A 15th century hotel-restaurant based in Lavenham is celebrating after scooping an accolade in a respected guide.

The Great House has been awarded Alastair Sawday’s British Hotel Guide’s first ‘Fabulous Food’ Award.

The hotel is among 15 winners of the first Sawday’s British Hotel Awards across five categories - Hotels of the Year, Favourite Newcomers, Old Favourites, Nicely Priced and Fabulous Food.

Edition 16 of the guide, which features more than 300 entries with 40 new additions, is due to be published on October 1.

Regis Crepy, chef patron of The Great House, said: “It is a real honour to receive this prestigious award from Sawdays. To have won the first of their Fabulous Food Awards is a fantastic recognition of the outstanding hard work and dedication that my team deliver to ensure our customers have an enjoyable and memorable time.

“For the past 30 years, our approach to our cooking has been consistent - it’s about colour, balance and contrast. Our simple modern cooking allows the honest flavours to truly express the quality ingredients we source. Food is not an expression of fashion, after all, but a tasteful and unpretentious expression of flavours.”

Mr Sawday said of the Fabulous Food Award: “From hot kitchens come small miracles to delight our tastebuds – here is a place where your pleasure receptors will delight in ambrosial food.”

The Great House, specialising in French cuisine, stands across the market place from the Guildhall in Lavenham, which has been described as England’s finest medieval town.

Its Georgian façade fronts 15th century interiors, where timber frames and old beams mix with contemporary colours and varnished wood floors.

The poet Stephen Spender and his brother Humphrey, an artist and photographer, once lived there and the house became a meeting place for artists.

The two other winners in the category are Linthwaite House Hotel & Restaurant in Windermere, Cumbria, and Little Barwick House in Yeovil, Somerset.