青色小屋

Neil and Louise Hitchen have been working in restaurants around the world together for 20 years, with their current venture set inside this pretty stone barn. There’s a rustic quality to the décor, which pairs nicely with the lovely warm welcome given by natural host Louise and her bright young team. Neil heads up the kitchen, producing well-priced, seasonal dishes that are so appealing you might struggle to choose – go for the banana panna cotta to finish and you won’t be disappointed. The wine list is as wallet-friendly as the food.

The eponymous John was raised right here on the family farm and now provides excellent field-to-fork dining inside its 16th-century farmhouse. His brother Tom looks after the 400-acre estate, which provides herbs, vegetables, fruits and multiple meats that inform and inspire the tasting menus. The kitchen has the skill to let these flavours shine, in dishes that come with a personal and playful touch – such as a take on classic duck pancakes. You start with drinks on the ground floor and are then shown upstairs to the rustic restaurant with its exposed bricks and beams.

The old water pump out the back hints at its days as the village forge but this is now a brightly decorated, intimate restaurant run with natural warmth by its experienced owners. The seasonally minded tasting menu is composed of ambitious, creative dishes overflowing with different flavours and textures; if you're lucky, it might include the excellent beef Wellington, which is presented and sliced at the table for a welcome bit of theatre. Boutique bedrooms are available if you're exploring the area.

After a change of ownership, this fine rural inn has got a spring back in its step, while preserving some of the best elements from its historic past. The carved Jacobean fireplace in the bar, for example, is still in situ – along with a more formal dining room and suntrap terrace. The cooking draws on hearty pub fare like ham hock and piccalilli; as an alternative to dessert, why not order the local stilton? There are only six dairies in the world licensed to make this cheese, and one of them is right here in Colston Basset – so it would be rude not to!

This rustic and rural restaurant in the Vale of Belvoir is located on the farmstead where Chef-Owner Richard grew up, divided across two buildings constructed using reclaimed materials from the farm. The menu takes a surprise tasting format, with an extended series of generous, heartily flavoured courses that often involve cooking over wood. Richard’s cuisine is informed by his surroundings, with game and kitchen-garden vegetables playing a particularly big role. The wine list has a similar ethos, with natural, organic and bio-dynamic options.