Anchor Inn - Sutton Gault

'A little bit of heaven anchored in Fenland' is how Paddy Burt described this seventeenth-century pub/restaurant-with-rooms, some 7 miles from Ely. Remotely situated in bleak country by the New Bedford River (actually a straight canal), the Anchor was built to provide lodgings and sustenance for workers draining the Fens.

Long-time owners Robin and Heather Moore sold the pub to chef Adam Pickup and his partner, but nothing significant has changed. Inside are pine tables on uneven floors, antique prints, flickering gas lamps on the walls and blazing log fires, and the kitchen still ploughs an imaginative seasonal furrow. Grilled dates wrapped in bacon with mustard sauce is a fixture, but the menu also runs to Denham Estate venison with celeriac and apple rémoulade, baked fillet of sea bass on crushed new potatoes with orange and rosemary reduction and award-winning pear and Parmesan tarte Tatin, along with unusual British farmhouses cheeses.

Some lighter dishes are offered at lunchtime, while on Sundays the menu is now more flexible (for those who don't want a full three course meal, although traditional roasts are still the highlight). The Anchor is also noted for its East Anglian real ales and sports an auspicious, global wine list, which is peppered with intriguing possibilities.