The Best Places to Drink Near Forest Side, by the Record
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Rank 1. heft
Modern British Pub
The front bar still takes walk-ins for a pint and a freshly made pie, which tells you everything about what Heft is trying to be. A gastropub in a 17th-century Cumbrian inn, it holds a Michelin star for the tasting menu served out back, where the chef's foraging knowledge and deep roots in the local landscape produce dishes that are playful in name and serious in depth. All tables eat at the same time, so don't be late.
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A whitewashed village pub in the Cumbrian countryside that does seasonal food without making a fuss about it. The menu runs to things like venison suet pudding with triple-cooked chips and lobster thermidor cannelloni, which is a longer reach than the room suggests. Hutton-in-the-Forest, a Grade I listed country house, is a short drive away if you need somewhere to walk off lunch.
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Rank 3. The Black Bull
Japanese-British New American Pub
A coaching inn on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales where the kitchen runs on Howgill lamb and Japanese instinct in equal measure. The chef's Dales upbringing and her partner's Tokyo heritage collide on the plate in ways that shouldn't work as well as they do. Marina O'Loughlin called it an idyll in The Times, which tracks. Open fires, a Sunday roast with an Asian lean, and a room that feels like it's been there forever.