4 Best Restaurants in The South, England

If you're after complete tranquility, head for this early-17th-century house surrounded by two acres of grounds in the Nadder Valley. The excellent restaurant has fixed-price menus specializing in contemporary English cooking using local and seasonal ingredients (some from the kitchen garden), such as a pan-seared fillet of wild brill or roast loin of Wiltshire venison. The style is traditional and smart, and a terrace provides alfresco dining overlooking the tidy lawns in summer. Nine comfortable guest rooms may tempt you into forgoing the 10-mile drive back to Salisbury.

Owned by chef Kevin Bingham (who lives upstairs) and his family, this 35-seat global French restaurant serving only set-price six-course tasting menus (£65) for the whole table is very much a personal vision, with Bingham's sophisticated, technically assured take on French classics (expect gels, foams, "soil," and smears) winning rave reviews (and now a Michelin listing). The set menus change daily according to what fresh ingredients are available, but dishes might include blackened beef sirloin with cavolo nero, a starter of whipped goat cheese with rhubarb and pistachio, or roast halibut with king prawn and wild garlic. The three-course Sunday lunch is a deal at £45. There's also an extensive, well-chosen wine list.

This small but acclaimed seafood restaurant attached to a fishmongers' specializes in innovative fish cuisine using the freshest ingredients. Options change daily but might include dishes like roast Devon hake with chorizo, parsnip, and wild garlic or sea-cured mackerel with puffed rice, kombu, and ponzu sauce. There are three set-price dinner menus, ranging from four-course (£55) to 8-course (£95), and three at lunch, starting at £23 for two courses. There are only 10 tables so reservations are recommended.

Oak-beamed ceilings, exposed stone walls, and inglenook fireplaces add to the charm of this restaurant in a 300-year-old former shepherd's cottage across the road from where Thomas Hardy went to school. It specializes in set menus featuring superior modern French cooking using locally sourced produce, with dishes like Portland crab salad, sticky braised beef brisket, and beetroot Wellington with eggplant caviar. Sunday lunch and afternoon tea are also available. Eight comfortable bedrooms are available in an extension overlooking gardens or fields. Lower Bockhampton is signposted off the A35, 1½ miles east of Dorchester.