Smooth-spined emerald hills, seemingly sketched by a child, that roll on to meet a fickle sea. Hidden coves and inns steeped in smuggler lore. Dramatic moorland dotted with weather-beaten, smoking old pubs, where gnarled beams criss cross thirsty amblers and fishermen’s hauls line the menu. Devon is a county blessed with a balmy climate, theatrical landscapes and one of the UK’s jammiest land-and-sea larders – all of which is put to good use by a clutch of restaurants worth scooting down from the Big Smoke for alone. From ramshackle seafood joints warming coastal ramblers with steamed mussels and ginger-laced oysters to radically locavore country dining rooms evincing Agatha Christie chapters, (just with progressive farm-to-fork notions that have coursed through the county’s veins for centuries), here are the best restaurants in Devon.
The Riverford Field Kitchen, Buckfastleigh
From the prophetic Riverford Farm founder, Guy Watson (the man behind the trailblazing organic veg box scheme that effortlessly seduced London’s foodie middle classes thirty years ago), The Field Kitchen on Riverford Farm at Buckfastleigh is a sort of pilgrimage spot – a ‘where-it-all-began.’ It’s also home to one of Devon’s best restaurants, where organic vegetables hoiked out of the soil a few yards away are whipped up into scrumptiously seasonal ‘vegcentric’ platters. Carrot freekeh with parsley, chicken with apricot and pistachio, tenderstem broccoli with soft boiled egg zaatar, and the like, are assembled along one long table throughout one sitting, mixing (yes) strangers. Bunches of dried wildflowers are strung in a make-shift manner along the barn-cum-restaurant’s walls, as is a chalk board menu dictated by whatever goodies the nearby patches and paddocks offer up each day.
Address: The Field Kitchen, Wash Farm, Buckfastleigh, TQ11 0JU
Website: fieldkitchen.riverford.co.uk
The Seahorse, Dartmouth
Sitting pretty along Dartmouth’s quayside, The Seahorse is a Devonian institution where seafood is elevated to unfussy, unfrothy heights, with an Italian twist. Enter through Joe’s Bar, where a glass of Champagne typically opens the seafood show and drift on into a high-ceiling, airy room with orange leather banquettes and pharmacy-style mahogany wine cabinet. Star Chef Mitch Tonks’ menus shift throughout the day, in line with Brixham market’s morning and afternoon deliveries (caught a boat chug away from the restaurant itself), while classic Italian contingent (the burrata, ricotta, artichoke) is either hauled in from markets in Puglia or nearby farms. Pine for the reasonably-priced menu del giorno (three courses for £30) following an amble along the quay or settle into hours or artichoke and salami antipasti; Capellini with Dartmouth crab or slow-cooked lamb orzo primi; and saffron-laced cassola di tonno or a sizeable slab of bay squid grilled over the fire. Along with its Italian disposition, it’s the Mediterranean manner in which The Seahorse cooks spanking fresh fish is cooked over a charcoal fire or ‘la plancha’ that rouses the foodies.
Address: 5 S Embankment, Dartmouth, TQ6 9BH
Website: seahorserestaurant.co.uk
The Pig at Combe, Honiton
Just how elaborate can ‘simple’ get before it ceases to be simple? The Pig at Combe deftly stretches the definition, while keeping its 25-mile menu unpretentious, unbelievably delicious and fervently seasonal. The group’s hallmark slightly wonky, rustic-botanical aesthetic – chipped paint, terracotta potted plants over fireplaces, mismatched chairs – fills the sweeping rooms of an Elizabeth Manor house, one that has had to lower its nose since the Hut Group snuffed it out. While the outdoor folly offers delicious flatbreads cooked to cheesy perfection in the wood oven, and garden salads sprinkled with the Pig’s own herbs and citrus dressing, the wood panelled dining room is where to dock yourself for a seasonal feast. From the pickled mussels and crackling and apple sauce appetisers all the way to the Dartmoor pork chops and ‘Simon Paul’ lemon sole confetti’d with smoked bacon and grilled sweetcorn, Otter Valley and Lyme Bay provenance prevails. A mixed bunch of piggy pilgrims bed in here for long afternoons, drawing out their long lunches still further with Gardeners Martinis, Rhubarb Blossoms and other seasonal, botanically bonkers cocktails.
Address: The Pig at Combe, Gittisham, Honiton EX14 3AD
Website: thepighotel.com
Glebe House, Colyton
A spec of a parsonage lost in East Devon’s rolling, cow-peppered green, Glebe House appears to have sprung from the pages of a children’s storybook. Having taken on his parent’s Colyton 15-acre B&B, Hugo Guest and his wife, Olive have successfully stuck it onto the aesthete’s map with its playful eclecticism, inspired by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant’s Charleston. Along with this right-on rural design mismash of velvet sofas, modern tapestries and Olive’s own contemporary oil paintings is an Italian agriturismo-style restaurant, guided by the farm’s seasonal bounty and Hugo’s city-based cheffing CV. Fixed menus, running from Thursday to Saturday feature season-led, imaginative combinations such as porridge bread (baked in the on-site bakery), brioche with brown crab, Tagliarini with a cockle-warming monkfish ragu, and deliciously soft roast chicken with stuffed cabbage leaf and apple jelly. Saturday’s remarkably reasonable antipasti-pasta-pudding lunch (£30) dials up the Italian influence (the pistachio and olive cake with ricotta ice cream is sinfully good), while Sunday’s easy going lunch usually hits a more hearty note – chicken and leek pie rounded off with a tasty sliver of Amalfi lemon tart.
