Though Britain is a green and pleasant land all over, the Cotswolds are particularly beloved for their postcard-perfect landscapes and quintessential English villages. Grand old manors like that at Calcot deserve to have excellent restaurants attached, and The Conservatory nails that brief by delivering homely, British food with classical French influences.

In Richard Davies, The Conservatory at Calcot Manor has landed a chef with real pedigree. Richard’s career started at the tender age of fifteen, before he cut his teeth with the likes of Gordon Ramsay at three-Michelin-starred Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and John Campbell at The Vineyard at Stockcross, before earning himself a Michelin star at the Manor House hotel in Wiltshire.

Richard’s fine-dining credentials come to the fore at The Conservatory, but this is not haute cuisine – the menu sticks largely to comfort food, all cooked to the very highest standard. Starters include Parmesan and parsley gnocchi with oxtail gravy and a wild mushroom velouté, whilst roasted saddle of rabbit, beef Wellington, steak frites and pan-fried cod with mash and clam chowder all feature as mains. It’s a menu worthy of multiple visits, especially given the seasonal nature of the cookery.

As you’d expect from a hotel restaurant, there are equally homely breakfast and lunch menus, as well as a very stately afternoon tea menu, complete with a huge range of scones, sandwiches and loose leaf teas.