrimps for mains. Whisky is the spirit of choice in the bar, with over 100 on offer, from Japanese malts to London scotches.

What are the rooms like?

Spacious bedrooms include Hypnos mattresses, London-inspired artwork and your choice of pillow. Marble bathrooms come with heated towel rails and non-steam mirrors. Serviced apartments are ideal for those with children, with separate front doors leading onto a double bedroom (with extra bunk or sofa beds for little ones), living area and fully fitted kitchenette. If you want to stay in the main hotel, interconnecting bedrooms are also available.

Breakfast

Choose between a continental buffet (yogurt, fruit, charcuterie, cheese and baked goods) or the Galvin breakfast, where you can opt for a full English, omelettes or smoked kippers. There’s a separate menu for children, including waffles with fruit compote or boiled eggs with toast soldiers.

Where to eat and drink nearby

For Indian fine-dining, head to Indian Accent and try the likes of blue-cheese naan, soy keema and makhan malai. Find more places to eat in Mayfair here

The Bull and The Hide, Bishopsgate

The Bull and The Hide in a nutshell

A pub with seven boutique bedrooms in the heart of the city.

Why foodies stay here

The Bull pub (part of the Hush Heath Estate) serves breakfast, brunch, lunch, bar snacks and dinner. Classics include scotch eggs with curried mayo, half-pint shrimps and whitebait with tartare sauce. Flatbreads are also a focus, so try the pulled pork, BBQ sauce and jalapeño one. The sparkling wines come from the Hush Heath Estate in Kent, and the crisp sparkling apple is recommended.

What are the rooms like?

Neat and simply decorated. Each is named after the pub’s colourful past, from the Oxford (the 17^th Earl of Oxford lived on the site in the 16^th century) to the Devonshire suite, which echoes the name of a grand house that stood on the site in 1625. If you want a room with a view, book the Hush Heath suite for its own private balcony. All come equipped with Miller Harris toiletries, goose down pillows and a 24-hour pantry, where you can help yourself to tea, coffee, cookies and sweets.

Breakfast

The Bull breakfast is a simple affair. Choose a full English, American pancakes with bacon, avocado on toast or granola.

Where to eat and drink nearby

Check out Bar Three for ‘light’, ‘medium’, and ‘full’ cocktails. Snack on crisp croquettes of spiced lamb shoulder, chargrilled prawns with a punchy herb sauce, or simple skinny fries with classic condiments. Read our full review here

Book a room at The Bull and The Hide here

Claridge’s, Mayfair

Claridge’s in a nutshell

A glamorous art deco Mayfair hotel with restaurants, bars and a reading room.

Why foodies stay here

Afternoon tea has been a ritual here for almost 150 years, and this luxurious redoubt for the rich and royal (no flip-flops, no intrusive photography) has turned it into an art form. Eat English cucumber and dill cream sandwiches, fluffy raisin scones with Cornish clotted cream, and caramelised hazelnut Paris-Brest.

The Foyer and Reading Room serve an all-day dining menu, from roast rack of Kent lamb to its signature lobster wellington. Look out for Davies and Brook, a new restaurant from chef Daniel Humm and restaurateur Will Guidara, opening summer 2019.

What are the rooms like?

Bedrooms and suites are either traditional or art deco, but both come with Bose speakers, fresh flowers and mini bars stocked with British produce. En-suite marble bathrooms include Cowshed products (made exclusively for Claridge’s), and the Claridge’s King room comes with floor-to-ceiling mirrors and views of the peaceful inner court. The Mayfair Suite has a separate sitting room with original fireplace, and the Brook Penthouse, a two-bedroom apartment with living room, dining area, private bar and a terrace with views of the Houses of Parliament, is luxury at its finest.

Breakfast

A lavish affair. There’s English, European, Japanese, vegan and Middle Eastern options, to name a few. Try pork gyoza, prawn dim sum, chicken congee, Chinese pickles and century duck egg for a Chinese feast, or keep it healthy with chia seed pudding and carrot juice. The Claridge’s bakery makes daily Danish pastries, croissants, muffins and brioche, and pancakes are served with berries and Valrhona chocolate.

Where to eat and drink nearby

Wander down Regent Street for a Spanish feast at Sabor. Eat crisp, golden prawn croquettes and mussels ‘a la Bilbaina’. Read more about Sabor here

Book to stay at Claridge’s here

The Ritz, Piccadilly

The Ritz in a nutshell

Old-school luxury in the heart of Piccadilly, with a restaurant to match.

Why foodies stay here

Afternoon tea is the main draw, taken in the elegant Palm Court. Indulge in Scottish smoked salmon on springy sourdough bread, warm scones and delicate blackcurrant macarons. Choose from an 18-strong tea menu that has been curated and exclusively blended by The Ritz’s tea sommelier, Giandomenico Scanu.

The Michelin-starred restaurant has John Williams MBE at its helm, cooking seasonal British produce. Try Dover sole with new season leeks, cauliflower and caviar, or native lobster with heritage carrot and lemon verbena. Don’t leave without trying the crêpes suzette, prepared, cooked and served at your table with real flair.

What are the rooms like?

Opulent yet traditional, there’s a twee feel to the bedrooms with plenty of floral patterns and pastel furnishings. Living areas come with antique furniture, and en-suite bathrooms are adorned with marble. Deluxe suites come with up to five bedrooms and spacious sitting rooms, but, if it’s views you’re after, book the Green Park Suite, which looks out over its namesake.

Breakfast

Whether you fancy sirloin steak with fried eggs or an omelette with caviar, The Ritz has you covered. A continental breakfast keeps things light with fruit, homemade yogurt, cheese, ham and cereal, while three punchy juices are sure to wake you up. Our favourite is the Ruby Ritz: carrot, beetroot, fennel, ginger and lime.

Where to eat and drink nearby

World-famous for its seafood and shellfish, Bentley’s is the place to go for oysters. Click here for more places to eat in Mayfair

The Ace Hotel, Shoreditch

The Ace Hotel in a nutshell

A cool, minimalist hotel in the heart of east London, with a modern brasserie and music venue attached.

Why foodies stay here

Hoi Polloi, the in-house restaurant, is an English modernist brasserie serving toasties, snacks, salads and heartier all-day dining plates. The imaginative cocktail menu includes an Oat Doris: Bombay Sapphire, oat milk cordial, lime and almond. A simple afternoon tea includes cheese scones, teacakes and slices of carrot cake.

What are the rooms like?

Simply decorated and functional with dark grey linen headboards, low-hanging metal lights and paintings from local artists. The standard is compact, with a double bed, while the superior deluxe double has a corner sofa, turntables and selection of vinyls. Each of the bedrooms come with a Revo radio to tune into, and the junior suite has a terrace.

Breakfast

Served at Hoi Polloi, dishes include corn cakes with tomato salsa, Moroccan eggs with labneh and French toast with candied pecans. The East London Juice Co. provides the drinks; try their Lemonder, made with lemon, activated charcoal, reverse osmosis water, coconut nectar, lavender blossom and pink salt.

Where to eat and drink nearby

For seriously OTT top-quality Italian food, head to Gloria for carbonara served in a giant wheel of pecorino. Read our full review here

Get great rates at The Ace Hotel here

Shangri-La At The Shard, London Bridge

Shangri-La At The Shard in a nutshell

A central London hotel with 202 bedrooms, striking views and an infinity sky pool.

Why foodies stay here

The hotel includes a restaurant, afternoon tea lounge and two bars. On level 35, TING serves a modern British menu with Asian influences, making the most of produce from neighbouring Borough Market. The five-course tasting menu offers the likes of duck liver ballotine with forced rhubarb and green tea, and Eton mess with cardamom.

Climb 12 levels higher for GONG bar (the highest hotel bar in Europe) and its quirky cocktails. The cognac and sherry-based Over the Rainbow comes in a decorative hot air balloon, while the Scan Me whisky sour is delivered in a sleek black glass.

What are the rooms like?

Every bedroom and suite comes with floor-to-ceiling windows that frame London’s skyline; the iconic City View room, for example, looks out over Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. A pillow menu is available, along with binoculars (to get a closer look at the landmarks), feather duvets, L’Occitane bath products and a Chinese tea set.

The suites offer a separate living and working space, with views spanning across Surrey and Sussex, and the Shangri-La suite is the grandest of them all – dressing room, kitchenette, cocktail-making services, an iPad and local area guide included.

Breakfast

Choose between an English, Middle Eastern or Asian breakfast, the latter of which comes with congee, dim sum and wok fried noodles. Or try something from the wellness menu: bircher muesli and green smoothies packed with kiwi, spinach, ginger, mint and apple juice.

Where to eat and drink nearby

Pop to the market for plates of pici cacio e pepe and beef shin ragu at Padella. Click here for our London Bridge restaurant guide

Find available rooms at Shangri-La here

Sea Containers London, Southbank

Sea Containers in a nutshell

A modern hotel on the river with bedrooms designed by Tom Dixon and a cocktail bar from master mixologist, Mr Lyan.

Why foodies stay here

The world’s number one bar, Dandelyan used to have its home at Sea Containers, but Mr Lyan closed that down and re-opened it as Lyaness. The sweeping green marble bar occupies the ground floor of the hotel, with soft-grey sofas and electric-blue banquettes. Try the tiki-inspired Double Painkiller, with bright tropical notes and a subtle smokiness. An all-day restaurant serves plates designed to share, from whole seabass with lemon to shaved mushrooms with manchego and brown butter.

What are the rooms like?

Choose between bedrooms, suites and apartments. Tones of grey and pops of pink are the signature colours, with chrome furnishings lending a sleek feel. Queen-size beds come as standard in the boutique rooms, and marble bathrooms are stocked with natural Malin + Goetz products. Wall-to-wall windows in the Riverview Deluxe room offer views of the city, while the Riverview Suite includes a separate living area and extra bathroom.

Breakfast

If you’re there over the weekend, try the eggy sammy from the brunch menu – a brioche bun stacked with fried egg, crispy bacon, jack cheese and avocado – or go for a spicy chorizo flatbread with olives and wild rocket. In the week, expect a full English, fruit and yogurt, or avocado on toast.

Where to eat and drink nearby

Skylon is an 11-minute walk away on the first floor of the Royal Festival Hall. It’s all about seasonal modern British food and great views of the Thames.

Book your stay at Sea Containers here

Looking for places to stay in the Cotswolds? Want a country retreat? Read our hotel review, and check out more places to stay in the Cotswolds here…

Thyme in a nutshell

Describing itself as a ‘village within a village’ Thyme is a family-run operation in the pretty Cotswolds village of Southrop that encompasses a 31-bedroom hotel, a spa, cookery school and a village pub.

