This short article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK)
A couple of years earlier, clubs were for pints, and the food, when used, tended to be basic and stodgy. British cooking culture altered permanently in 1991 when The Eagle opened its doors in London's Clerkenwell and created the term ‘gastropub'; its focus on premium dining as well as drinking raised the bar.
Today, numerous British boozers count a Michelin star– or more, when it comes to Tom Kerridge's Hand & & Flowers in Marlow. Leading chefs are happily providing themselves as publicans, from Adam Handling (Tartan Fox, Cornwall) and Tommy Banks (The Abbey Inn, North Yorkshire) to Heston Blumenthal, whose Hinds Head in Bray has actually been granted Best Pub for Food in the Great British Pub Awards 2024.
A few of the inns on our list are raising pub-grub classics, others restoring lost local dishes or perhaps presenting global flavours to their meals. What you can rely on, though, are filling productions, typically made from seasonal, regional fruit and vegetables, in an unwinded setting– with roaring fires, flagstone floorings and oak beams basically a requirement.
1. The Standard Inn, Cornwall
Live-fire cooking and Cornish seaside fruit and vegetables shine in this just recently brought back freehouse. Image Roseland Peninsula hispi cabbage and black garlic, moorland lamb and signature ‘pillow' flatbreads all completely charred outdoors grill, then feasted on in firelit snugs or the suntrap beer garden, depending upon the season. The Sunday roasts are suitabled for a king– apt, given that regional legend states Henry VIII as soon as went to the inn– accompanied by family-style barrels of veg and homemade sauces. The fairly priced lunch menu of crowd-pleasers– consisting of a grilled Cornish farmhouse cheddar sandwich– and substantial genuine ale choice make sure the regional neighborhood keeps can be found in addition to the down-from-London crowd. Mains from ₤ 12.
2. The Hinds Head, Bray
This Berkshire boozer just recently won at the Great British Pub Awards, accompanying its 20th birthday as a gastropub, and contributing to its longstanding Michelin star. As you may anticipate from a bar owned by Heston Blumenthal (the head chef is Edoardo Brambilla), sentimental meals are reimagined with a spirited wink and technical wizardry. Take the trembling pudding, a wobbling nutmeg- and cinnamon-infused advancement of a middle ages custard-based sweet. The oak-beamed, dark-walled structure, initially a searching lodge, provides Blumenthal's signature dishes– such as runny-yolked Scotch eggs and triple-cooked chips, which have actually stimulated numerous replicas in gastropubs across the country– a fittingly theatrical background. Mains from ₤ 31.
Bars throughout the UK are raising the dining experience, providing top quality meals from intricate beef wellingtons to indulgent sticky date and walnut puddings, as seen at the Hind's Head.
Picture by Lola Laurent (Top) (Left) and Photograph by Rebecca Dickson (Bottom) (Right)
3. The Gunton Arms, Norfolk
Set within a 1,000-acre deer park, The Gunton Arms raises its own venison; sample this star active ingredient in swank sausage rolls or a warming stew.
