Tudor Farmhouse Hotel & Restaurant

The restaurant's exposed-stone walls and beams are testaments to the great age of this former working farm in a peaceful village in the Forest of Dean. The menus, which change as new ingredients come into season, are anything but rooted in the past, and the kitchen brings a fresh and modern approach to its uncomplicated, precise style of cooking. Thinly sliced marinated breast of wood pigeon with beetroot and apple salad is a well-constructed starter, as is another of Wye smoked salmon with melon salsa and a tangy lime dressing. Among main courses, sirloin of local beef is sauced with oxtail jus and partnered by horseradish-flavoured parsnip purée, and fish gets a decent showing with perhaps roast salmon fillet with herb butter and confit potatoes. Puddings can be given a novel dimension, with peanut butter ice cream for cherry and frangipane tart, and popcorn ice cream for rhubarb posset.