The vibe

It’s a chic place where worries are exchanged for wellies at the front door. Expect plush 1960s-style armchairs, herringbone-patterned couches huddled around a fireplace, and decorative touches such as vintage chandeliers and glass jars filled with fresh flowers. Lounge in the old lambing shed with a slice of homemade quince cake or, come evening, a sheep-related nightcap – try a Shaun, made from rhubarb-infused black ginger rum with salted caramel, egg and nutmeg. Dip your feet into the spring-water pool, or hop on a bicycle and explore the surrounding villages.

Which room should I book at Thyme?

Bedrooms are spread across Southrop, with some in the main lodge itself, some in a farmhouse and some in separate cottages. They range in grandeur from Cosy to Divine with each one named after a flower or plant – a green-fingered theme that the interiors also reflect. Design-wise, it’s refined country glamour. So velvet scalloped headboards, furry rugs, botanical wallpaper and, in some cases, free-standing baths with views across the fields.

Turndown service is exemplary and includes a homemade liqueur (crab apple on our visit) in a dinky bottle to sip before bedtime. For a more private stay, book one of the five modern garden rooms; each has its own secluded outdoor space and king-size bed. Like all the other rooms they have been individually designed by Thyme’s founder, Caryn Hibbert.

The food and drink

Choose between The Swan (the village pub), The Baa cocktail bar or The Ox Barn. The latter, a former oxen house with striking archways and exposed beams, serves seasonal British dishes that make the most of a kitchen garden and eggs laid by Thyme’s own chickens. Try wads of sourdough with chunks of homemade butter, a sharing salad of smoky artichokes and silky slices of fatty pork, or green leaves tossed with crisp slithers of yakon, nuggets of hazelnut and sweet dollops of quince jelly that break through the salty, creamy chunks of Stichelton perched on top. For dessert, a hefty slice of almond and crab apple tart is all chewy frangipane and buttery pastry.

Breakfast

Go all out with shots of rich homemade kefir, lusciously creamy yogurt with poached orchard fruits, and hot plates of buttery smoked trout with poached eggs and chard.

What else can foodies do?

The on-site cookery school runs classes throughout the year, so try your hand at Indian vegan recipes; cocktails, cordials and infusions, or rustic Italian feasts. There’s also a kitchen garden to admire, and a tranquil spa that uses natural ingredients in its treatments. Pick a healing therapy tailored to how you’d like to feel – clarity of thought, perhaps, or peacefulness.

Is it family friendly?

While children under the age of 12 are welcome in the Old Walls village cottage, the serene vibe and luxury touches give Thyme a more grown-up feel.

olive tip

Instead of mini bars there’s a help-yourself communal area, so pop down before dinner to snaffle a pre-bottled old fashioned or Thyme vespa. In the afternoon, you’ll find freshly baked cakes.

thyme.co.uk

Words by Ellie Edwards

Photos by Thyme

Looking for wine tasting breaks in the UK? We have found the best English vineyards where you can stay over. Enjoy English wine tastings and vineyard tours before putting your feet up on a private terrace overlooking the vines.

English wine is enjoying a boom but still underrated, so it’s a great time to visit some of the UK’s vineyards and be the first of your friends to try the best bottles. The UK is gaining a particular reputation for sparkling wines – the best of which compares well to the quality of some champagnes (though often come with price tags to match).

Here are some of the best English vineyard breaks…

Hush Heath Estate and Winery, Kent

From £80 per night, check availability at booking.com.

A great vineyard tour in Kent. Dedicated to making world-class sparkling rosé, Hush Heath centres around a Tudor-frame manor house with gorgeous gardens and acres of ancient orchards and woodland. Visit the winery shop to enjoy a self-guided exploration, or book for a full estate and winery guided tour for £25, or a private guided tour for £25 (10 people minimum).

What to eat: An spring dish of asparagus, pea and mascarpone risotto at the estate’s own Goudhurst Inn. For an additional £30pp you can enjoy a three-course lunch or dinner with wine at the Goudhurst Inn or the Tickled Trout.

What to drink: Balfour Brut Rosé 2010.

Where to stay: Stylish, airy doubles at the Goudhurst Inn start from £80.

Check availability at booking.com

Llanerch Vineyard, Wales

From £135 per night, check availability at booking.com

A farmhouse hotel, restaurant, cookery school and vineyard in South Wales. Guided tours and tastings show guests how Llanerch’s Cariad wines are made, and how the local terroir affects the taste of each vintage.

What to eat: Celebrating seasonal produce grown, caught or reared in the region, try dishes such as Welsh ox cheek croquettes, mutton shepherd’s pie and pearl barley risotto in the fine-dining restaurant overlooking the vineyards.

What to drink: Try the sweet Cariad sparkling brut.

Where to stay: Hotel rooms vary in size, from superior doubles to suites. Courtyard bedrooms start from £135.

Check availability at booking.com

Kingscote, West Sussex

From £275 per night, check availability at booking.com

This is one of the best wine tasting breaks in the UK. Not just a vineyard but a full-on countryside experience founded by the late Christen Monge, Kingscote promises walking and fishing, as well as vineyard tours and tastings. Book a gourmet vineyard tour with lunch for £85 for two people.

What to eat: There’s a tiny coffee shop serving Kingscote’s own coffee in the on-site wine and artisan food store. For a full meal, visit nearby Gravetye Manor where a set three-course lunch is £48.

What to drink: The Fat Fumé, a lightly oaked bacchus.

Where to stay: Doubles at Gravetye Manor start at £275.

Check availability at booking.com

Denbies, Surrey

From £80 per night, check availability at booking.com

Established in 1986, Denbies wine estate in Surrey offers indoor and outdoor winery tours. The former explores the working winery along with a cellar tasting, while the latter takes you on a 50-minute toy train tour of the vineyard, showing off panoramic views of the North Downs.

What to eat: A gallery restaurant looks over the 265-acre vineyard. Order Sussex confit pork belly with savoy cabbage, pan-fried halibut with roasted romanesco, or, on a Sunday, the Surrey Farm roast beef with rosemary-roasted potatoes.

What to drink: A glass of the 2016 Noble Harvest dessert wine, full of appealing dried apricot notes.

Where to stay: An on-site b&b has seven en-suite bedrooms starting from £80.

Check availability at booking.com

Trevibban Mill, Cornwall

From £402 per week, check availability at booking.com

A stylish vineyard in the rural Cornish countryside. Informal wine tastings take place every Wednesday to Sunday, while on Sunday morning walking tours cover the vineyard, orchard and lakeside, exploring how the wines and ciders are made.

What to eat: Former head chef of Cornwall’s Fifteen, Andy Appleton, is at the kitchen’s helm. Set within a working vineyard, the restaurant serves modern European dishes with a Cornish focus. Try Terras Farm smoked duck breast with squash caponata, rose harissa fish stew with aioli, and quince panna cotta with fennel meringue.

What to drink: The fresh, red berry-laden 2014 organic rosé brut.

Where to stay: There’s an on-site eco lodge surrounded by apple trees, vines and wilderness. The contemporary space sleeps up to four (and two pets), from £402 per week.

Check availability at booking.com

Three Choirs, Gloucestershire

From £149 per night, check availability at expedia.co.uk

A lovely wine tasting break in the UK. You can taste, trek, eat and sleep at Three Choirs near Newent, one of the longest established English vineyards. Most visitors book ahead for a guided tour with tastings.

What to eat: Take a seat among lots of local regulars to eat smoked wood pigeon, Springfield Farm chicken and Clonakilty black pudding terrine with spiced pear followed by roast sea bream, buttered samphire, crushed Cornish new potatoes and lobster oil.

What to drink: The Siegerrebe 2016, a spicy, fruity dry white.

Where to stay: Eight bedrooms in a red-brick block, from £129, have pretty views over the vines, but the nicest accommodation is in the glass-walled, timber-framed lodges with verandas, from £149.

Check availability at expedia.co.uk

Rathfinny Estate, West Sussex

From £100 per night, check availability at booking.com

It may be young, but Rathfinny Estate in the South Downs is still one of Britain’s most beautiful wineries. Vines are separated by rows of wild flowers, there are glimpses of the Sussex heritage coast throughout, and visitors can stay overnight in a stylishly converted 1860s barn.

What to eat: Get social and eat in the estate’s Flint Barns canteen at long, communal wooden tables. Being the casual kind of place it is, the menu is fixed; expect family favourites such as quality sausage and mash.

What to drink: Rathfinny produced its first batch of Sussex sparkling in 2018.

Where to stay: Rooms at the Flint Barns are simple but have expensive bathroom fixtures, quality bedsteads and access to a luxurious communal living room. From £100 for a double.

Check availability at booking.com

Gusbourne, Kent

A two-hour drive from London, this Kent vineyard produces sparkling wines. Choose between three types of tour and explore the vineyards followed by a tutored wine tasting, or discover how to pair wine with food.

What to eat: For those that want to delve deeper into the world of wine, the estate tour includes vineyard visits before a three-course seasonal lunch (paired with eight wines) in the modern tasting room.

What to drink: Golden-hued 2015 Gusbourne brut reserve has buttery, brioche notes.

Where to stay: Head to the sleepy Kent village of East Brabourne – just a 30-minute drive away – and stay at The Five Bells Inn (Read our full review here)

Check availability at gusbourne.com

Tinwood Estate, West Sussex

Want to do a wine tasting in Sussex? Back in 1985, Dutchman Tukker bought 200 acres of land here to grow iceburg lettuce. Ten years ago, Tukker’s son, Art, took on the land for his own project – growing vines for English wines. Art and his wife Jody have worked, manicured and nourished the land and now 100,000 champagne variety vines flourish in their 65 acres of chalky, flint-topped soil. Book a vineyard tour with the optional extras of a cheese platter for two or a canapé selection.

What to eat: Slow-cooked medallions of pork tenderloin followed by crème brulee with shortbread at The Kennels, a members clubhouse that serves dinner to those staying at the Tinwood Estate.

What to drink: Blanc de Blancs sparkling Chardonnay.

Where to stay: Double lodges at the Tinwood Estate start from £175 per night for a double room with breakfast.

Check availability at booking.com

Read our full review of the Tinwood Estate Lodges and wine tasting in Sussex here

Chapel Down, Kent

From £35 per person, check availability at Virgin Experience Days

One of the best-known English vineyards, Chapel Down recently expanded its site to a huge 325 acres of prime Kentish wine country. It’s open all year to visitors, and offers packages and gift experiences with tutored tastings. Alternatively, just go and have a look and pick up a treat from the terrific wine and fine food shop.

