The Bell Inn

With the purchase of the Bell just over a year ago, two Michelin-starred chef Claude Bosi joined the growing rank of top chefs who also run a pub. The Bell is part traditional old boozer, part modern gastropub & its food can be as olde English as its rambling, timbered interior suggests. The bar menu ranges from retro prawn cocktail to fish, chips & mushy peas, from home-cooked ham & eggs to local Cumberland sausage with butter mash & grain mustard gravy. Head for the dining room, a gloriously converted barn with cider press & mill wheel still in situ, for more up-to-date dishes from the monthly changing a la carte. Rustic, meaty duck rillettes with red onion marmalade might feature, ahead of tasty rump of Elwy Valley lamb, teamed with a gratin of Mediterranean vegetables & basil, olive & tomato sauce. The large, leafy garden around two sides of the building is a magnet for both drinkers & diners.