The 10 best UK restaurants with rooms

Is a long countryside walk followed by a well-cooked, homely meal your idea of the perfect weekend? Ours too. And in our minds, the only way to make it better is knowing that a bed for the night lies only a few metres away.

Here are the top 10 best UK restaurants with rooms, taken from The Good Hotel Guide 2018.

Little Barwick House, Barwick, Somerset

The bedrooms at Tim and Emma Ford’s Georgian dower house may be luxurious, but food is the highlight. Chef Tim focuses on the quality and seasonality of ingredients, this can be seen in dishes such as pan-fried Cornish red mullet with basil crushed new potatoes and saffron sauce. Exceptional wines are available by the glass. Breakfast is delicious, too.

Read’s, Faversham, Kent
In the Garden of England, Rona and David Pitchford’s Georgian manor is a favourite. David’s seasonal dishes draw on produce from the kitchen garden, fish from Whitstable and local game. Menus are laced with humour – ‘lamb, lamb, lamb, lamb and lamb’ with fricassee of peas, broad beans and rosemary jus. The six spacious bedrooms have traditional decor, and antiques.

The Black Swan, Oldstead, North Yorkshire
The extensive kitchen garden at The Black Swan gets almost as much attention as the Michelin-starred restaurant (but that’s changed a bit after being voted ‘best restaurant in the world  2017’ by its customers on Tripadvisor). Local farmers Tom and Ann Banks own the former pub, while their sons James and Tommy can be found front-of-house and in the kitchen. Home-grown produce stars in Tommy’s dishes, along with locally sourced, preserved and foraged ingredients. This can be seen in dishes like raw red deer, rhubarb-cured scallop and monkfish with hen-of-the-woods.

The Crown and Castle, Orford, Suffolk
Switch off your mobile and relax. Ruth Watson, David Watson and Tim Sunderland want guests to focus on convivial company and the pleasures of the table. Ruth is the executive chef and driving force. In the kitchen Robert Walpole and Charlene Gavazzi use a wealth of local produce in their dishes – slow-roast Dingley Dell pork belly and Orford-landed skate, sautéed grapes and almonds, black butter are just two examples from the cleverly crafted menu.

Tuddenham Mill, Tuddenham, Suffolk
The accomplished modern cooking at this 243-year-old Suffolk mill is a fine match for the impressive bedrooms and Hobbit-esque nooks spread throughout the tranquil grounds. Chef Lee Bye cooks compelling, yet accessible dishes such as sea trout with beetroot and smoked roe or Breckland lamb with St Edmunds ale. Enjoy breakfast while watching the swans on the stream, then borrow a bicycle to work off all that feasting.

The Three Chimneys and the House Over-By, Dunvegan, Isle of Skye
In 1984, Shirley and Eddie Spear moved to Skye to open a modest bistro. Thirty-four years, a Michelin star and an OBE later, this is one of Scotland’s most acclaimed restaurants. Nordic-inspired menus draw on produce farmed, fished and foraged on the island. We recommend you sample the seaweed-cured salmon, Loch Harport oysters and Dunvegan langoustines.

The Peat Inn, Peat Inn, Cupar
Geoffrey Smeddle, Michelin-starred chef and food columnist, is kitchen supremo while his wife, Katherine, runs front-of-house. The menus are a showcase of classical techniques with a modern spin: 12-hour braised daube of Scotch beef with smoked potato purée, wild garlic, tomato confit or roast brill with potato galette, samphire, wild asparagus and champagne velouté.

The Hardwick, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
Having honed his skills in top kitchens Stephen Terry and his wife, Joanna, took on and transformed this one-time roadside pub. Local produce is the bedrock of menus short on drivel and long on dishes. Typical offerings include duck hash with fried local duck egg or roast plaice on the bone with monk’s beard, capers, brown butter and shrimp. Bedrooms in a courtyard annexe are Scandi-smart, modern and comfortable.

Tyddyn Llan, Llandrillo, Denbighshire
You’ll find a relaxed atmosphere and Michelin-starred cooking at Bryan and Susan Webb’s former shooting lodge, in rural north Wales. The hostess presides over the pretty dining room while the chef cooks deceptively simple dishes such as aged Welsh Black beef steak au poivre and chips. Country-style bedrooms over-look the quaint garden.