Address: Glebe House, Southleigh Colyton Devon EX24 6SD
Website: glebehousedevon.co.uk
Lympstone Manor, East Devon
Michael Caine (MBE), of Gidleigh Park eminence, was first drawn to Lympstone Manor for its wine-growing potential. The chalky great hunk of Georgian symmetry, softened by an intricate verandah, now lords over acres of sun-soaked vineyards – all inhaling the cool air blowing in from the Exe Estuary. The views here can easily summon a bout of Right Move fantasy from dumbstruck city rats – smooth, impossibly green hills that roll on to meet the sweeping Exe estuary below an endless blue sky. Serious foodies take on the dastardly motorway trudge here for Michael Caine’s alchemic, boundary-pushing menus, with the same fervour as art-lovers hot footing it above the wall to Hauser & Wirth’s Fife Arms. Their efforts are duly rewarded with a wildly creative signature tasting menu – a posh, 8-course paean to West Country produce worth packing a shirt for. Expect Lyme Bay crab cannelloni with caviar; Creedy Carver duckling with celeriac purée and five spice jus; Beauvale blue cheese with black truffle, honey and quince, or, for a less formal brush with Caine’s culinary oomph, book the three or four-course lunch menu – where white truffle ravioli, tartlet of Lyme Bay lobster and the like are presented with creative classicism – or a table at their newly opened Pool House restaurant.
Address: Lympstone Manor, Courtlands Lane, Exmouth, EX8 3NZ
Website: lympstonemanor.co.uk
The Elephant, Torquay
Nordic chairs scatter the minimalist dining room of this Magnolia Torquay townhouse – the first restaurant in Torquay to nab a Michelin star and, perhaps, the only restaurant along the English Riviera to maintain such lofty (French) foodie levels for twenty odd years. Indeed, Simon Hulstone’s harbourfront restaurant – a shuffle away from the greasy chippies and arcades – is a civilised oasis of culinary artistry. A dearth of white table cloths and stiff-walking waiters belies the otherwise sky-high standards and professionalism piled into every single plate. Prepare for inventive openers (hand dived scallop with courgette and toffee sauce), fun spins on the straight-laced mains (free-range pork loin smothered in burnt peach puree) and kooky combinations to close to the show (toasted sourdough crème with earl grey jelly and ice tea). Self-proclaimed as ‘the best value in the land’, the Elephant’s lunch menu is a veritable bargain, while its seasonal wine list is (to the oenophiles’ dismay) cleverly separated into layman categories: your ‘lighter, crisp whites’ or ‘heavier, powerful reds…’
Address: The Elephant, 3&4 Beacon Hill, Torquay TQ1 2BH
Website: elephantrestaurant.co.uk
Jack in the Green, Exeter
Don’t be fooled by this roadside inn’s understated (and very green) exterior, Jack in the Green is a trusted local favourite, where Devon’s superlative land-and-sea bounty is placed in accomplished hands. The mood inside the gnarled-beam restaurant is consistently warm and the menu, consistently, reliably on point. Starters could be scorched cod with black olive gnocchi, mains on one visit could be five-spice glazed duck breast with parsnip puree and turnips, puddings, always comfortingly heavy and heavenly (sticky toffee pudding swimming in butterscotch sauce). A bar menu champions the traditional pub-grub – the ham, eggs and chips, and sausages and mash – done well and without the prissy riffs. In fact, Jack in the Green perfectly embodies the down-to-earth gastropub, whose ingredients speak for themselves, and where ale-and-baps and tasting menu tribes coalesce, seamlessly.
Address: Jack in the Green, Rockbeare, London Road, Exeter, EX5 2EE
Website: jackinthegreen.uk.com
The Oyster Shack, Bigbury
Fun, informal, if not a little make-shift, the seafood-focused Oyster Shack in Bigbury is nearly always heaving. A mix of locals and the bucket-and-spade brigade convene under a blue pergola terrace for platters of just-caught shellfish overlooking the River Avon. Brightly-painted interiors, reminiscent of a Caribbean seafood-shack, set a jolly, unbuttoned tone, one that assumes that the food must come first. And it does – vast platters of shells, claws, goggly eyes sparing with lemon slices and salads for space, plonked in the middle of tables with Devon Rock lager or, (gasp), Babylonstoren rosé. Honouring the shack’s roots as an oyster farm, the moreish molluscs can receive the Bloody Margaret or ginger and wasabi treatment, among others, while the great hunk of a whole crab and meaty lobster are left to speak for themselves, with a smidgen of garlic butter.
Address: The Oyster Shack, Milburn Orchard Farm, Stakes Hill, Bigbury, Devon TQ7 4BE
Website: oystershack.co.uk