What to eat: Pea velouté with ham hock croquettet then Romney Marsh lamb rump, confit cherry tomatoes and smoked paprika courgette puree at Chapel Down’s smart restaurant, the Swan.

What to drink: The 2017 Flint Dry, a blend of bacchus with chardonnay and cool-climate grapes, is a fine alternative to sauvignon blanc.

Where to stay: Sissinghurst Farmhouse, home to Chapel Down’s CEO, is also a charming B&B with brass beds and rural views, from £160.

Check room availaibility at secretescapes.com

Check availability at Virgin Experience Days

Oxney Organic, East Sussex

An organic vineyard with holiday cottages in East Sussex. The estate produces organic sparkling and still wines using pinot noir, pinot meunier and seyval blanc and chardonnay grape varieties. Winery and tasting tours take place every Friday and Saturday morning, lasting 90 minutes. Wander through the vines, learn about the estate’s approach to winemaking and end with a tasting.

What to eat: Tuck into a post-tour picnic of local cheeses, charcuterie, bread and, of course, wine.

What to drink: Try the fruity, delicately bubbly 2016 Oxney Classic.

Where to stay: Three barns (starting from £577.50 per week) sleep between four and six, while cosy wooden shepherd’s huts complete with a double bed and fire-pit start from £100 per night.

Check availability at oxneyestate.com

Camel Valley Vineyard, Cornwall

Want to explore one of the best English vineyards? Bob Lindo turned his hand to farming when he left the RAF and has built up the beautiful Camel Valley vineyard gradually, over 30 years, with his wife Annie. All the wines are sold in the shop by the glass or half glass (along with little snacks), so you can turn up for a taste even if the Grand Tour tasting is fully booked.

What to eat: Pink fir apple potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli and polmarkyn ashed goats cheese, or slow cooked lamb shoulder and cumin roasted cauliflower followed by lemon posset, raspberries and ginger crumb at St Tudy Inn, 15 minutes north by car.

What to drink: The 2012 Camel Valley Pinot Noir Rosé Brut.

Where to stay: The Cabana, a pretty converted stable down a leafy lane, with a private decked area equipped with a BBQ. B&B from £65 per night.

Check availability for properties nearby at booking.com

Wyken Vineyards, Suffolk

Only big groups need pre-book for a wander round Wyken. It has been established as a vineyard since 1988, and is energetically tended by Mississippi-born Lady Carlisle, who, as a girl, trained at Chez Panisse and loves the ‘raciness of English wine’.

What to eat: The menu at the estate’s Leaping Hare restaurant/café/shop, housed in a 14th-century barn, offers monkfish with brown shrimp and cauliflower followed by Wyken lamb rack and belly with pomme anna, sprouting broccoli and wild garlic.

What to drink: Wyken Moonshine, a sparkling wine made with pinot noir and auxerrois grapes.

Where to stay: Camomile Cottage, an arty Suffolk longhouse where you’ll breakfast in the garden room on full English or eggs benedict with home-baked bread. Doubles, from £99. camomilecottage.co.uk

Check availability at wykenvineyards.co.uk

Sharpham Wine and Cheese, Devon

From £550 for two nights, check availability for cottages at sykescottages.co.uk

One of the best vineyard tours in the UK, Sharpham is a great experience. In the same hands for 35 years, Sharpham is a serious producer of more than a dozen wines, as well as unpasteurised cheeses that are sold UK-wide. Visitors to the site, overlooking the River Dart, can embark on a self-directed Vineyard Walk, or a Vine to Wine tour with expert guides.

What to eat: The Cellar Door serves River Fowey mussels with cider, bacon, leek and mustard cream followed by wild garlic and sorrel chicken “kiev” with watercress and charred lemon.

What to drink: The Estate Selection 2016.

Where to stay: The Bathing House is a well-appointed holiday cottage within the Sharpham Estate, sleeping two from around £550 for two nights.

Book a vineyard tour now

Check availability for cottages at sykescottages.co.uk

Ryedale Vineyards, North Yorkshire

There’s no visitor centre, shop or café at England’s most northerly commercial vineyard, rather a tiny winery set in a listed cowshed. Here Stuart Smith conducts tastings, once his wife Elizabeth has guided guests around the entirely unmechanised site. Tours and tastings take place between April and October, or, if you’re staying at the vineyard, you can book a private tour for any day of the week.

What to eat: At Mount House B&B in Terrington, owner Kathryn might cook venison in the autumn, or seabass, followed by a creamy Italian pud. Book dinner in advance for £30 for 3-courses.

What to drink: One of Ryedale’s award-winners, such as a bottle of Yorkshire’s Lass, a delicate dry white.

Where to stay: In a pretty, homely double or twin at Mount House starting from £100 per night.

Check availability at ryedalevineyards.co.uk

Check out the best places to eat in Ryedale while you’re there…

Words by Sophie Dening, Ellie Edwards and Alex Crossley

Photo credits: Paul Winch-Furness, Ian Forsyth, Helen Dixon

First published August 2015, updated May 2019

Looking for restaurants in Bologna? Want to know where to eat in the Italian foodie capital? Local food and travel writer Sarah Lane shares her insider tips for the best restaurants in Bologna, along with where to find the best pizza, handmade pasta and mortadella sausage.

Osteria del Sole – for local atmosphere

Market stall holders have gathered to drink and put the world to rights at Osteria del Sole since 1465; nowadays they’re joined by students, tourists and professionals drawn to its old-time vibe and good wine.

osteriadelsole.it

Mercato di Mezzo – for pizza

A beautifully converted market pavilion is home to Mercato di Mezzo, the new hot spot at the heart of Bologna’s historic open-air food market. Here there are a dozen stalls serving local snacks. Head upstairs for the main event, a ricotta and mortadella pizza.

Via Francesco Rizzoli 9

Vecchia Scuola Bolognese – for a cookery school

TV chef Alessandra Spisni, who picked up her traditional style of Bolognese cooking from her grandmother, is partly responsible for the recent surge in popularity of handmade pasta. After a half-day course with lunch at her Vecchia Scuola Bolognese you’ll come away with some much-sharpened pasta skills.

lavecchiascuola.com

Salumeria Simoni – for a food tour

Book a mortadella tour with Davide Simoni of the Salumeria Simoni deli and you’ll be rewarded with an hour of culture and history focussed on Bologna’s famous sausage. Alternatively, buy a few slices from the deli to make your own panino filling.

salumeriasimoni.it

Trattoria Serghei – for authentic cuisine

Tiny Trattoria Serghei, one of the city’s temples of authentic Bolognese cuisine, hides behind an unassuming exterior. Inside the cosy wood-panelled interior, choose from specialities like tagliatelle al ragù, stuffed courgettes with meatballs and sautéed chicory.

Via Piella 12, 00 39 51 233 533

Osteria Dal Nonno – for a farmyard lunch

A favourite treat for the locals is a trip into the hills for fragrant crescentine (fried dough puffs) and tigelle (baked bread discs) served with cold meats and cheeses. Find them at the farmyard tables of Osteria Dal Nonno.

osteriadalnonno.bologna.it

Da Maro – for Sicilian dishes

Mediterranean-style Da Maro offers a lighter alternative to Bologna’s meatheavy menus. Sicilian chef Cristian Salas creates dishes inspired by his native island. Try the spaghetti with mussels, clams, frigitelli peppers and tomato confit.

trattoriamaro.it

Majani – for chocolate

Italy’s first solid chocolate, the crinkly Scorza, which translates as ‘tree bark’, was made in 1832 by Bologna-based Majani. Another long-standing favourite worth stocking up on is the Fiat – a smooth and tender nutty flavoured chocolate commissioned in 1911 to mark the launch of the Fiat Tipo 4.

majani.it/en

Photographs: Matt Munro/Lonely Planet Traveller, Fabio Baradi

Looking for where to stay in the Cotswolds? Want to find Cotswolds hotels for foodies? Check out our guide to the best places to eat, drink and stay in the Cotswolds….

The Cotswolds is all your chocolate-box fantasies rolled into one – honey-hued cottages, gardens brimming with hollyhocks huddled around duck-paddled ponds. The names are as pretty as the scenery: Moreton-in-Marsh, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow-on-the-Wold. Even the local rare breeds (Gloucestershire Old Spots pigs) have a bonny ring. The Cotswolds is Cider with Rosie country: a bucolic idyll packaged for tourists who traipse here to mooch around antique shops and take afternoon tea.

The Cotswolds is quintessentially quaint. It’s also unexpectedly vast. Count its counties: Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, plus corners of Wiltshire, Somerset, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. From north to south it’s a 100-mile schlep. Off-the-beaten-track is a concept the Cotswolds lost long ago, but its central belt – a lopsided oblong with Burford, Cheltenham, Stroud and Lechlade at the corners – does fly slightly below the radar.

Where to stay in the Cotswolds for foodies

The Wheatsheaf, Northleach – gastropub with rooms

From £117 per night, check availability on booking.com

As glam as it is cosy, former coaching inn The Wheatsheaf Inn, set in a restored 17th-century Cotswold stone building, has three log fires, as well as a wood-burning stove in the snug. Get comfortable with some craft beer or a bottle of wine from the 300-strong list. There’s culinary clout too with seasonal, daily changing dishes, such as grilled whole lemon sole, grapes, capers and limes, or meltingly rare beef from Cirencester. The 14 stylish rooms here are more bourgeois bolthole than humble inn.

Check availability on booking.com

The Rectory Hotel, Crudwell

From £120 per night, check availability at mrandmrssmith.com

An 18th century former rectory in the heart of picturesque Crudwell, recently refurbished The Rectory Hotel is all about intimate dinners, fireside cocktails and country walks followed by hearty food. Originally the rectory to the village church, this ancient stone building oozes relaxed country manor. Homemade cordial welcomes rosy-cheeked walkers into the drawing room, where you can warm up by the log fire and sink into pretty peacock feather-hued cushions.

The 18 rooms are all unique, with the first floor hosting more spacious rooms, and the second floor benefitting from exposed oak beams. The team at The Rectory Hotel has freshened up the interiors to preserve original features (little fireplaces, sash windows, panelled walls) and antiques, but add a checklist of little hotel luxuries (Robert’s Radios, tea and coffee from local roasters UE and Jeeves and Jericho). Beds are like huge armchairs, with velvet curved headboards in mustard yellow and forest green.

