Osip Hotel

Somerset

The sleek open kitchen and floor-to-ceiling windows at Osip might be reminiscent of chef Julian Slowik’s set-up in the film The Menu but that’s where similarities end. This farm-to-table restaurant in Somerset is welcoming, rustic, and cares more about quality local produce and innovative interpretations than extreme stagecraft. An approach that seems to be serving it well. Opened in 2019 in the heart of historic Bruton, it received its star two years later, a Michelin green star in 2023, then moved into an 18th-century pub just outside town towards the end of 2024. Happily, the new property not only has space for the restaurant, but also a whimsical garden, small lounge-bar and four home-from-home rooms.

The food is still paramount, however. Lauded chef Merlin Labron-Johnson is at the helm, cooking up seasonal menus that play on the natural flavours of local ingredients. Appetites are whetted by a menu of just few key words – ‘shiso’ or ‘tomato’, perhaps. This translates into imaginative dishes such as tomato water (a transparent liquid that tastes more tomato-y than an actual tomato) drizzled with fig leaf oil. Or a morsel of barbecued eel atop charred cucumber and a shiso leaf.

Staying the night means an outstanding breakfast too, the central table adorned with raw yoghurt, buckwheat honey granola, hay-smoked trout and more.

Doubles from £270, including breakfast. 01749 987277, osiprestaurant.com

Words by Victoria Beardwood, photography by Dave Watts.