Cottage of Content

Good Pub Guide Recommended

Country furnishings in a friendly rustic cottage with interesting food, real ales and seats on terraces; bedrooms

A medieval cottage in a tranquil spot near the River Wye, this has much unspoilt character. There's a multitude of beams, country furnishings such as stripped-pine kitchen chairs, long pews beside one big table and various old-fashioned tables on flagstones or bare boards and genuinely welcoming staff. Hobsons Best and Wye Valley Butty Bach on handpump, seven wines by the glass, a gin list and local cider and perry during the summer. Outside, picnic-sets can be found either on the flower-filled front terrace or in the rural-feeling garden at the back. Bedrooms are quiet and the breakfasts are good.

Bar food times: 12-2, 6.30-9; 12-2 Sun

Highly thought-of food cooked by the landlord includes a tapas menu (5.30-9pm Friday) plus sandwiches, serrano ham and broad bean risotto with minted crème fraîche and smoked paprika almonds, crispy salt and pepper squid with cucumber and lime salad and chilli jam, spice-crusted tofu with miso-glazed aubergine, griddled kohlrabi, sesame dressing and coconut rice, a fish dish of the day, venison steak with celeriac, tomato and pine nuts, dauphinoise potatoes and red wine and juniper jus, duck breast with a hasselback potatoes, roasted root vegetables and peppercorn, whisky and raisin jus, and puddings such as cherry bakewell trifle and rhubarb and gingernut cheesecake with rhubarb wafers.