The kitchen focuses on refreshed classics. Unfussy comfort food includes fish pie, and pretty salads using fresh produce grown in the allotments behind The Potting Shed pub over the road (sister business to the hotel). The grill section includes flat-iron chicken with lemon, aioli and fries, Chateaubriand for two with roast beetroot, crispy shallots and wild rocket, and grilled catch of the day (turbot from Dorset on our visit, served with buttery Lime Regis new potatoes, watercress and a ramekin of Hollandaise).

The breakfast spread, taken in The Glasshouse overlooking the gardens, is impressive. Graze on homemade granola, fresh fruits, mini pastries and ham and cheese before taking your pick from the made-to-order hot menu (French toast, avocado on sourdough, eggs any style) and topping up from the DIY bloody mary station.

Check availability at mrandmrssmith.com

Artist Residence, South Leigh

From £120 per night, check availability at booking.com

In a sleepy village in rural Oxfordshire Justin and Charlie Salisbury, the duo behind quirky Artist Residence hotel group, have restored a 16th century Cotswold-stone farmhouse and opened it as their fourth property, Mr Hanbury’s Masons Arms. A community-focused pub, with five perfectly put-together bedrooms upstairs, Mr Hanbury’s is split into two areas – a cosy bar area with a classic pub menu and a more sophisticated dining room where guests can enjoy a fine dining menu.

Each of the five bedrooms here has its own unique quirks. Room number 4 boasts a ginormous free-standing copper bath to sink into with Bramley bubble bath, while number 2 has Sri Lankan tea chests as bedside tables and a window that looks out onto the vegetable patch.

Check availability at booking.com

Thyme, Southrop

From £325 per night, check availability at booking.com

Set deep in the rolling Cotswolds countryside, in the quiet village of Southrop, Thyme is exactly what you want from a rural escape. A 150-acre estate, it is home to a cookery school, pub, holiday cottages, cocktail bar and restaurant while the 15th century manor house at its heart (and various outlying barns) is now a boutique hotel. The renovation of the latter was a labour of love for its energetic, and charming, owner Caryn Hibbert and it shows. Crunch over a gravel drive and you arrive at an impressive, honey-stone Tithe Barn, home to The Baa (yes, really) with its great cocktail list. Not a bad way to kick off a stay.

Check availability at booking.com

The Swan, Ascott-under-Wychwood

From £100 per night, check availability at booking.com

This 16th-century half-timbered inn, at the heart of pretty Ascott-under-Wychwood, has been revamped by hotel gurus Sam and Georgie Pearman (the couple are also behind the spruced-up Talbot in Malton). It bears all their hip-yet-homely hallmarks, including playful, eclectic furnishings and art, sink-into beds and in-room baths stocked with 100 Acres Apothecary products made (by Georgie) from natural botanicals. You’ll also find the usual attention to detail, from swan-shaped room keys crafted at the local forge to homemade cookies in bedrooms. British to the core, it appeals to locals, young and old, and city foodies seeking a rural weekend escape.

Seasonality and creativity drives head chef Adam Abbott, previously of The Wild Rabbit in Kingham. You only have to look at his pork pies, made using rare-breed meats from Herefordshire’s Huntsham Court Farm, to see that he doesn’t compromise on quality. Vegetarians will be happy here, too – starters might include broad bean hummus topped with spiced aubergine and grated hazelnuts, served with a platter of mixed sourdough breads from nearby Chipping Norton. From the choice of mains, try The Swan’s signature smoked haddock Monte Carlo and a wholesome vegetables-and-grains bowl.

Drinks are local where possible. On tap at the bar is Bobby Beer, Cotswold Lager and Pearson’s cider. Local brewery Hook Norton rules the roost when it comes to beer, and for vodka, there’s Black Cow from Dorset.

Check availability at booking.com

Sign of the Angel Inn, Lacock

From £115 per night, check availability at booking.com

Dating back to the 15th century, this former coaching inn sits in the heart of Lacock village. With its rough stone walls, well-worn tiled floors, moody oak-panelled snugs and imposing inglenook fireplace it’s a cosy setting for some hearty West Country food and an early night. Out at the back, a garden leads to a stream and a paddock.

West Country ingredients are put to good use in the regularly changing, seasonal menu from the 2 AA rosette kitchen. Expect local game in the autumn, hunks of blushing lamb in the spring and plenty of veg, potato and pastry all year round. Whenever you visit, though, expect to kick things off with homemade bread, slabs of cold, salted butter, oil and balsamic vinegar and a little canapé – on our visit a comforting offering of sliced white enriched with blue cheese, brown flecked with rocket and lemon, and mouthfuls of pressed rabbit, apple and fiercely pickled red onions.

There are five bedrooms at Sign of the Angel and each is comfortably chic. With little else to do in the village after dark – there’s only one other pub within walking distance – prepare for an early night. At the foot of our sink-into bed, topped with duck down and feather pillows and fringed with a homely grey blanket, thick, large towels beg to be used after a long soak in the tub.

Check availability at booking.com

The Bell Inn, Lechlade

From £67 per night, check availability at booking.com

There are plenty of contemporary-chic gastropubs in the Cotswolds but not all manage to retain the laid-back feel of a village boozer after their Farrow & Ball transformations. Happily The Bell, a 17th-century inn in pretty Langford, on the fringes of west Oxfordshire, does.

Its combination of rustic, wood-fired comfort food, stone-flagged dining rooms, and affable service, makes it a congenial space to unwind. Eight stylishly simple bedrooms mean you can settle down to sample that cooking, relaxed in the knowledge you don’t have to drive anywhere afterwards. Digest with a stroll to Langford’s pink-towered Saxon church across the fields, then enjoy an early night.

Check availability at booking.com

Barnsley House, Barnsley

From £309 per night, check availability on booking.com

Once the home of renowned garden designer Rosemary Verey, the gardens of this luxury hotel remain a highlight. Produce picked by the chefs take pride of place in dishes such as tangy Barnsley House pickled beetroot, creamy goat’s cheese curd and candied hazelnuts.

Amid such ultra-local provenance it’s easy to be caught off-guard when you discover that head chef, Francesco Volgo, is Italian and that the house speciality is vincisgrassi, a rich mushroom and truffle oil lasagne. Wandering up to bed after dinner there were two surprises in store: a packet of Little Gem lettuce seeds on the pillow instead of chocolate and, in the fridge, a handful of fresh mint for tea – reminders that outside the window was a fruitful English country garden.

Check availability on booking.com

The Wild Rabbit, Kingham

In the heart of the Cotswolds on the Daylesford estate, The Wild Rabbit is a modern British inn serving seasonal, hyper-local food and offering 12 bedrooms (all, like the inn itself, named after creatures found in the English countryside). There are also two cosy cottages just a short walk away and, as of late 2018, three more opposite the inn.

While it attracts an out-of-town crowd, at its heart The Wild Rabbit is a country pub, albeit one with Hugo Guinness block prints on the walls and tea lights flickering on farmhouse-style tables. It acts as a kind of sociable living room for the locals (the notice board was calling out for village bakers on our visit), with squidgy leather sofas taken up by blush-faced walkers escaping the cold, shaggy dogs lounging in front of the crackling fire and families wrapping their hands around mugs of hot chocolate and hot buttered rum.

Choose between 12 calm, airy bedrooms above the pub, or, for larger groups, take your pick of the cottages, scattered in the surrounding village of Kingham. All showcase Daylesford’s signature pared-backed country style (think exposed beams, sash windows, duck-egg blue stable doors and lots of muted shades of cream, taupe and stone) but peppered with luxuries; if you’re taken with the decor you can buy everything from the egg cups, chopping boards, throws and toiletries at the Daylesford shop in Kingham (and online, here).

No 131, Cheltenham

From £120 per night, check availability on booking.com

Stay in  the Cotswold oblong’s northern corner at No 131 in Cheltenham. An elegant Grade-II Georgian hotel with a restaurant and handful of quirky rooms (ours had a free-standing tin bath and a knitted cosy on the teapot), it’s part of the Cotswolds-based Lucky Onion group, a clutch of restaurants, hotels, pubs and b&bs owned by Julian Dunkerton.

Much of the restaurant’s produce is sourced from local farmers and producers (order eggs for breakfast and they’ll have come from Cackleberry Farm in Burford). Our lunch of Wiltshire lamb fillet with merguez sausage, caponata and tzatziki, fregola primavera (a vibrant spring green) and beets was a riot of colour and flavour.

Check availability on booking.com

The Painswick, Painswick

From £171 per night, check availability at booking.com

With affordable room rates and a playful aesthetic (note the neon sign in the reception area), this is designed as a younger, more affordable addition to the Calcot Collection’s properties (and, possibly, a Cotswolds riposte to The Pig hotels).

Bedrooms are decorated in muted natural shades, lounges come with open fires and mountains of cushions, a lawn is perfect for sprawling on sunny days, there are two treatment rooms for facials or massages and, in the hallway, scrolls of printed walking routes and a stack of help-yourself wellies invite guests to tramp out into the neighbouring Slad Valley (of Laurie Lee fame).

Check availability at booking.com

The Churchill Arms, Paxford

From £100 per night, check availability at booking.com

Set the SatNav and, whichever way you approach The Churchill Arms in Paxford, you’ll travel along winding roads, lined with thatched cottages, through sleepy Cotswold villages. Your destination is equally quaint – a honey-hued pub dating back to the 17th century but re-opened after a sympathetic refurbishment earlier this year. You’re made to feel at home as soon as you step through the door of this family-friendly hostelry. Stand with the traditional inglenook fireplace on your right and choose from the bar, on your left, or a cosy dining room on your right (reached across a flagstone floor).

The pub’s owner and head chef, Nick Deverell-Smith, is a local boy and grew up eating here with his family. But while he is clearly passionate about this pub, Deverell-Smith also brings the kind of depth to his cooking that can only be won through stints in Michelin-starred kitchens.

Book into one of the pubs two, simply furnished, bedrooms and you’ll find walls painted in muted, chalky colours, original beams, hardwood floors and soft, white cotton sheets. Sit and take in the view over rolling fields from the cushioned window seats or relax in the bath after a long walk.

Check availability at booking.com

Pineapple Spa, Stow-on-the-Wold

From £689 for seven nights, check availability at holidaycottages.co.uk

With its quirky interiors, this unique Grade II listed holiday cottage set in the rolling hills of the Cotswolds has an open log fire, free-standing copper bath and a garden with views of the stunning countryside. This quiet and cosy holiday cottage makes for the perfect weekend away.

