Ilchester Arms, Abbotsbury

A large group of us stayed in the village at the Manor for my birthday and we ate twice at the Ilchester Arms during our stay.

On the first evening there were 17 of us on the second 12. On both occasions the quality of the food was excellent and the service was delivered with military precision despite chaos of such a large group. We ate from the standard menu and it is a credit to the chef to be able to deliver each course at the same time for everyone and cooked to perfection, especially as we had made no booking on the second night.

The steaks were of excellent quality, the stews were luscious, the crab devine. Only criticism was a lack of vegetarian choice.

Everyone who dined with us agreed, without exception.

Drinks at the bar were perhaps on the high side as the grumblers below suggest, but who cares? If it takes slightly higher beer prices to keep a village pub like this in rude health I think that is completely acceptable. The wines by the bottle were very reasonably priced.

The Ilchester Arms beats many of the �top� gastropubs I�ve been to - worth a detour.

13 Aug 2010 11:08