Here’s a claim made with absolutely no research preceding it: Bruton may well have the tightest concentration of Michelin-regarded restaurants per square mile anywhere on the planet.
Forget Baiersbronn, Nara or our very own Aughton. For this tiny parish of under 3’000 residents, Bruton is a big draw where restaurant tastemakers and really posh folk escaping London (often the same person, quite frankly) are concerned.
We’re going to be honest here, we needed a hook. But the point remains; once sleepy Bruton is now a destination for folk who travel to eat. You could spend a whole weekend ensconced on its 500 yard high street and eat very well indeed for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with plenty of snacks and sweetsthrown in for good measure. Venture just a little further afield, and you’ll find Michelin-starred paeans to Somerset pasture, rustic Italian cooking over fire, and a nose-to-tail gastropub from British culinary royalty. All in all, it’s no surprise that Bruton is being called ‘the UK’s Montecito’.
The same writer called the small market town ‘post posh’, whatever that means. What we do know is that this pocket-sized town now punches well above its weight restaurant-wise, and we’ve eaten our way through all of them (there’s not a great deal else to do, quite honestly) to bring you this; our guide on where to eat in Bruton, Somerset…
Osip
Ideal for farm-to-fork perfectionism with a Michelin-starred sheen…
Osip is Bruton’s Michelin-starred crown jewel, a restaurant that the world’s food lovers and star chasers make that detour for. Fresh from relocation from Bruton’s high street in mid-2024 and hitting its stride fast, Osip has just been named by Conde Nast Traveller in their 2025 Hot List of the best new restaurants in the world. Indeed, chef Merlin Labron-Johnson’s take on a French country auberge has had quite the year, also coming out on top in the Good Food Guide’s 2025 restaurant awards.
That relocation means you’ll have to take an hour’s walk (or ten minute taxi ride) to a newly renovated 300-year-old former country inn at the foot of a pine forest, just outside the town, but you’ll get a keen sense of place doing so, as you stroll through pastures where your dinner’s sorrel may have been foraged or your pork may have grazed when it was known simply as a pig.
When you do finally arrive, prepare to be wowed. The new space is an architectural triumph – a minimalist all-white interior that flows into a striking glass kitchen extension overlooking surrounding fields, blurring the lines between kitchen and diner, farm and table with a real confidence and swagger.
Labron-Johnson, who earned his first Michelin star at just 24, describes himself as “a farmer first and chef second” – and he means it. Born in Devon, he honed his craft at Belgium’s In De Wulf (rising to sous chef) and time at the two Michelin-starred Restaurant Albert 1er in Chamonix. His Portland Restaurant in London earned a Michelin star just nine months after opening, making him one of the youngest British chefs to achieve this honour.
Of the farmer part of that mission statement, a staggering 85% of produce comes from Osip’s two organic smallholdings and orchard (collectively known as Dreamers Farm). The surprise tasting menu (£125 per person) changes frequently, based on the farm’s daily harvest and the team’s deft touch. On a recent, springtime visit, a dish of raw scallop, Cedro lemon, white asparagus and hazelnut was a real highlight, as with a pork and green asparagus number that served as the headlining plate. And yes, our piss was certainly smelling pungent after the meal.
Sauces are exceptional throughout; the kitchen has a precise, sagacious touch with acidity that undulates all through the tasting menu, peaking and troughing, lightening the load and keeping things interesting.
What’s particularly impressive is how Labron-Johnson has pulled off that rare thing in a modern tasting menu; a meal that will satisfy you completely but also leave you feeling light and invigorated.
You can read our full review of Osip here, by the way.
Website: osiprestaurant.com
Address: 25 Kingsettle Hill, Hardway, Bruton BA10 0LN
At The Chapel
Ideal for all-day dining in spectacular, light-filled surroundings…
Back in Bruton and on the high street, we’re checking in At The Chapel next, the town’s all-day restaurant, artisan bakery, wine store, bar, hotel, unofficial meeting point for locals and designated launchpad for visitors, all rolled into one.