Check availability at holidaycottages.co.uk

Minster Mill, Minster Lovell

From £150 per night, check availability at booking.com

Set amidst 65 acres of leafy grounds on the banks of the River Windrush (which powers most of the estate via an on-site hydropower turbine), Minster Mill offers a genteel but slick sprawl of honey coloured Cotswold stone buildings to hole up in. Its sister property, the Old Swan country pub with rooms, is just around the corner if you fancy a smidge less formality and a hint more tradition.

Light-filled rooms are generously sized and decorated in tasteful neutrals. Scandi-esque touches include pastel-hued wool blankets on the beds and Danish-style loungers. Find L’Occitane toiletries in the plushly modern bathrooms, Cotswolds-made lager, chocolate and crisps in the mini bar, and a room service menu that ranges from Oxford rarebit with brown sauce to rhubarb trifle.

MasterChef: The Professionals 2017 semi-finalist Tom Moody is behind the pass at the hotel’s restaurant, which serves polished seasonal plates using produce from the hotel’s vegetable garden. A must-order is the butter-soft veal sweetbreads dressed in beef fat (all the meat and fish is British), with velvety caramelised cauliflower purée and crunchy walnuts. Aged loin of Cotswold lamb, blushing pink, spiked with salty hits of anchovy and feta, is another winner. Pre- and post-dinner tipples, from crisp fino sherry to champagne and classic cocktails, can be found at the hotel’s chic gold-accented Mill Bar. There are also champagne and Cotswold cream teas to try.

Check availability at booking.com

Where to eat and drink in the Cotswolds

Stroud Farmer’s Market

Kneading up a storm in Painswick, near arty Stroud, is Israeli baker Ori Hellerstein, whose Nelson loaves have a cult following. Named after Nelson Mandela, they’re packed full of pumpkin, poppy, nigella, sunflower, sesame and linseed, plus yogurt and golden syrup. The result is heavy but healthy with a sweetness that goes perfectly with cheese or smoked salmon. Make a beeline for his stall at the award-winning Stroud Farmers’ Market where you can find him every Saturday from 9am-2pm (fresh-n-local.co.uk).

Also at the market is Hobbs House Bakery, of Fabulous Baker Brothers fame, though their lardy cakes, the local sweet and sticky spiced fruit bun, weren’t quite as moreish as those at Huffkins in Burford. Fill your bag with red wine and fennel salami from the Cotswold Curer, yogurt from Jess’s Ladies Organic Farm Milk and a bunch of multi-coloured carrots.

Jolly Nice café

At Frampton Mansell, on the road between Stroud and Cirencester, the Jolly Nice café and farm shop is a gourmet pit-stop set up by Rebecca Wilson in a disused filling station. There’s a deli, a butchers selling meat from the family farm’s rare breed Shorthorn cattle, a meadow for summer picnics and a wood-burner-warmed yurt to retreat to in winter with one of the kitchen’s Jolly Nice burgers: a brioche bun piled high with salad, cheddar, smoked bacon, caramelised onions, rapeseed mayo and ketchup, the burger’s key ingredient – Shorthorn beef – still shines.

Definitely leave space for Harriet’s ice cream, though. It all started with an ice-cream maker picked up at a car boot sale on her 15th birthday. The journey to the filling station was a meandering one that involved a mobile ice- cream parlour and years of experimentation. Today, flavours range from brown bread, rhubarb and custard to chocolate and crystallised bergamot. My choice? Pistachio and orange blossom.

jollynicefarmshop.com

The Royal Oak, Tetbury

Husband and wife team Richard and Solanche Craven have refurbished The Royal Oak in the Cotswolds to breathe life back into Whatcote’s village pub. The kitchen focusses on British wild food ‘shot to order’ by gamekeepers, and works with local suppliers, along with others in Scotland and Cornwall, to create seasonal dishes. Try pig’s head and black pudding lasagne with cider reduction; fallow buck with salt-baked turnip; or rabbit wellington with mashed potato and farmhouse cabbage. Comforting desserts include preserved pear with hogweed and ‘cobnut bits and bobs’, and South African wines (a nod to Solanche’s heritage) feature heavily.

The Cravens are committed to retaining the local-pub ethos in the bar and have sourced beers and lager from DEYA in Cheltenham, Clouded Minds near Banbury and Warwickshire’s Purity. The gin cabinet also boasts Countess Grey from the Cotswolds (check out our favourite British gins here).

Where to eat and drink in Cirencester

Asian flavours are also on the menu at Made by Bob in Cirencester (foodmadebybob.com). Ciren is a real foodie hub with a cluster of gourmet hangouts that includes Jesse’s Bistro (jessebistro.co.uk) – the meat sourced from the adjacent butcher’s shop at the front – and Jack’s Coffee Shop (@jacks_shop). But the town’s hottest table is arguably Bob Parkinson’s fuss-free restaurant and deli a couple of streets away.

Cotswolds born and bred but returned from a stint in London, Parkinson is passionate about Asian cooking. His restaurant in the town’s old Corn Hall has a huge open kitchen and is a great place to grab lunch. On the daily changing menu you’ll often find geng jeut, a fragrant and clear Asian broth bobbing with chicken, shiitake mushrooms, coconut and deep fried garlic; and a real winter warmer – geng paneang, a rich red beef curry sprinkled with peanuts and Thai basil. There’s also a strong Italian influence – think grilled bruschetta with marinated peppers, artichoke, mozzarella, capers and basil oil – with Sardinian ingredients sourced from London-based Stefano Chessa.

Looking for breweries to visit in the USA? Want to partake in the best beer tastings in Norway? Check out 10 of the best craft beer trips around the world here…

Brews and Bites tour, Portland

Portland is just as famous for its craft breweries as it is for its colourful food carts. Eat Adventures lets you indulge in both with a four-hour Brews and Bites tour, during which you’ll chat with chefs, taste locally inspired dishes and visit three breweries for seasonal samples, including Flamingo Planet Guava Blonde Ale (a fruit-forward beer brewed with guava) at the astronomy-themed Ecliptic Brewing. If you’re visiting during the first weekend of July don’t miss the annual Portland Craft Beer Festival; it features only beer, cider and wine that’s crafted within Portland’s city limits. The festival also segues nicely into Oregon Craft Beer Month.

Great Swedish Beer Festival, Malmö

As with so much food and drink in Sweden’s southern Skåne’ region, the approach to brewing is experimental but detail-driven. It’s no great surprise that, in recent years, a crop of microbreweries has grown up among the forests and fields of this beer-drinking district. So popular are the ensuing products, in fact, that a whole new festival – the Great Swedish Beer Festival – has been launched, to shine a light on exclusively independent Swedish craft beer brewers, food trucks and musicians. If you can’t make it to Malmö for kick-off on 26 October, the next best plan is to plot your own tour around some of Skåne’s best microbreweries. Top of your list should be Malmö Brewing, a taproom right in the city centre that does a brisk trade in Canned Wheat IPA, hopped with citra and full of juicy mandarin-orange flavour.

Here’s where to eat and drink while you’re in the city…

Beer and cider route, Norway

Specialist tour operator UpNorway offers a dream trip for craft-beer pilgrims: a self-guided ten-day road trip that incorporates beer and cider tastings. Starting in Bergen and (eventually) returning via the Hurtigruten car-ferry from Florø, you’ll visit Ægir microbrewery in Flåm and Kinn brewery in Florø (try the latter’s Hipsteren, a coffee-flavoured ale that’s a local collaboration between brewers 7 Fjell Bryggeri and coffee roasters Sognefjord Kaffibrenneri). Along the way, admire waterfalls from the Scenic Route Hardanger, visit cider farms, enjoy Norwegian cuisine and stay at Skjolden Hotel, set inside the world’s longest fjord.

Brewery walking tour, Berlin

While beer has always been a focus for tourism in Germany, Berlin has also recently embraced the microbrewery renaissance. To get your cultural and hops fix in one, take a two-hour private walking tour of one of its coolest neighbourhoods, Kreuzberg, in the company of a WithLocals guide. Among its highlights is the chance to try Schopper Hell, a beer carefully brewed at low temperatures to produce a distinct, unfiltered taste. Try to time your visit for July, when the 10-day Berlin Beer Week hosts a variety of scheduled events across the city, from beer-matched dinners to boozy boat trips.

Beer, baking and bathing, Japan

Hinotani Brewery, in Japan’s Mie prefecture, makes an enticing getaway for beer lovers given that nearby Misugi Resort (part-owned by Hinotani’s brewmaster) incorporates all manner of hop-based activities for guests. Here you can make bread with beer yeast in a stone kiln, stay in a beer-themed room (help yourself to the draft taps), and bathe in an onsen that releases craft beer into hot natural spring water every 30 minutes (it’s excellent for the skin, apparently). For a more educational experience, sign up for one of Hinotani’s one-hour microbrewery tours, during which you can taste beers made with organic rice sourced from local farmers. Try the award-winning Hinotani lager, which is lightly grassy with citrus notes.

Craft beer and pizza, Chicago

The Windy City has the largest metropolitan concentration of breweries in America (167 and counting). Start with a stroll around Ravenswood’s Malt Row (renowned for its beer diversity) where brunch comes with beer pairing at Michelin-starred brewpub, Band of Bohemia. Or check out Chicago’s inaugural ‘coolship’, a fermentation vessel at Dovetail Brewery that spawned Dovetail’s first ‘kriek’ – a beer in the style of a Belgian fruit lambic, which is racked over tart Michigan-grown Balaton cherries. To get the most out of your visit, plan a trip during the annual Craft Beer & Pizza Festival (held over two days each July) and sample more than 70 craft beers in one location.

Copenhagen Beerwalk

Mikkeller is to craft beer what Noma is to food in Copenhagen, attracting connoisseurs from around the world. There are various Mikkeller outlets across the city, including one at the airport, but the microbrewery’s reach extends much further than bar-hopping. If you’re visiting in May, there’s a choice of two festivals: Mikkeller’s Beer Celebration and the Copenhagen Beer Festival, both of which include the fruits of various breweries around the world alongside the company’s own beers. Or, to take things at your own pace any time of year, try a self-guided Copenhagen Beerwalk: select four breweries, the order in which you visit them and how much time you spend at each place. Don’t miss Brewer’s Inc, where a winning beer made by a Danish homebrewer is chosen each quarter, and then brewed at the microbrewery to serve on tap.

Craft beer and saunas, Tallinn

Over the past decade, a craft-beer revolution has been quietly brewing in Estonia, not least in the country’s tech-savvy capital, Tallinn. Wander the cobblestoned Old Town to soak up some history, then head to Telliskivi Creative City, a former industrial complex turned artistic hub, for brews at Pudel and Humalakoda. Don’t miss the Põhjala Tap Room at Noblessner harbour, where you can have a sauna in the brewery then re-hydrate with the company’s Forest Series brews, made with locally foraged ingredients. The Mets Black IPA is a refreshing choice, with hand-picked spruce tips, forest blueberries and subtle coffee notes.

