Category Archive: Pubs

Dining pubs, gastropubs

Review: The Plough, Kingham

Our latest destination for a Sunday lunch. Since autumn had properly begun, and the day was moist and grey with dazzlingly red and gold leaves on the ground, it felt like the right kind of Sunday to find a really proper wellies-by-the-door fire-in-the-grate kind of country pub. So the Kingham Plough was a great choice, …

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Review: The White Hart, Somerton

Deep in the Somerset countryside, surrounded by villages glorying in such names as Curry Rivel, Westonzoyland, Butleigh Wootton, Long Load, West Camel and Muchelney Ham (honestly, all within 5 miles!), the sleepy little town of Somerton seems to have gotten off lightly. It was actually once the ancient capital of Wessex and gave its name …

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Review: The George, Alstonefield, Peak District

The George, Alstonefield

If you’re staying in that charming part of the Peak District between Dove Dale and the Manifold Valley, don’t whatever you do waste your time and money with the Royal Oak in Whetton. My steak was just horrible, almost textureless and it tasted… boiled?! “Ah yes,” our B&B hostess reliably informed us, “they keep their …

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Review: The Dogs, Edinburgh

The Dogs is one of those great little finds, someone cooking good food without pretension in a kinda ramshackle and unexpected corner of a city. I’m reminded of Strathvagin in Glasgow. Dogs are a very literal theme, from the front door all the way up the old staircase, and into the bar and dining room …

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Review: The Black Swan, North Yorks

They seem to be having a good time at the Black Swan, rummaging the fields and hedgerows for wild ingredients and making all kinds of concoctions and decoctions out of them. As it was a balmy day I enjoyed a bright green and refreshing glass of apple marigold lemonade to begin with. Other enticing cordials …

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