More food pubs opening across the country

After three years of searching for a suitable pub to transform into a stylish gastropub, Henry and Ali Weldon have opened the Queens Head in their home village of Belton, Nottinghamshire.

The couple have recruited head chef David Lem, who was formerly head chef at the Aquarium in London's St Katherine's Dock. The pub's restaurant menu includes crab and tarragon brulee with rocket and roast pepper salad and sea bass wrapped in basil leaves with langoustine sauce.

More casual food available in the pub includes ciabatta with buffalo mozzarella and sunblush tomatoes and chicken and smoked bacon Caesar salad.

"We had been scouring the area for over three years for a pub with such potential - for it to become available in our own village was a stroke of luck," said Mr Weldon. "It's taken a lot of hard work to realise our vision but I think the results are there for all to see."

Another rundown pub, the Three Fishes (pictured)​ in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, has been given a new lease of life with a £500,000 investment by Craig Bancroft and Nigel Haworth, who own the prestigious Northcote Manor restaurant, near Blackburn.

The Three Fishes, which will open in September, will focus on traditional British pub food with dishes including fish and chips, Lancashire hotpot and braised pig's trotters.

Meanwhile in Hartley Witney, near Basingstoke in Hampshire, a new restaurant has opened at the Phoenix Inn.

The 70-cover restaurant, called La Berg, will complement the traditional pub with a menu that focuses on on locally-sourced meat, game, fish and poultry as well as organic vegetables from the pub's garden.