Good Beer Week, Melbourne

May is an ideal month for craft-beer fans to visit Melbourne – Good Beer Week incorporates both the Melbourne outlet of the GABS (Great Australasian Beer Spectacular) festival and the Australian International Beer Awards. So wide-ranging are these combined events that even the most focused drinkers could be paralysed by choice, but fortunately the Good Beer Week program is curated into four streams: Foodie, Beer Lover, Beer Geek and Good Times. Our tip is to head firmly for the Foodie stream and take your pick from BBQ and beer pairing sessions, seasonal beer and wine feasts, the chance to snack on smoked beers with smoked foods, a degustation of vegan eats and sips and more – many cooked by some of the city’s most inspiring chefs. Don’t miss Australia’s first female-owned brewery, Two Birds Brewing, and its Passion Victim: a pale summer ale infused with passion fruit purée.

Great Taste Trail, New Zealand

Set off along the South Island’s Great Taste Trail and you can enjoy a picturesque cycling trip around Nelson, New Zealand’s craft beer capital, as part of your two-wheel adventure. The full 174km circuit takes in some of the country’s best breweries, wineries and food stops but the route has many access points and loops, so can be tailored for any length of trip. The Gentle Cycling Company offers a 16km Great Taste Beer day trip, for instance, that covers two breweries and two pubs along the Trail, including Eddyline Brewery and its Pozzy Pale Ale, made with native Motueka and Riwaka hops.

Written by Karyn Noble

Looking for places to stay in the Cotswolds? Want a gastropub with rooms in Oxfordshire? Read our hotel review, and check out more gastropubs with rooms here…

The Swan in a nutshell

A Cotswolds gastropub with rooms, where ancient timber meets contemporary design.

The vibe

This 16th-century half-timbered inn, at the heart of pretty Ascott-under-Wychwood, has been revamped by hotel gurus Sam and Georgie Pearman (the couple are also behind the spruced-up Talbot in Malton). It bears all their hip-yet-homely hallmarks, including playful, eclectic furnishings and art, sink-into beds and spot-on seasonal food. You’ll also find the usual attention to detail, from swan-shaped room keys crafted at the local forge to homemade cookies in bedrooms. British to the core, it appeals to locals, young and old, and city foodies seeking a rural weekend escape.

Which room should I book at The Swan?

The previous owners commissioned well-known designers to create each room, so Sam and Georgie have left these largely unchanged. Room five, which overlooks the neighbouring church and graveyard, is probably the most ‘Pearman’, with pea-green walls, heavy cream drapes and an in-room bath stocked with 100 Acres Apothecary products made (by Georgie) from natural botanicals. For an attic hideaway, bag room six while, if you’re coming with family, choose between the family room (sleeping four) or the cottage (sleeping six); the latter overlooks the garden courtyard.

The food and drink

Seasonality and creativity drives head chef Adam Abbott, previously of The Wild Rabbit in Kingham. You only have to look at his pork pies, made using rare-breed meats from Herefordshire’s Huntsham Court Farm, to see that he doesn’t compromise on quality. Vegetarians will be happy here, too – starters might include broad bean hummus topped with spiced aubergine and grated hazelnuts, served with a platter of mixed sourdough breads from nearby Chipping Norton. From the choice of mains, try The Swan’s signature smoked haddock Monte Carlo and a wholesome vegetables-and-grains bowl.

Desserts are playful twists on classics, including Jaffa Cake chocolate pudding with pistachio ice cream, and custard tart with Ron Zacapa-and-raisin ice cream. There’s also a pleasing nod to locality, with Banbury cakes and Blue Monday cheese (produced by former Blur band member, Alex James). Drinks are similarly fun, and in many cases local. On tap at the bar is Bobby Beer, Cotswold Lager and Pearson’s cider. Local brewery Hook Norton rules the roost when it comes to beer, and for vodka, there’s Black Cow from Dorset.

Breakfast

Served in the bar, breakfast kicks off with a buffet of cereals, fresh fruit juices, cold meats, croissants and jams. Cooked dishes include a full English, a blow-out Prospector Breakfast (made using Huntsham meats) and Chapel & Swan hot smoked salmon served with scrambled duck eggs. The Mucky Toast makes a great change from the norm – toasted sourdough with slithers of lardo and blobs of toffee apple purée.

What else can foodies do?

The Chequers, Sam and Georgie’s other Cotswolds venture, is four miles away in Churchill, and Daylesford organic farm shop, café and restaurant is also just up the road. If you want spoiling, there’s Soho Farmhouse, or to stock up on British cheeses (including Blue Monday) pop into The Cotswold Cheese Company shop in Moreton-in-Marsh.

Is it family friendly?

There’s a family room in the main inn, or cots and zip-and-link beds in room five. Alternatively, if you want your own space, there’s a cottage across the garden courtyard. When it comes to food, simple options such as chicken with sweet potato ensure that children won’t go hungry.

olive tip

Don’t miss the espresso martinis served on tap at the bar – the perfect start to an evening.

countrycreatures.com/the-swan

Words and images by Clare Hargreaves

Looking for restaurants in Portland? Want to know where to eat in Central Eastside? Food and travel writer Lucy Gillmore takes us on a foodie road trip though Portland, stopping off at kombucha taprooms, farm-to-fork restaurants and gourmet doughnut stores.

Cult comedy sketch show Portlandia shamelessly sends up Portland’s hippy image – it’s the place “where young people go to retire”, grow things, brew beer and join communes. This kooky corner of Oregon can seem almost horizontally laidback but that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of creative drive. You don’t become one of the culinary capitals of the USA by sitting around sipping ethically sourced, single-origin coffee.

This one-time blue-collar town in the Pacific Northwest has been riding the wave of a foodie revolution for the past two decades. There’s now an artisan roaster on every corner, bean-to-bar chocolate makers and gourmet doughnut stores, grain-to-glass craft distillers, a slew of microbreweries, kombucha taprooms, and acres of farmers’ markets and food cart ‘pods’. It’s also home to more food festivals than you can shake a wooden spoon at, from the annual Cider Summit to the grandaddy of them all, Feast Portland, which takes place in September.

Feast isn’t just a festival, it’s a self-proclaimed movement, an incubator of ideas with chefs, farmers, winemakers, brewers, artisan producers and restaurateurs coming together to celebrate and, this being Portland, raise money to help end hunger. Portland is a city with heart-and-soul food in spades.

It’s also begun to attract similarly aligned brands from further afield as it veers from hippy to hipster. This autumn, Icelandic boutique hostel KEX will open its second property in Portland, while UK hotel group The Hoxton converted the city’s dilapidated 1906 Grove Hotel into a hip hangout last year.

The Hoxton’s interiors are peppered with potted plants, exposed brickwork, low-slung velvet and leather seating, and artworks. Rooms feature floor-to-ceiling windows and eclectically curated, well-thumbed tomes chosen by local artists and bookworms (the world’s largest indie bookstore, Powell’s City of Books, is just a few blocks away).

The food has been farmed out to Submarine, the group behind Portland stalwart Ava Gene’s and the hottest brunch spot in town, Tusk, where chef Sam Smith mixes up Middle Eastern cuisine with seasonal produce, his signature hummus, light as gossamer, served beneath a giant artwork of Keith Richards floating in a pool.

At the Hoxton, the all-day dining at La Neta is Mexican-themed, while rooftop bar and taqueria, Tope (all verdant greenery, white tiles and panoramic Portland views), is street-food inspired. Later, as the sun sinks behind the hills, I sip a smoky mezcal cocktail, Carrot On My Wayward Son (Banhez mezcal, carrot, sweet potato, lime, mole bitters and egg white).

Each morning a “Little Breakfast” (a yogurt and granola pot, orange juice and piece of fruit) is hung on your door in case you wake up peckish. But just across the Burnside Bridge, in the Central Eastside, I’ve heard that Cup & Bar, the city’s first small-batch coffee and chocolate-tasting room and café, does a mean avocado toast. It lives up to the hype: ripe avocado on lemon-drizzled, ricotta-smeared sourdough.

Portland is a city of five “quadrants”, divided into northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest and north. The Central Eastside is the city’s industrial heartland, its warehouses now reimagined by entrepreneurial producers. Northwest is home to Nob Hill’s boutiques and clapboard houses, the Dandy Warhols’ wine-bar-cum-recording-studio, The Old Portland and a female-owned gin distillery and cocktail bar, Freeland Spirits.

In the southeast, leafy Division Street promises a gastronomic graze-athon. It’s home to Ava Gene’s, legendary Southeast Asian street-food restaurant Pok Pok, ice-cream parlour Salt and Straw, whose spruce tips and huckleberry crisp flavour has been likened to a walk in a forest, and to Blue Star Donuts and its forest-fruit-themed favourite, blueberry, bourbon and basil. Urban winery The Southeast Wine Collective is also here, selling biodynamic, organic wines on tap alongside dishes such as sugar snap peas with garlic breadcrumbs, strawberries, sheep’s cheese and edible flowers.

I dig deeper into the Central Eastside on a culinary walking tour with The Big Foody and meet founder Laura Morgan at Steven Smith Teamaker, an industrial building on the side of the rail tracks. From the outside it’s unassuming but inside there’s a sleek store selling dainty teaware plus a tasting counter, teahouse and blending room. Pulling up a stool as a train clatters past, tasting tutor Nicole guides me through a four-tea flight. Portland Breakfast, a rich, black tea, has notes of malt, leather and spice. White Petal is a delicate white tea blended with chamomile petals and osmanthus flowers, with a subtle creaminess and apricot aromas. It also serves teas on tap, a nitro chai with a Guinness-style creamy top, and kombucha. Kombucha is king in Portland, the fermented tea sold on tap in bars and teahouses.

The three-hour walking tour also takes in hand-harvested sea salt at Jacobsen Salt Co, blind tasting at Coava Coffee and the New Deal Distillery.

After the craft brewing craze exploded across Portland, New Deal founder, Tom Burkleaux, had a light-bulb moment, wondering “why can’t we do that with distilling?”. So, in 2004, he rented a garage and bought a still. New Deal’s signature grain-to-glass vodka is made with soft white winter wheat from Oregon and has a surprisingly smooth, silky sweetness with vanilla notes (whisky-making classes are also offered).