Placed 23rd on the most recent Top 50 Boutique Hotels list, the main dining room is exactly what you want from an all-day spot – soaring windows, sleek white walls, and a massive chandelier cascading glass baubles over the tables below. This Grade II listed structure has lived many lives: 17th-century inn, Georgian silk house, 19th-century chapel, and briefly in the 1960s, a recording studio rumoured to have hosted Tangerine Dream and Genesis. Today, its double-height galleried dining room, with Somerset’s rolling hills dramatically framed behind the bar, creates the perfect backdrop for what has become the town’s essential all-day dining destination.
Their bakery operation, led by Tom Hitchmough for more than a decade, works around the clock using traditional long fermentation methods with stone-ground organic flour. Sourdough is baked every morning in a wood-fired oven built using old stone found in the basement, and queues start to form the moment the bakery opens at 8am.
The croissants are exceptional (and if you’re a guest of the hotel, hung on your door handle each morning), but if you’re dining in – and you should, the dining room is spectacular – then go for the signature muffin featuring Cumberland sausage, streaky bacon, a runny egg, and piquant cider-onion ham made with local Dowding’s brew. Bring a newspaper, order another cappuccino, and settle in for the morning; there’s a pleasing pace to proceedings here that means you never feel rushed.
It’s the wood-fired sourdough pizzas that have become the restaurant’s calling card though, with toppings like taleggio and field mushroom with thyme, wild mushroom with goat’s cheese and truffle oil, and buffalo mozzarella with San Marzano tomato and pepperoni all clocking in at around £15, the dough supremely light and digestible.
Things can get a little boozy here later in the evening, with a south-facing terrace offering a glorious spot for alfresco dining in summer and a basement space that transforms into an intimate wine bar after dark. The vaulted stone cellar, with its carefully curated selection from small, sustainable producers, provides the perfect atmospheric backdrop for lingering over a bottle or two – yet another reincarnation for a building that’s seen so many lives.
Website: atthechapel.co.uk
Address: 28 High St, Bruton BA10 0AE
Matt’s Kitchen
Ideal for the most personal dining experience in Somerset…
Bruton’s ‘best kept secret’ isn’t really a secret at all. Matt Watson has been serving food from his actual downstairs living room for over 14 years, and sometimes it feels like all of Somerset is clamouring to get a table on those exclusive Friday and Saturday dinner services. Throw into the mix a whole throng of roving food tourists, and you’ve got yourself a restaurant/living room that requires booking well in advance.
The bright blue walls with gold accents and mismatched furniture create the most gloriously unpretentious setting for self-taught Watson’s generous, flavourful cooking. Originally from Cookham in Berkshire, Watson’s culinary influences include Scott Eggleton, who previously ran the Bruton House Restaurant, and Keith Floyd, whose cookbook ‘A Feast of Floyd’ was Watson’s first.
Matt’s Kitchen is unique in Bruton in that it’s a venue still primarily for locals, to pitch up, bring their own booze, and settle in for a real good dinner that won’t break the bank. The concept is brilliantly simple: 22 diners max, one £45 set menu that changes monthly, and a BYOB policy with no corkage fee. May’s offering reveals Watson’s flair for balanced, unfussy combinations – a trio of starters including tuna ceviche with sorrel mayo; a main of Coq au Vin Blanc with wild garlic and pickled fennel; and not one but two desserts featuring ginger semi-freddo and rich chocolate with brandy cream.
Of course, it’s not just about the food here. Watson is a charming presence, disarmingly unpretentious, personally explaining the menu to diners and popping between tables to chat, creating an atmosphere that feels more like an intimate dinner party than a restaurant. In a town whose restaurants have got polished to a high gloss in recent years, it’s undeniably refreshing.
What’s not to love? The Telegraph once called this place ‘the soul of Bruton’ and we’re inclined to agree. Just remember to book well in advance – with only two evenings of service per week, tables disappear faster than Matt’s legendary chocolate torte.
Website: mattskitchen.co.uk
Address: 51 High St, Bruton BA10 0AW
Briar
Ideal for the best value fine food in town…
When Osip relocated out of town in 2024, its former High Street premises within Number One Bruton hotel didn’t stay empty for long. Enter Sam Lomas, the young chef who reached the finals of BBC’s Great British Menu in 2022 (the youngest that series) and the 2023 Roux Scholarship.
