The Belfry, a privately owned and run Devon hotel, is renowned for its adaptability and excels when it comes to providing custom built parties for, say, family groups who want to take over the hotel. Owners Paul and Katie Blake make the ideal pair for running a country house hotel of this quality and also open the restaurant to non-residents from Wednesday to Saturday.

Starters feature baked goat's cheese with a hazelnut crust, served with the red onion marmalade made in house, homemade fishcakes and for those who love the old staples, an omelette Arnold Bennett.

Main courses have character and can include pan-fried organic Orkney salmon served with lime butter and fresh herbs, the local lamb, pot roasted with red onions, redcurrants and red wine, or some of the local seabass, filleted, seared and roasted with fresh rosemary and finished with cream.

Puddings are designed to challenge and range from panettone bread and butter pudding, through chocolate and orange spotted dick topped with clotted cream, to individual steamed puddings with golden syrup and clotted cream. Fortunately large areas of attractive moorland in the form of the Blackdown Hills are to hand for those wishing to work out after such indulgence.