The Black Lion Hotel

Overlooking Long Melford's village green, and with the town's antiques and crafts shops, and the Tudor delights of Melford Hall to explore, the Georgian Black Lion is an inviting prospect. Expect full-flavoured modern British dishes with plenty of flair and imagination. You could keep things casual in the lovely bar, where there's a real fire, water bowl for Rover, views across the green, and tuck into the likes of smoked eel and ham hock Scotch egg with beetroot and apple chutney, followed by caramelised loin of cod with Shetland mussels, spinach, and curry and Sauternes velouté. Otherwise, the more formal Georgian room restaurant with its deep-green walls antiques and oil paintings, opening into a Victorian walled garden, is the setting for similarly clever combinations, as in diver-caught scallops with pig's head, cumin and pickled apple, then perhaps saddle of rabbit with Alsace bacon, violet potatoes, parsnip, prune, and verjus.