Having honed his craft for seasonal country cooking at Devon agriturismo Glebe House, he uprooted to Bruton in search of a new challenge. The result is Briar, a more casual offering than its predecessor but with no less dedication to quality.
Lomas has well and truly earned his farm-to-table chops. He began his career with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at River Cottage HQ, where he won the River Cottage ‘Rising Star’ Award in 2013 and received formal apprenticeship training at their Chefs’ School. He then worked at Flour, Water, Salt bakery in Macclesfield and Halen Môn in North Wales before serving as Head Chef at Glebe House. In 2023, he was named in the Code Hospitality 30 under 30 list, marking him as a rising culinary star. The proof is in the pudding, of course, and the baked custard and rhubarb one at Briar is exceptional.
The dining room’s warming shades of buttermilk and brown, bare weathered brickwork and wood tables, and high shelves stacked with plants create a relaxed neighbourhood vibe that feels miles away from stuffiness. Lomas was there and smiling when we visited on a pleasant Saturday afternoon, presiding proudly over the dining room from the kitchen hatch.
He describes himself as “an ingredients-led chef”, and much of the produce used at Briar is from their own kitchen garden, with a second growing space in the hotel owners’ garden in nearby Batcombe. His daily changing menu of small and slightly larger plates dishes showcases those ingredients in deceptively simple, deliriously delicious style. The restaurant also does a fair bit of foraging, reflecting its namesake (a wild bramble native to England).
If this all sounds like a splurge of marketing spiel designed to finesse you of a few extra pounds per dish, fear not; things are eminently reasonable here for the quality of the food. You’ll start with the Westcombe Cheddar gougères if you know what’s good for you. Here, four (not three, it’s a miracle!) delicate bronze spheres positively burst with a luscious, salty cheese centre that tastes just like the best caramelised bits left sizzling on your Breville after you’ve made a toastie. A little onion chutney, smooth and refined, soothes and refreshes.
A dish of smoked trout on toast exemplifies Lomas’s knack for balancing simplicity with depth. The delicately smoked fish shares a piece of rye bread with a little pickled cucumber, the latter a perfect acidic counterpoint to the former’s richness. It’s the sort of dish that makes you wonder why anyone would bother with fussy presentation when flavour does the heavy lifting so beautifully. It also makes you start reconsidering the same old smoked salmon Christmas canapé you’ve been trotting out for years.
Mackerel, just in-season asparagus and a generous splodge (couldn’t think of a better word, soz) of horseradish crème fraiche sings of the season, and is pleasing in its unfussiness. Be warned; those are not drifts of parmesan across the butterflied fish’s surface. Our sneezing fit confirmed that 1. It was horseradish and 2. We wolf our food down without enough enquiry.
The best dish of the day was a grilled skewer of lamb belly. It arrives glistening with rendered fat, the meat just the right side of gnarly. Controversial perhaps, but you don’t always want your meat to be ‘melt in the mouth’. A little give and chew here reveals a pastoral funk of a sheep’s life well lived. The accompanying yoghurt, spiked judicious punch of chilli, provides both cooling relief and a genuine kick. At £12, it’s impossible not to scrape the plate clean and order a second.
There was a leek tart too, that got a little lost in the rapture over the skewers and the crisp Wilding cider that flows a little too easily during any trip to the West Country. When in Bruton, and all that.
To finish, a buttermilk and smoked hazelnut ice cream is a revelation. The gentle tang of cultured dairy provides the perfect backdrop for the subtle smokiness of the nuts, neither overwhelming the other. It’s pudding at its most pleasurable – simple, sweet and savoury, and completely distinctive. It’s all you need to cap off arguably the best restaurant experience in Bruton.
With most dishes hovering in the low teens and puddings under a tenner, Briar delivers the kind of cooking that makes you wonder how they’re turning a profit at these prices. A Michelin Bib Gourmand award in February 2025 confirmed what locals already knew: Briar delivers exceptionally good cooking at remarkably fair prices.
