The Nettle

Bang in the middle of town and open for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner, the Nettle is the kind of happy, relaxed place where you can take your kids and dogs – but bring an appetite, too. Breakfast includes the standard granola/berries/avo on toast offer, plus a Nettle fry-up, while brunchers head for the shakshuka or chicken jalepeño hash with fried eggs. 

The all-day menu is a roll call of ‘small plates’ – though not that small – and includes the likes of butternut squash croquettes (incredibly luxurious, fine and crispy on the outside, soft as silk within) or sweet spring leeks with lentils and green beans, while a dish of local pasture-fed beef cooked pink with sweet paper-thin Roscoff onions and an extraordinary salty/spicy pickled-walnut emulsion is a fantastic bold statment. 

Four generous cod cheeks in a textbook tempura with lemon and samphire is simplicity itself, while cauliflower (charred and yeasty) may not be much to look at but the flavour is immense. Severn & Wye rhubarb pie with clotted cream comes with fall-apart pastry and vies with a perfectly executed lemon 'pie' that must be in the running for the 'best-ever dessert'. The short but smart wine list majors on natural wines; otherwise, there are cocktails and beers on tap.