Two Suffolk eateries which also offer accommodation have been named among the winners in the first Sawday’s British Hotel Awards, announced alongside a new edition of the Sawday’s Special Places to Stay: British Hotels guide

East Anglian Daily Times: Regis Crepy, owner of the Great House Restaurant in Lavenham.Regis Crepy, owner of the Great House Restaurant in Lavenham. (Image: Archant)

The Great House, in Market Place, Lavenham is one of three winners in the “Fabulous Food” category and the Packhorse Inn at Moulton, near Newmarket is named as the winner in England among the guide’s “Favourite Newcomers”.

The Great House’s food is described in the guide as “French to its core”, adding that “the cheese board must qualify as one of the best in Britain.”

The guide entry adds: ”Enjoy delicious modern dishes, perhaps filet of mackerel glazed with a rice vinegar and ginger caramel followed by venison with cranberry marmalade and pommes fondant. Indulge in chocolat marquise complete with fromage blanc sorbet and mandarine Napoléon sauce for dessert.”

And of its bedrooms, the guide says: “Four are huge but even the tiniest is a dream. One has a regal four-poster, another has a 14th-century fireplace in its bathroom. All come with an array of gadgets: hi-fi, surround-sound, flat-screen TV...”

The Packhorse Inn is described as “a small-scale pleasure dome” with striking interiors, “ambrosial” food and bedrooms and bathrooms that elate while reaming a village local with “a lovely bar that welcomes all”.

It’s entry adds: “Chic bedrooms have beautiful beds, cashmere throws, walk-in showers, perhaps a double-ended bath in the room. Back downstairs irresistible food waits, maybe truffled goat’s cheese with quince and figs, Suffolk venison and kidney pudding, plum tarte tatin with fruit-cake ice-cream.”

The 16th edition of Sawday’s British Hotel guide is out on October 1, priced at £15.99.