Anchor Inn

This unassuming gem is tucked away in the charming village of Ugborough. A versatile establishment, the Anchor Inn is a pub, restaurant and B&B. The team is amiable and welcoming, with an innate understanding of customer service. We booked the full bed-and-breakfast experience and felt right at home from the outset (if only home were a tastefully furnished period property with crisp white linen and a top-notch chef on-site).

In the two and a half years that Sarah and Daz have been running the Anchor, they have created a place which is both popular with locals and welcoming to travellers. The restaurant, as with the rest of the building, has been recently refurbished, boasting a relaxing mix of warm tones and soft lighting. We stayed on a Saturday night and although most of the tables were full, the careful layout meant that we could enjoy the buzzy atmosphere of the room without feeling crowded.

The staff were helpful, attentive and relaxed, allowing us to enjoy our food in a leisurely manner and to thoroughly enjoy our experience. The menu was full of appetising seasonal dishes, but in the end I plumped for scallops, hog’s pudding and chorizo, while my husband chose to start with the pea and ham hock soup with homemade mustard bread. We followed this with succulent rump of Devon lamb and goat’s cheese gratin, served with sunblush tomatoes and red wine jus, and the tasty steak and Doon Bar pie. Our expectations were high and we weren’t disappointed. Both dishes demonstrated a real understanding of flavour, and our meal was perfectly complemented by a bottle of malbec. We rounded off this culinary delight with profiteroles garnished with white and dark chocolate sauce, and a trio of local cheeses with a selection of intriguing cheese biscuits – the charcoal ones were a particular hit.

We spent the rest of the evening in the bar, singing along to live music before retiring to our lovely en-suite room. In the morning we woke up to a delicious breakfast – scrambled eggs with smoked salmon – so we will most certainly be returning at the first opportunity.