The Michelin-starred pub offering ‘proper country food’ located 40 minutes from Coventry

If you are looking for high-quality cooking in a cosy setting, look no further than The Royal Oak in Warwickshire. The pub resides on the edge of the Cotswolds, 40 minutes away from Coventry.

The Royal Oak initially started as a drinks shelter to cater for the workmen building the local church and is supposedly one of the oldest pubs in the country. The award-winning pub is characterful with a great ambience, from the welcoming bar to the bright, airy dining room.

The pub is listed on the Top 50 Gastropubs website and is located within a rural area in a small village called Whatcote, outside Shipston on Stour. It is just 20 minutes from Stratford-Upon-Avon.

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The owner is chef Richard Craven, who runs the pub with his wife Solanche who looks after the service. Richard has a passion for British produce and follows a high farm-to-fork ethos with his dishes, with food coming from small producers in and around the nearby hills and estates and tends to favour organic and wild ingredients.

The team use the renowned Paddock Farm which provides eggs from its super-free range flock, housed less than a mile away from the pub. The pub also uses market garden no-dig vegetables, and rare breed pork and Hereford cattle.

The menu is seasonally driven and is said to be ‘proper country food’ according to Richard, with wild meats and foraged ingredients from the local area. Their aim is to tell the story of the community through the produce and how the ingredients are utilised to their full potential. Understated dishes are curated with care and delicacy – most have three to four elements, which allows each ingredient to shine.