Website: numberonebruton.com
Address: 1 High St, Bruton BA10 0AB
The Old Pharmacy
Ideal for wine bar grazing on refined ‘grandma cuisine’…
Here’s chef Merlin Labron-Johnson from a few paragraphs previous, but this time in a more affordable setting. Indeed, for those seeking a more accessible taste of the chef’s culinary talents, The Old Pharmacy is a charming option. Occupying a 500-year-old former chemist’s shop on the high street, virtually next door to Briar, this venue offers a distinct rustic farmhouse-style kitchen ambiance, complete with bare floorboards and original stone walls. Adjacent to the restaurant, a tiny shop operates throughout the day, selling take-away grocery items such as Roundhill coffee, local charcuterie, and farmhouse cheeses.
This shop, with its countertops made from reclaimed wood, a church pew, and an old pine table from the chef’s home, shares its space with the restaurant’s open kitchen. During a mid-morning coffee stop, we observed a team of cheerful chefs already at work, picking clams and rolling fresh pasta. With the door open and sun streaming in, it looked like a truly wonderful kitchen to work in.
And you know what they say, that happy chefs make happy food? You can taste that joy de’vivre and lightness of touch in every plate here. The ‘concept’ – for want of a better word – is described on their Instagram as ‘grandma cuisine’ – generous, timeless dishes that draw inspiration from rural farmhouse kitchens in France and Italy.
Much like Osip, there’s a genuine connection to the local food system that reaches the plate here – many ingredients come directly from Labron-Johnson’s own nearby Dreamers Farm, supplemented by produce from local suppliers including Westcombe Dairy cheeses, Landrace sourdough bread, Tamworth pig charcuterie, pastries from Rye Bakery, and coffee from Roundhill Roastery.
The drink side of things places strong emphasis on natural and organic wines from small-scale producers practicing sustainable farming methods. Specific offerings include skin-contact Catarratto and Zibibbo from Sicily’s Barraco winery, local Somerset ciders from Wilding and Find & Foster, and Osip’s own cider made in collaboration with Pilton. The latter is dangerously drinkable, particularly on a warm summer’s evening as you linger over a final plate of something rich and salty.
Usually open Monday through Saturday for dinner service only, look out for the restaurant’s occasional ‘Sunday Sessions’ events. These occasional collaborations see Labron-Johnson opening his kitchen to guest chefs for gloriously languid feasting menus. Our recent visit to Bruton coincided with a takeover from London’s Leo’s, bringing Sardinian-influenced cooking to Somerset with triumphant results.
The set menu began with Casarau flatbread and grassy Bosana olive oil, followed by a wild asparagus Frittatina finished with Abbamele syrup that delivered haunting sweet-savoury complexity. Most impressive was the fregola with plump cockles in verdant herb sauce, topped with melting bottarga – embodying The Old Pharmacy’s rustic-yet-refined ethos perfectly. Lamb spezzatino with broad beans felt like being welcomed into someone’s home, while the seada – fried pastry filled with fresh pecorino and drizzled with thistle honey – provided a perfect finale. At £45 a head, the whole thing represented remarkable value.
Website: oldpharmacybruton.com
Address: 3 High St, Bruton BA10 0AB
Da Costa
Ideal for Northern Italian cooking with Somerset substance…
At the heart of the Hauser and Wirth art complex you’ll find Da Costa, an alpine Italian restaurant named after co-founder Iwan Wirth’s maternal grandfather. Replacing what was once Roth Bar & Grill, this Artfarm-operated venue transforms its predecessor’s space into a striking homage to Northern Italian mountain dining.
A suave aroma of wood smoke from the magnificent cast iron grill beckons you in before you’ve even parted the velvet curtain. When you do, you’re stuck by a sprawling, alpine lodge-inspired dining room, and just how much space the open kitchen takes up. It’s airy and expansive, and looks like a lovely place to whip, whisk and work dough.
That custom-built wood-fired behemoth was built by local artisan Richard Dresher, and is put to good use by executive chef Ben Orpwood (formerly of Zuma). Turn the corner and enter the dining room proper for another visual feast – exposed wooden rafters, white damask tablecloths, and strings of dried peppers trailing artfully down walls. It’s a bloody handsome place to settle into, the entrance promising big things from a menu that reads well but doesn’t, admittedly, always deliver.
