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The rural pub has built its identity around game, seasonality and a “fell to fork” approach, with dishes led by what is available from the land around it. Game plays a key role, alongside estate produce, whole-carcass butchery, low-waste techniques and fermentation.
The cooking combines technical skill with a clear respect for produce. Dishes are thoughtful and well executed, but the pub retains a warm and accessible feel. Its three-course lunch menu at £35 also gives customers strong value, particularly given the quality of the ingredients and the work behind the food.
Sustainable ethos
Sustainability is woven into the way the kitchen operates. Fermentation, careful use of offcuts, local sourcing and whole-animal cooking are part of daily service rather than standalone initiatives, giving the pub a practical and joined-up approach to reducing waste.
That local-first ethos runs through the wider offer too, with the team working almost entirely with UK produce, with coffee and wine among the only exceptions.
Offer ambition
The drinks offer adds further depth, with a 300-plus bin wine list, the pub’s own whisky and a bar programme that makes creative use of the kitchen’s fermentation work.
Ingredients such as syrups and preserved seasonal produce are carried through into the bar, helping link the drinks offer back to the same low-waste, produce-led thinking seen on the food menu.
Judges were impressed by the clarity and ambition of the offer, and the way the pub brought together skilled cooking, warm hospitality, value and serious sustainability in a way that felt both distinctive and genuinely rooted in the business.
