The Salutation Inn

Inn, restaurant with rooms? The Salutation is both those things really, a classy revamp of a seventeenth-century pub built around an excellent fine-dining restaurant and relaxed GlassHouse cafe. The food is great – the reason many visit – but they're also right on the money with the whole shelter-for-the-night bit, with four bright, spacious rooms and two suites, all turned out in crisp tones, featuring very comfortable beds (handmade locally) and en-suite bathrooms with upscale toiletries. There's no pub bar any more, but we like the first-floor 'Galley', where guests can grab a tea, coffee or a snack at any time of day or night, and along with the excellent service, it's the kind of touch that makes it no surprise that the Salutation won Food & Travel Magazine's Best UK B&B award in 2016. Topsham itself is a lovely place to stay, an old heritage port and ship-building town, handy both for Exeter and the coast at Exmouth, while the GlassHouse cafe in the historic inn courtyard makes a cheery port of call any time from breakfast through to afternoon tea.