Where to eat and drink around Crewkerne

We would obviously rather you ate here. But guests staying three or four nights are not going to eat every meal in one room, and there is enough good food within half an hour that pretending otherwise would be silly. This is the list we give people at the bar.

Pubs worth the drive

The Lord Poulett Arms at Hinton St George is under four miles away and is the one most people ask about. Thatched, hamstone, dating from around 1680, with a boules piste in the garden and rooms upstairs. Good bar, sensible food, and a proper village setting.

The Prince of Wales sits on top of Ham Hill inside the country park, about a quarter of an hour north. It is a walkers’ pub with a terrace and a very long view, it takes dogs inside and out, and it does the job after a morning on the hill better than anywhere else nearby.

Haselbury Mill, a few minutes east at Haselbury Plucknett, is a hotel, bar and restaurant across old buildings by a lake, with a large hamstone tithe barn attached. They do a Sunday carvery in the barn, which is a different sort of Sunday to ours and worth knowing about if you have a big group.

Further afield

Brassica, on the square in Beaminster, is about fifteen minutes south over the Dorset border. It is in a sixteenth-century house, the menu is short and Mediterranean-leaning, it is in the Michelin Guide, and it is the place to go if you want the best cooking in the immediate area. Book well ahead.

Bridport, twenty-five minutes away, is the food town of this stretch of coast. There is a street market through the three main streets on Wednesdays and Saturdays all year, plus a farmers’ market in the arts centre on the second Saturday of the month. Good for lunch, better for stocking up.

Cider and shopping

Perry’s Cider at Dowlish Wake, a quarter of an hour west, is four generations of the same family pressing cider in a sixteenth-century thatched barn. There is a farm shop with Somerset cheese, meat and chutney, a small museum of old cider kit, and a café.

Crewkerne itself has a market on Wednesdays and a farmers’ market on the third Saturday of the month, both in the square, five minutes from our door.

And us

We are the pub at 4 Church Street, and food is most of what we do. The kitchen runs a chargrill, the Sunday roast is the busiest service of our week, and breakfast is served to anyone staying. If you want a table on a Sunday, ring early in the week rather than early on Sunday.