Vast improvements in restaurants in British and Irish pubs, and the dawn of the gastro-pub, have meant that the best eating options in the UK and Ireland are no longer confined to restaurants proper. These days you're as likely to get as good a meal – and in some cases a substantially better one – in a pub as anywhere else.
The annual appearance of the Michelin Eating Out in Pubs guide shows that not only do the gastro-police at Michelin take British and Irish pubs seriously, so too does the public who continue to buy the guide in numbers. The 2011 edition reviews over 500 of the best dining pubs in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland. If you bought the 2010 edition you might still want to update to this new one, as it includes 70 new entries. It would have been helpful to have a list of those new entries, so food–lovers can easily find the places where exciting things are happening in the world of good pub dining.
Michelin's Pub of the Year
Each year the guide selects its Pub of the Year, and it should be no surprise that this time they've chosen Heston Blumenthal's pub, the Hinds Head. The pub is in Bray, close to Blumenthal's multi-award-winning restaurant The Fat Duck (3 Michelin Stars, 10/10 in The Good Food Guide). The pub was built in the 15th century and is a delightful building even without Blumenthal's influence in the kitchens. The menu is very different from that in the Fat Duck, as here Blumenthal wanted to preserve traditional pub dishes, but cook them impeccably using his radical modern techniques. So at the Hinds Head there are dishes like pea and ham soup, oxtail and kidney pudding, and the desserts include strawberry trifle and Sussex Pond pudding.
Best Dining Pubs: Review Format
Thankfully the editors of the guide haven't interfered with a winning format. Each pub gets a full-page entry with a photo, contact details (including website), a note of the beers served, closing times, typical prices, location and parking information, a note of any accommodation, a lengthy write-up, and a graphic of a blackboard showing a typical starter, main course and dessert. It's everything you need, and enough of a review to give you a definite flavour (so to speak) of the place. With over 500 entries the guide therefore runs to 600+ pages, with useful maps, indexes, introductions and a two-page spread about beer in the UK and Ireland.
Great Dining Pub in Scotland Omitted
One oversight has to be the non-inclusion of the wonderful Sun Inn in Dalkeith, which was voted the Scottish Gastro-Pub of the Year in 2010. I recently had one of the best pub meals I've ever had in my life at the Sun Inn, yet the Michelin men seem to have missed it. Next year, hopefully...
Michelin Eating Out in Pubs 2011
This Michelin guide to pubs with good food is one of my favourite dining guides when traveling round the UK, along with the Good Food Guide and the full Michelin Guide to Hotels and Restaurants in Britain and Ireland. Michelin's Eating Out in Pubs 2011 costs £14.99 in the UK.
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Mike Gerrard - Mike is an award-winning travel writer who has worked for National Geographic, the London Times, and many other clients. ...
