The Swan - Chesham

Outdoor types regularly make a beeline for this cracking country pub overlooking Ley Hill Common and the local cricket pitch. It's a wonderfully higgledy-piggledy, lopsided building (circa 1520, in parts) that was originally three cottages with perilously oak ceilings, pillars, a kitchen range and an inglenook fireplace. It also claims the title of Buckinghamshire's oldest alehouse.

The Swan has a fine reputation for its regularly changing real ales - not to mention its flowery terrace and lawned garden - but food is also high on the agenda these days. The kitchen delivers its quota of old-style pub grub, but the full menu promises much more. Here you will find plates of charcuterie to share, truffle-buttered asparagus topped with poached egg, slow-cooked pork belly with caramelised pear purée and sage-infused jus, and char-grilled ribeye steak with triple-cooked chips, oven-dried tomato and garlic butter.

Desserts have a seasonal flavour - perhaps English strawberry and Amaretti cheesecake tart with Disarrono jelly and strawberry foam or a summer fruit 'cocktail'. The wine list nips around the world in search of good-value drinking.