Glebe House

Found in a pretty countryside guesthouse, the restaurant at Glebe House is one of the area’s best spots to indulge in some top-quality British cookery with an Italian influence.

Here, husband and wife duo Hugo and Olive run the kitchen, catering for overnight guests and diners alike by way of their evening menu. Having already won legions of fans for his unpretentious style, Hugo’s cooking has come into its own since he’s become head of his own kitchen (previous experience includes time at the Marksman and Robin Gill’s Sorella).

The space is convivial, with dining split between the conservatory, the entrance hall and the dining room, with long shared tables filled with mixed groups of guests. Muted colours, chintzy fabrics and a whole host of artworks create a comfortable backdrop to cooking that feels comfortingly familiar while being challenging enough to force your attention.

Things kick off with clever little canapes such as the house-made charcuterie, that you could cut with a butter knife by the way. In fact, for the non-squeamish you can take a detour on the way in to see the pigs that provided the goods for such treats on your table and hugo butchers and process the meat himself. Next comes soft and squishy porridge bread (made with leftovers from breakfast) and two sharing plates – one of charred courgettes with romesco sauce and one homemade spicy Merguez sausage served with contrasting fridge-cold yogurt. A much-missed middle course isn’t skipped here with buttery chard hand-cut pappardelle pasta. The real winner though is the perfectly pink slice of barbecued lamb belly with a shatteringly crisp piece of skin, a sort of mini Panzanella salad from garden-grown-goods on the side and a hay smoked mayonnaise. It’s a great example of the kitchen’s ability to use building blocks of the same flavour – in this case smoke - to present plates that are intensely morish in their simplicity. It's a lesson in less is more. 

There’s a short but smart wine list, and a range of locally sourced beers to keep everyone happy, while service is sweet and well-meaning in an endearing sort of way, if a little bumbling at times. What is certainly some of the best cooking in the area has attracted a fanbase that can make it hard to secure a table given the four course dinner is only served Thursday-Saturday. If you can get in though, we’d recommend skipping lunch and coming prepared for an evening of food that you’ll want to eat way past the point of feeling full.

Glebe House is a guest house, restaurant and 15 acre smallholding set in picturesque East Devon. With far reaching views over the rolling hills of the Coly Valley, and just a short drive from the historic Jurassic coast, Glebe House is a unique foodie retreat in the heart of the Blackdown Hills - an area of outstanding natural beauty. Though you can choose to just stay at the guest house, most travel this far for Glebe House's fantastic, agriturismo-style restaurant.

The full set-menu dinner experience at Glebe House is only available from Thursday to Saturday, but it's worth making a space in your calendar for. The fixed, four course menu changes often depending on the seasons and when ingredients are available at their peak, and everything you eat at Glebe House is either sourced from local suppliers or grown on-site in the kitchen garden and polytunnel, making this a completely local affair. 

The menu goes heavy on some traditional rustic British flavours, but presented in a modern way. Snacks include smoked eel tartare with butter-pressed potato and a rarebit tartlet with pickled walnut, before moving onto porridge bread, and venison sausage with plum ketchup. For a main course, try hogget with beans, shallot, anchovy and chard, with apple and almond pie and damson ice cream to finish. 

If you don't manage to make it to the Thursday to Saturday set menu, Glebe House also lays on a 'kitchen supper' from Monday to Saturday, which features more casual, rustic options - think home-made pies, hearty ragus and cassoulets, charged at £20 per head including seasonal sides.