The gnoccho fritto – puffed pillows of fried dough – arrive a little tepid and stale, which means the fat on the gossamer slices of the estate’s own mortadella hasn’t quite started melting like it’s supposed to.
Baccalà fritto are much better and much fresher, and a plate of delicate cured trout slivers anointed with little dots of smoked ricotta is excellent. They’re splayed across a pool of Aperol dressing that brings a subtle citrus bitterness and an alluring elegance. Suddenly, things are looking up.
The bigoli in salsa with anchovies and agretti is the absolute epitome of comfort pasta – rich, silky and deeply satisfying. The saline punch of the anchovies against the grassy freshness of agretti is harmonious, the bite of the pasta just right. You’d hope so too for £16, but it’s an irresistible plate, make no mistake.
It’s the theatre of the steak specials that proves most memorable – magnificent cuts of beef are ferried tableside on boards for your selection, before being returned to the flames. Our 1kg rib eye, cooked hard and fast over embers, arrived with a decent crust giving way to rosy, well-rested interior. At £10 for each 100 grams of steak, it’s a lot, but any left over makes for a fine sarnie the next day. Or, indeed, a lovely little snack as you stumble home in the dark through fields and over stiles back to Bruton.
There was a slightly over-set strawberry panna cotta and a wicked Irish coffee too, but things were a little hazy by that stage, hence the stumbling.
Anyway, you’ve probably got the message by now – Da Costa isn’t cheap. Main courses hover around the £30 mark, and if you’re eyeing up one of those magnificent steaks, brace your wallet accordingly. The wine list, a weighty tome focusing primarily on Italian vineyards, doesn’t offer much reprieve. It does, however, offer some genuine treasures – from a crisp Ribolla Gialla from Ronchi di Cialla in Friuli-Venezia Giulia (£66) to an eye-watering Barolo Bartolo Mascarello 2004 at £750 a bottle. They’ve included some English options too, including wines from their own Somerset vineyard.
For a relaxed aperitivo or post-dinner digestif, the adjacent Roth Bar provides an effortlessly cool space with its distinctive upcycled furniture and salvaged materials. The bar’s colourful assemblage of objects makes it a destination in its own right – stopping in for a pre-dinner Bacchus to set the opulent Italian mood before moving next door for dinner is pretty much obligatory.
If you do have the means, Da Costa certainly still hits the spot, its handsome dining room and confident, gently inventive takes on Northern Italian cooking delivering an enjoyable, nourishing meal. To experience that cooking (and room) at a keener price point, there’s a genuinely good value set lunch running Wednesday to Friday, £22 for two courses, £28 for three. Right now, that gorgeous bigoli features, alongside roast beef carpaccio and limoncello posset. That’s three good reasons to return right there.
Website: da-costa.co.uk
Address: Farm, Durslade, Dropping Ln, Bruton BA10 0NL
The Three Horseshoes
Ideal for gutsy British pub grub from a culinary legend…
Bit more of a journey, this one, but well worth the walk (pretty but a little treacherous along a main road) in the drier months for the fine, generous food waiting at the end of it.
Just three miles north of Bruton in the village of Batcombe sits the Three Horseshoes, a 17th-century coaching inn now under the culinary direction of acclaimed chef Margot Henderson (of London’s celebrated Rochelle Canteen).
Those not familiar with Henderson’s blueprint and gesture might be a little concerned to hear a ‘celebrity’ chef has taken over a village pub, but as soon as you walk in, the whole scene is set perfectly. A refreshingly unpretentious space that’s almost Quaker-esque in its simple design, with 19th-century wooden chairs around tables on flagstone floors, and an inglenook fireplace under a mighty timber beam dividing the restaurant from the bar. Oh, and local ales being pulled and poured, and a chalkboard menu of bar snacks including devilled pig’s skin and a cheddar and onion bun. Fuck. Yeah.
Henderson says she was attracted by the area’s produce (hey, aren’t we all by this stage?), describing Somerset as “such a rich, amazing place full of incredible suppliers” and “a chef’s heaven.” Her opportunity came when Max Wigram, who owns a home in the area and had known Henderson since her teens, invited her to oversee the menu when he purchased the pub. It was an inspired choice.
