The Morley Hayes Hotel - Dovecote Restaurant

The Dovecote is in a separate building from the main hotel complex - in fact, it's on the first floor of a converted 18th-century farmhouse, bold and modern but retaining brick walls, beams and a vaulted ceiling. The seasonally-changing menu highlights house classics - chicken liver parfait, rib-eye steak - while the rest holds much to interest the palate and the eye, from a starter of seared beef fillet with mustard dressing and parmesan crisps to a main course of lightly spiced monkfish with raisin and shallot jam. Meat from local farms is well handled - witness an accurately cooked, tasty trio of lamb (best end, slowly braised neck fillet and a sweetbread fritter) - and a sure hand is behind desserts like crème brûlée with vanilla and toffee ice cream.