If Devon-raised chef Merlin Labron-Johnson’s Michelin-starred Osip, three miles out of town, is his showpiece, then The Old Pharmacy in a creaking 500-year-old building on Bruton high street is its laid-back sidekick. Raiding Somerset’s larder for ingredients is still Labron-Johnson’s priority here, but the menu is pared back, scribbled on a chalk board with deliciously straight-forward plates appearing from the open kitchen: squash agnolotti with brown butter and sage perhaps, and steamed pudding with plums. Take note of its Sunday Sessions, when guest chefs – from Shuko Oda of Japanese restaurant Koya to Nick Bramham from Quality Wines Farringdon – takeover the kitchen to offer a set menu.  

At Briar, chef Sam Lomas brings a deeply seasonal, farm-to-fork approach to the table. Named after the wild bramble bushes of the English countryside, the restaurant reflects Lomas’ roots at River Cottage in Devon, where he first honed his ingredient-led philosophy under the influence of rural British cooking. Expect a daily changing menu of radishes and herb mayonnaise perhaps, pickled cucumber with wild herbs and smoked pork sausage with cider mustard, with Westcombe ricotta ice cream laden with damsons to finish. 

Set on Bruton high street Number One is cosy, but still luxurious. Every detail – from the 1960s photographs on show in the sitting room to the local cider and cheese left in the bedrooms – is considered, and the service is extremely welcoming. And the hotel restaurant, Briar is always filled with locals as well as hotel guests.

When the owners of Number One Bruton, husband and wife Claudia Waddams and Aled Rees, decided to buy the pub next door in 2023 they were set on keeping it as a place for locals to descend, somewhere that’s reassuringly noisy with a wood burner roaring. Chalked up on the blackboard is a list of local ciders and ales (quench your thirst with a Dowding’s Cider, made just three miles away); hearty pork pies and scotch eggs can be ordered; and there’s a packed line up of live folk music and pub quizzes.