Of Portland’s 70 or so microbreweries (it’s not nicknamed Beervana for nothing), one of the most experimental is Gigantic Brewing, known for its Fantastic Voyage, a brett saison with an earthy, kombucha-style flavour profile, or Most Most Premium, a bourbon-barrel-aged Russian imperial stout, with aromas of chocolate, burnt caramel, vanilla and oak.

Wandering through the wide, warehouse-lined streets, Laura explains that this area used to be called Produce Row because boats and trains would deliver goods here during the late 19th century. At the time, the port of Portland was bigger than Seattle. Today, the buildings are daubed with street art, littered with vintage home stores and play host to a vibrant night market every three months. More regular farmers’ markets can be found at five locations around the city on Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesdays. The Saturday edition is the largest, with 170 stalls scattered around the city’s university campus.

Grazing my way around its stalls, I stop at plant-based, dairy-free Kate’s Ice Cream, scooping up salted peanut butter brittle made with coconut and cashew milk, and retro mint chocolate fudge before hunting out more kombucha. At the Soma stall I sample marionberry, its fermented fizz tart and tangy.

At Eva’s Herbucha I go further, buying a kombucha starter kit with a scoby. Eva Sippl is a German health practitioner and flavours her kombuchas with medicinal herbs: Rose City’s botanicals are passionflower and oat straw to combat anxiety.

The city’s farm-to-fork chefs also shop here, of course, including Aaron Adams, the founder of high-end, plant-based restaurant Farm Spirit. The original dining space, built around a communal table, is now called Fermenter, an area where Aaron and chef Scott Winegard plan to hold classes, ferment and develop recipes.

The new restaurant, one street over, is a sleek space decked out with plant installations. I perch at the chef’s counter here for a Cascadian tasting menu showcasing the bounty of Oregon’s forests, farms and fields. Almost everything is sourced within 100 miles. It can be a challenge, Aaron tells me, but it’s one they’ve risen to.

The wildly inventive menu displays fantastical culinary acrobatics. The “butter” served with sourdough? “We played around with the water we’d used to cook chickpeas.” A creamy white hazelnut gazpacho created with tomato and cucumber water, dotted with fig leaf oil and shaved hazelnuts, is summer in a bowl. Ceviche of cactus and zucchini plays with compressed courgette, the burnt cucumber skin and chamomile sauce’s sweetness tempered by pickled red onion powder, topped with coriander and marigold flowers.

“Peas, radishes, flowers” – purple and white daikon, kohlrabi, snow peas and radish flowers, dressed with flower vinegar – is paired with a Spanish-style cider from Columbia River Gorge. The temperance flight features house-made hopped lemon balm kefir, and rose petal and black pepper kombucha.

Kombucha gets the last word. I make a final pilgrimage to Townshend’s Teahouse and order a glass of Brew Dr yuzu and lovage kombucha with clear celery notes. As I grab a seat among the retro green sofas and scuffed wooden tables, Gandalf walks in – all long white hair and floppy cheesecloth cut-offs – and orders a pot of tea. Sinking into an armchair, oblivious, he kicks off his shoes, revealing holey socks, and opens a laptop. It could be a scene straight out of Portlandia.

Words by Lucy Gillmore, September 2019

Photos by Jamie Francis and Lucy Gillmore

We love foodie weekend getaways, but prefer to save our pennies for great food and drink. Here are our favourite cheap hotels that are stylish and comfortable but don’t break the bank. From pop up restaurants in an arts hotel in an up-and-coming area in London, to a full continental spread in a stylish hotel in Paris, to a cheap base in Tallinn to discover New Nordic cuisine, all of these hotels are in prime foodie neighbourhoods. We’ve also found some budget foodie retreats on the coast and in more rural settings for a great-value getaway.

Pilgrm, London – under £100 per night

Check availability at booking.com

Rooms are small so book the largest you can afford, and if you’re a light sleeper, ask for one away from the road. There are tiny (but very comfortable) bunk rooms, if you’re on a budget, or on a one-parent, one-child getaway. Decor is pared back and stylish, with slate-coloured walls contrasting with white sash windows and Egyptian linen-clad beds, and floors of reclaimed 200-year-old parquet giving a warm homely feel.

For grab and go, there’s a small coffee bar downstairs, by the entrance, that’s run by Workshop Coffee, selling their own blends of coffee, teas and homemade cakes. Between 3 and 10pm, the lounge serves snacks, juices (including Square Root London’s small-batch sodas) and cocktails.

Breakfast is the thing here, kicking off at 7am and continuing until 3pm in the vintage-chic first-floor lounge. There’s full-cooked Pilgrm (with house-baked beans) or a vegan version of smashed avocado, butternut squash hummus and a knock-out beetroot falafel. But the top seller is smashed avocado on toast with crumbled feta, which comes with the unexpected addition of a tomato and olive salsa.

Being in the heart of London, you’ve plenty of dinner choices nearby – from the cheap-and-cheerful Paramount Lebanese Kitchen, next door, to Basque-styled Lurra and Donostia a short walk away. Read our guide to Paddington restaurants here

Check availability at booking.com

Casa Amora, Lisbon – under £150 per night

Doubles from £273 for two nights, check availability at booking.com

North of Lisbon’s botanical gardens, in a 20th century townhouse in the Praça das Amoreiras area, Casa Amora shimmers with ceramic tiles, wrought-iron bath tubs, embellished ceilings and private balconies. Each bedroom in this charming b&b is inspired by a different Portuguese figure, from poets to Fado singers, actresses and painters. Even the cheapest room sings with character, its striped wallpaper, antique bookshelf and original stucco ceiling forming an elegant match for a neat ensuite bathroom (home to an antique mirror and marble sink).

Casa Amora’s cook, Nita, has been there since day one and her homemade breakfasts are legendary, including pastéis de nata, almond cake and homemade jams to spread onto warm croissants, along with local charcuterie, fresh orange juice and coffee. Eat in a pretty courtyard where ivy clambers up sage-coloured walls and porcelain crockery is laid out on wooden trestles. 

When it comes to evening meals, owners João and Luis have plenty of recommendations to share and are happy to book guests into the city’s best neighbourhood finds. Take them up on their suggestions and you may well find yourself in a taverna in which you’re the only tourist.

Check availability at booking.com

Hotel Henriette, Paris – under £100 per night

Doubles from £75 per night, check availability at booking.com

Designed by a fashion editor-turned-hotelier Hotel Henriette is on the Rive Gauche, tucked along a quiet cobbled street in the Mouffetard district. Its 32 rooms are decked out with vintage fabrics and flea market finds and there’s a lovely courtyard garden, plus a breakfast room with a distinct Scandinavian vibe. Breakfast can be eaten inside or out and runs to a full continental spread, from cake and croissants to charcuterie.

Almost 200 restaurant suggestions are split by neighbourhood, from Montmartre’s Café Lomi coffee shop to pretty patisserie Carette in Trocadero. Recommendations closer to the hotel include everything from Moroccan to contemporary French. Even Breton – the menu at L’Auberge du Roi Gradlon features haddock tart with Roscoff onions, galettes and, for dessert, Kouign amann with salted caramel. For where to drink in Paris, check out our guide here.

Check availability at booking.com

Conscious Hotel, Amsterdam – under £100 per night

Doubles from £88 per night, check availability at booking.com

There are four Conscious Hotels in Amsterdam, but the newest, Westerpark, is the first hotel in The Netherlands to be powered entirely by wind energy. There are 89 rooms, Roetz bikes to rent (made from discarded frames), and a vegan-friendly restaurant to try. There are seven types of room to choose from, but all are airy and uncluttered, with iron-frame furniture, light wooden panelling, navy blue feature walls, monochrome bathrooms and spacious Auping beds.

The main draw is the hotel’s Kantoor bar and restaurant, open all day until late. It’s not exclusively vegetarian, but organic ingredients are transformed into meat-free stars such as nettle risotto, tofu cheesecake with dried tangerine, and broccoli crumble. Carnivores can enjoy lamb shank with adzuki cassoulet, huge seafood platters while there’s also a great children’s menu (young guests can pick everything from the “I don’t like that” fried fish with steamed vegetables to the “I don’t know” tomato soup). The signature cocktail menu is also worth perusing –  try The Boss, made with vodka, kimchi purée and tomato juice.

The 100% organic breakfast includes avocado, quinoa and watercress on rye, croissants with homemade compote, omelettes made with eggs “from the happiest chickens” and healthy granola.

Check availability at booking.com

Merchant’s House Hotel, Tallinn – under £100 per night

Doubles from £94, check availability at booking.com

Estonia is a worthy member of the New Nordic food scene, with stylishly simple cafes and restaurants tapping into local ingredients. To experience this first-hand, check into Merchant’s House Hotel, in Tallinn’s Old Town. Its 32 rooms are centred around 14th and 16th century buildings that are rich with ancient fireplaces and beamed ceilings, hand-painted frescoes and hidden stairways.

Bedrooms themselves are fairly modern in style, though the Merchant’s Suite (scarlet walls, hand-painted wooden ceiling and clawfoot bath) and Courtyard Suite (large fireplace, exposed stone walls and private sauna) have a little more history.

There’s also a bar and restaurant on site but location is key; it’s an ideal base for exploring the city’s restaurants. You’ll find a guide to our favourite places to eat in Tallinn here but they include Art Priori, whose veg-focused seasonal cooking is minutes away, and New Nordic pioneer, Leib.

Check availability at booking.com

La Favia, Milan – under £100 per night

Doubles from £89, check availability at lafavia4rooms.com

The four-bedroom La Favia guesthouse, an urban hideaway tucked inside a refurbished 19th-century building, takes its inspiration from owners Fabio and Marco’s travels: no two rooms are the same. On sunny mornings, start the day with breakfast in the rooftop garden – eggs cooked to order, pastries, cakes, bread, homemade jams, fruit and juice squeezed from oranges grown in the owners’ own citrus grove.

Lafavia4rooms.com

Grassmarket Hotel, Edinburgh – under £125 per night

Doubles from £117 per night, check availability at booking.com

Comic strip wallpaper and complimentary Tunnocks teacakes are just two of the quirky touches at the Grassmarket Hotel, a playful retreat in Edinburgh’s lively Grassmarket area.

One of a clutch of hotels launched by the G1 Group in Edinburgh (the others are The Inn on the Mile, Stay Central and the Murrayfield House Hotel) the focus might be on fun rather than food (there are copies of Beano in reception, the distance to local attractions is measured in footsteps and you have to stumble next door to Biddy Mulligan’s pub for breakfast) but you’re in the heart of Scotland’s culinary capital and the Grassmarket is peppered with pubs and restaurants.