The pub underwent extensive renovation before reopening in 2023, overseen by a team including Henderson, owner Max Wigram (former art gallery owner), interior designer Frances Penn, and landscape designer Libby Russell. Henderson has been visiting the Bruton area for years: “I’ve been going to Bruton since my children were small”, she told Time Out recently.
It’s a celebration of the area, first and foremost. “Everyone’s got a Tamworth [pig] or a bed of asparagus they want to sell,” and the pub uses produce “from the fields and orchards that fan out from the pub, as well as local meat and game”, Henderson said in the Financial Times.
Head chef Nye Smith (formerly of St. John, Moro, and Morito) handles day-to-day cooking duties, having cut his teeth at London institutions with similar culinary philosophies. For those who care about these trivialities, Henderson was there when we visited, sending out gratis shots to various regulars, famous faces and friends.
There’s got to be no more perfect time to visit the Three Horsehoses than on a Sunday afternoon, where things somehow feel even more laid back than usual, and just about everyone is surrendering to that second (and third) pint of Cheddar Ale.
From the lunch menu, a grilled calf’s liver, bacon and onion dish was immensely gratifying; you won’t taste a better pile of beige and brown in a month of Sabbaths. Equally good was an individual pie of braised lamb and wild garlic. The colour, shape and size of a Birkenstock, its golden pastry lid was impeccable – that perfect balance of properly flakey and just a little chalky. Underneath, tender meat and more gravy than you’d think could possibly fit in the pie dish.
Throwing chronology out the window, we started with a very St. John (damn, got this far without mentioning the place) salt cod brandade smeared over thick slices of toast, its soft boiled egg just the right side of jammy. To end, the now ubiquitous, quite often tiresome baked cheesecake was dialled up to eleven in just about every way conceivable: the cheese was funky, the set not stiff, in fact quite wobbly and close-to-collapse, and the top an actual bark of burnt. On the side, barely sweetened batons of rhubarb would have been bruising if eaten alone, but what sick fuck does that? It was a confident, delicious conclusion to an absurdly satisfying meal, and it’s not surprising that the pub is already ranked 7th on the UK’s Top 50 Gastropubs list.
And then, for some insane reason, we ordered a sticky toffee pudding, which unsurprisingly was ace. The walk back to Bruton, we have to admit, wasn’t possible after such a feed.
Website: thethreehorseshoesbatcombe.co.uk
Address: The Three Horseshoes, Batcombe, Shepton Mallet BA4 6HE
Stripy Duck
Ideal for a literary pause with coffee and cake…
We conclude our tour of Bruton’s best places to eat, full to bursting and swigging Gaviscon straight from the bottle. After all that restaurant food, sometimes what you need is a gentle descent back to earth. Enter Stripy Duck – a charming bookshop-café combo on the High Street that offers the perfect literary respite between meals or a calm conclusion to a weekend of indulgence.
Set at number 35, this unassuming little haven features a handful of tables nestled amongst floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. The coffee is smooth Rainforest Alliance-certified Lavazza, the teas are Pukka teas, and the apple juice (the same producer supplying At The Chapel) is locally made Dowding’s.
The cake selection, all baked in nearby Frome by Liam Parker, caters to various dietary requirements without sacrificing flavor. For something more substantial, the Westcombe Cheddar and leek tarts sourced from At The Chapel’s bakery make for a perfect light lunch.
What elevates Stripy Duck beyond just another café is its place in the community. Record Sundays (the last Sunday monthly, 11am-2pm) bring vinyl enthusiasts together, while the Community Games Night on the first Thursday each month transforms the space into a sociable hub from 7-9pm. It’s a reminder that Bruton isn’t just a weekend playground for visitors, but a living, breathing town with a genuine sense of place.
Dog-friendly, wallet-friendly (everything sits in the £1-10 range), and open daily from 10am to 5pm, Stripy Duck provides the perfect full stop to a Bruton food adventure — a gentle reminder that sometimes the simplest pleasures are the most satisfying.
Instagram: @stripyduckbookshopcafe
Address: 35 High St, Bruton BA10 0AH
Keeping our feet firmly in Somerset, why not join us in Bath next, if your appetite can manage it? Go on, you know you want to…
