Restaurant at The Castle Hotel

Long regarded as one of the best twenty eating-houses in the country the restaurant in this spectacular building offers consistently fine cooking in majestic surroundings, drawing heavily on the fine local produce and providing an epicentre for good food in the West Country, with Head Chef Richard Guest leading the way. Once a Norman fortress, the Castle is now better known for its role as one of the West Country's leading family-run hotels.

Incidentally, some years back, it became renowned for providing the launch pad for Gary Rhodes, amongst other top chefs. It has been run by the Chapman family for sixty years, during which time the Castle has won a host of awards for the excellence of its kitchens and Kit Chapman's extensive wine cellar.

Richard Guest was appointed with a mission not merely to safeguard, but enhance the jealously guarded reputation of The Castle restaurant. His style of cooking has created such dishes as scrambled duck egg and smoked eel and a Celebration of Bristish Beef. West Country produce is heavily invoked.

British cooking, good as it is stand-alone, tends to emerge from the kitchens with refashioned and exciting additions. The locally culled seafood is quite spectacular, in particular the steamed line-caught bass, served with fresh peas and broad beans. Asparagus in season is served with boar cured on the premises and local quails' eggs. The area is rich in a variety of berries during the season, and strawberries and Devon cream could hardly be bettered.

Artisan cheeses are a speciality of the house, ones that nicely complement the style of cooking, with the locally made Elmhirst - looks like Brie, but tastes seriously better. The kitchen also covers an efficient room service menu.

For an award winning restaurant, the Castle offers decent value for money, especially with its fixed price menus at lunch right through the week and from Monday to Friday in the evening, and lulled by the quality of the cooking and service, you should feel it's all worth every penny. House wine starts at £17 and it is possible to drink pleasurably at under £20 a bottle. Six wines by the glass range from £3 to £6.50.

Their comprehensive Website should supply all the additional information that you might, including details about their bedrooms and private dining facilities.