For breakfast you can count the footsteps to nearby Swedish bakery and café Peter’s Yard for a moreish cardamom bun and coffee. Just round the corner on Victoria Street mooch around gourmet stores such as champion cheesemaker I J Mellis and liquid deli Demi John – fill the glass bottles with everything from signature malt whisky to olive oil – while on Saturdays there’s a weekly farmers’ market right outside your door.

Check availability at booking.com

Rosa et Al Townhouse, Porto – from £150 per night

Doubles from £121 per night, check availability at booking.com

Though one of the more expensive hotels on this list, Porto makes such a great-value destination and prices include a hearty breakfast. This six-room hotel is a lesson in boutique design. Rooms blessed with original wooden floorboards, cornicing and sash windows that lead to balconies are made even more beautiful with claw-footed baths, contemporary furniture and local art.

Soak up Rosa et Al’s chic and cosy vibe over brunch. 50 jars of tea (some made with herbs from the garden) cover a large serving table; you can choose your own Portuguese tinned cod or sardines; and there’s a dinky walled garden out back where you can sit around tiled tables, eating eggs with spruced-up sides and drinking freshly squeezed orange juice in the sunshine.

Check availability at booking.com

The Rose, Deal – under £125 per night

Doubles from £100, check availability at mrandmrssmith.com

The genteel coastal town of Deal, on the Kent coast, has gone hip in recent years. What sets this chic new pub with rooms apart is the joyful use of colour. Downstairs is a bar, restaurant and lounge full of bright vintage furniture, while upstairs are eight bedrooms, each painted in a unique bold hue, inspired by the bright beach balls and deckchairs of the local seaside, just a few steps away.

Fine local brews from Kent including Ripple Steam Brewery Ale, Arden Pale Ale and award-winning Chapel Down wine and beer. The bar snacks are well worth ordering alongside a brew – they include cauliflower cheese croquettes and Welsh rarebit.

The Dealston vibe continues in the kitchen, which is headed up by chef Rachel O’Sullivan (previously of Polpo and Spuntino but most recently running the cult Towpath Cafe in East London).  Rachel is originally from Australia and, although the menu is big on British comfort food, there’s a fresh Aussie feel to many of the dishes, like chicken schnitzel jazzed up with fennel slaw, and a creative veggie option of violet artichokes, white beans and dandelion and goats curd.

Breakfast is particularly impressive at The Rose. There’s a relaxed vibe in the morning, with magazine and papers piled high and the menu chalked on a blackboard. Vegetarians can fill up on roast Swiss brown mushrooms, oregano, goats cheese and toast, while the Nordically inclined can opt for the Scandi breakfast plate – smoked salmon with avocado, egg, dill, whipped cream cheese and toast. The signature dish is Scotch Woodcock – scrambled egg and gentleman’s relish on sourdough. Most importantly the restaurant passes the morning coffee test, with punchy Climpson & Sons coffee and properly made flat whites.

Check availability at mrandmrssmith.com

Green Rooms, London – from £50 per night

Doubles from £58 per night, check availability at booking.com

After a ‘rough luxe’ revamp, the old offices of the North Metropolitan Electric Power Supply Company in gritty Wood Green are now a hip budget hotel and restaurant, Green Rooms. A social enterprise, it offers affordable accommodation for visiting creatives (other guests are also welcome, at higher rates).

In its bedrooms, studio apartments and dormitories the vibe is back-to-basics with style, with simple white bedlinen and vintage wooden furniture. The hotel’s restaurant is an incubator project running pop-up residencies for would-be restaurateurs.

Supported by Johnny Smith, who took The Clove Club from supper club to Michelin-starred restaurant, the first resident was Esteban Arboleda of Colombian Street Kitchen, who dished up plump sweetcorn croquettes, fragrant chicken tamales and pink and black salads. Here are our other favourite London foodie hotels.

Check availability at booking.com

Written by Tatty Good, Lucy Gillmore, Alex Crossley & Rhiannon Batten

Photographs ©lookimaginary, Alex Crossley and various hotels

First published January 2017, updated August 2019

Looking for Totnes restaurants? Here are our favourite restaurants in the south Devon town, plus where to get the best pizza, wine and artisan cheeses.

The Bull Inn

Geetie Singh-Watson was awarded with an MBE after opening the UK’s first organic gastropub, The Duke of Cambridge, in north London in 1998. Come autumn 2019, Geetie will open The Bull Inn, a Grade-II organic pub with nine bedrooms, in Totnes. The setting couldn’t be more fitting. Totnes is one of the UK’s greenest towns, with a high street made up of independent and eco-friendly businesses, including the UK’s first zero-waste shop, just around the corner from The Bull Inn.

Brought up on a self-sufficient commune in the shadow of the Malvern Hills, Geetie has felt deeply in touch with the land from an early age. Just as at The Duke of Cambridge, The Bull will be organic and run with minimum environmental impact. Water will be warmed by solar panels and heat recaptured from the kitchen, furniture will be reclaimed, organic linens will come from local firm Greenfibres and mattresses for the bedrooms will be handmade (using Dartmoor sheep’s wool) by Exeter-based Naturalmat. Interiors will largely be left in a natural, stripped-back state, with lime plaster and exposed stone walls. As for the food, chef James Dodd will be cooking veg-heavy meat and fish dishes. Think tender grilled monkfish with braised white beans, fennel and oregano, or roast local venison with bright salt-baked beets.

Find out more about the produce at The Bull Inn here

Curator Kitchen

In a clean and bright first-floor space, Ancona-born Matteo Lamaro creates seasonal Italian dishes in the Curator Kitchen, a modern osteria he launched in 2015. Amid decor that’s part rustic Italian and part pared-down Scandi (large windows, painted floorboards and menus written on blackboards) Lamaro serves monthly-rotating menus that are heavy on produce from the Totnes area, as well as Matteo’s home in Le Marche, where he has built up a network of artisan producers – his ‘Italian Food Heroes’.

Typical dishes include slow-cooked lamb ragu with orange zest served on freshly-rolled fettucini; red mullet and agrodolce lentils jewelled with soaked raisins, toasted spelt and oven-roasted tomatoes; and warming Italian panettone bread and butter pudding with orange caramel sauce and vanilla gelato. The wine list is pretty special too: Matteo is the only business in the UK to serve Col di Corte wines from Le Marche, including refreshing Verdicchio Superiore and Verdicchio Clasico.

Check out our full review of Curator Kitchen here

The Curator Café

If you haven’t got room for a more leisurely meal, grab a coffee and cake at The Curator Café, Lamaro’s more casual sister business downstairs. Flat whites, cappuccinos and macchiatos are expertly made with an Adonis coffee machine (using Italian wood-roast coffee from family-run firm, Fazenda UK) and nut-flower and polenta cakes, with seasonal fruit toppings, are a step above the norm.

italianfoodheroes.com

The Totnes Brewing Co.

With a staggering range of over 100 craft beers, ales and ciders (from the local area and beyond) this lively drinking den has become an unsurprisingly popular gathering point in the town. Most drinks come in 1/3 pints, so you can taste your way through Thistly Cross traditional cider after Glastonbury’s American Pale after Bristol Beer Factory’s Seven without overdoing it. Settle into a booth with a few board games and a pint or two of whatever is on tap that day. There’s a beer garden out the back that’s popular with locals, and plenty of open mic nights and monthly vinyl nights when punters can bring their own vinyl to play and dance along to.

barrelhousetotnes.co.uk

Roly’s Fudge

This Totnes institution has been making crumbly artisan fudge for nearly three decades so they know what they’re doing when it comes to the sweet stuff. Huge copper pans are used to make Roly’s favourite flavours – lashings of Devon butter goes in to traditional vanilla clotted cream, rum ‘n’ raisin is spiked with rich, dark rum for a luxurious treat, and lemon meringue makes a tangy surprise. Buy a slab to snack on, or pretty bags of fudge cubes as presents.

rolysfudge.co.uk

Ben’s farm shop

Riverford Farm’s organic fruit and veg boxes have become ubiquitous but here you can buy produce direct from the shop on Totnes’ high street. Award-winning organic pies make great takeaway dinners to heat up at home – try a traditional beef pasty, homity pie or ham and leek tarts, all handmade in the farm shop kitchen. Add butternut squash hummus with harissa, mixed olives and cured meats to the spread. Or, in season, pick up bergamot lemons, blood oranges and Seville oranges along with jam jars to make your own marmalade.

riverford.co.uk

The Riverford Field Kitchen

If you have a bit more time, drive 10 minutes up the road to Riverford for the farm’s one-sitting feasting lunches around large shared tables. Organic veg is at the heart of each feast, made expert use of in dishes such as mixed leaves with butternut squash, feta and pecans; celeriac, onion and white bean pie; and chicken and pancetta stew with braised fennel and purple sprouting broccoli. Fish Fridays sees Riverford team up with Cornish fisherman Chris Bean to serve catch of the day fish with organic vegetable dishes.

riverford.co.uk/restaurant

Sharpham Estate

Take a walk over the hills to the nearby wine estate to try classic English wines with intense fruit flavours made from vines grown on steep slopes that overlook the River Dart. Pair with unpasteurised English cheeses made in the former coachyard creamery from Jersey cattle milk and vegetarian rennet (we like the Sharpham Rustic). The tasting tour gives a great insight into English winemaking, and includes a picturesque river walk and a boozy lunch to finish. There is an on-site restaurant called The Cellar Door with plenty of outdoor seating where you can enjoy fresh fish and seasonal small plates.

Check out our favourite English vineyards here

Anchorstone Café

If you don’t want to take a tour, head straight to Sharpham’s café instead. A daily-changing menu features dishes like tomato and mascarpone soup, Brixham mussels and ham hock terrine and all can be enjoyed alongside stunning views overlooking the vineyards and the River Dart.

sharpham.com/cafe

Nkuku Café

From the company’s base in an uber-cool barn conversion, Nkuku sells its range of ethical, handmade homewares online. What many customers don’t realize as they’re buying its beautiful ceramic cereal bowls or wooden serving platters is that Nkuku also has a shop and café at its Devon HQ. A calming, earthy, stripped-back space, it’s the perfect setting for artisan, wood-roasted coffee from the nearby Curator Café, homemade cakes and brownies and deli boards laid with locally sourced cheeses and cured meats. Its sunny, south-facing courtyard is a great spot to while away an afternoon. And watch this space for upcoming evening food events…

nkuku.com

Looking for a place to stay near Totnes? Find a holiday cottage here, so you can enjoy your local supplies in homemade dinners.

Written by Alex Crossley

First published January 2016, updated August 2019