Michelin Eating Out in Pubs 2012
The 2012 edition of the Michelin Eating Out in Pubs guide is now available in bookshops and online priced at £13.99 (€16.99 in Ireland).
This year’s guide recommends more than 530 pubs, spread across all parts of the country and selected for the quality of their food. Among these pubs are 86 new entries for 2012; this and the announcement in October that The Hand and Flowers in Marlow had become the first pub in the UK to receive two Michelin stars, means that there are plenty of good-news stories about the British pub.
Editor Rebecca Burr said: “We can all feel justly proud of our pubs and the way they have adapted to changing times. The pubs in our guide offer great food, often at competitive prices, and our inspectors keep discovering more and more of them. These pubs make terrific use of local produce and often champion regional specialities – some have taken to keeping their own livestock out the back and even the lowly bar snack has been getting a makeover.
“All the elements that we feel make up a good pub are represented in our Pub of the Year, The Pipe and Glass Inn, in South Dalton. It’s personally run by James and Kate Mackenzie and their charming young team; they use local suppliers as well as produce from their own garden, the cooking is refined yet hearty and they never forget that theirs is a pub, not a restaurant.”
Each entry in the guide comes with an in-depth description, a colour photograph and information about the style of cooking on offer and the real ales served. The guide also highlights ‘Inspectors’ favourites’ which are those pubs that are extra special, because of their setting or character, the charming service or the exceptional quality of their cooking.
Many of the pubs in the guide also offer accommodation and here there has been an enormous improvement in general standards over the last few years. Pub bedrooms are often now a match for any hotel, in terms of their comfort and style.
“Our pubs are now the jewels of the hospitality industry,” concluded Rebecca Burr.
