Devon’s finest food and drink businesses take a bow at the Food Drink Devon Awards
Trophies have been held aloft and the Food Drink Devon Awards – a highlight of the foodie calendar – are over for another year. So here are the winners, our Best of the Best for 2024, so you can book a table, seek them out at your local farm shop or search online.
Before we dig in, a reminder that judging for the awards is conducted blind. Eateries and retailers are ‘mystery-shopped’ and food and drink is tasted without packaging, so you know you can trust our experts’ judgement.
Hospitality Awards
Chef of the Year
Congratulations go to Chef Luke Heaver of the Salutation Inn, Topsham. Chef Luke leads the team in this characterful coaching inn in the centre of town. When we visited it more than lived up to its reputation for outstanding fish and seafood. A keen forager, Luke served up scallops, beef and a spectacular seabass to our judges who agreed that it was “some of the best food we'd had in a restaurant in a long time. The flavours were spot on, and each dish had an intriguing element that was judged and balanced perfectly”.
Luke is the subject of our October Chef Spotlight. Read it HERE.
This year’s three winning restaurants show just what a diverse hospitality scene we have in the county. All unique in their own way, it’s Devon’s natural environment that plays a starring role in each.
Best Fine Dining Restaurant
Best Fine Dining Restaurant, High Grange near Axminster, is at heart a rural retreat and BBQ fire school, but Chef Luke McKay and his team provide the most magical fine dining experience too. If the weather is kind, you sit in their Devon woodland around an oversized oak table while the sun sets, your meal is expertly cooked over fire, and Luke explains how he’s sourced your dinner from within “not a 25-mile radius, but five miles”.
A downpour meant our judges ate at an equally beautiful long table in the cosy Shippen and were treated to delights such as fire pit ‘crack dust’ prawns, red mullet, mussel popcorn, brown crab aioli and apple smoked venison loin and more. Rustic, stylish, considered, fresh, seasonal and served by talented folk so that “it felt as though we were being served by friends” this was “cookery of the highest calibre”.
Best Restaurant
Our winner of Best Restaurant, the River Exe Café, embraces the elements and nature’s larder just as enthusiastically, but this time on the water. Anchored in the middle of the Exe Estuary from April to September, this relaxed seafood restaurant can only be reached by boat and dishes up the freshest of catches with “provenance and sustainability woven into its DNA”. Our judges enjoyed generous portions of panko squid, monkfish, toasted mackerel and roasted aubergine, all exquisitely presented in what they agreed was “a truly unique and brilliantly executed experience. Bravo!”
Best Hotel Restaurant
On the banks of the West Dart River, with magnificent Dartmoor in every direction, the Two Bridges Hotel has been named Best Hotel Restaurant. It’s welcoming, traditional, polished, with a pleasant buzz and a “clear commitment to sourcing locally and reducing their climate impact”. Our judges thought their torched mackerel, pan roasted lamb rump and Farm Wilder sirloin were “very well considered and delivered dishes… especially well balanced and complex enough without being pretentious”.
Pub of the Year
This year’s Pub of the Year is the historic Bayards Cove Inn, close to Dartmouth’s cobbled quayside. Welcoming, cosy and rich in maritime heritage, the pub manages to also feel modern and stylish. Beautifully presented pork belly and confit duck were both cooked to perfection. Fishcakes were crisp on the outside and succulent on the inside. With great local beers, ciders and gins on offer it was “a memorable dining experience that went beyond expectations”. They champion local and seasonal at every level, and the service was “impeccable”.
Cafe of the Year
Drive down a few twisty South Devon lanes near Modbury and you’ll reach the Café of the Year, Shilstone House Café. In the grounds of an impressive manor house, and complete with extra seating in a flower-filled courtyard, the café impressed our judges with “the thought that had clearly gone into the flavours, balance, texture and presentation”. Standout dishes included smoked haddock kedgeree, a tahini brownie, and mushrooms and beans on toast “perfectly cooked meaty, earthy portobello mushrooms topped with spiced bean hummus, incredible!”. This is a real hidden gem of a place. Staff were clearly proud of what they were producing and wanted to share this joy with you.
Takeaway of the Year
This is another seasonal venue, so mark your calendar between next April and September and head to The Shed, the outside kitchen BBQ at The Tors in Belstone. You’ll need a decent walk to summon enough appetite for what our judges described as “a fantastic lunch with the most beautiful setting overlooking the moors. A lovely welcome, excellent service and some of the best burgers we've eaten! Juicy meat, tasty fillings all held together in a soft brioche bun and the chips were delicious too”. This is the second year in a row The Tors has taken this title, against stiff competition, so hats off to them!
Food & Drink Product Awards
Each year we choose two best food products, rewarding established foods and the new kids on the block.
Best Food
This year’s Best Food Product is the “tender, meaty, succulent, silky soft, melt-in-your-mouth” Boneless Rib of Beef from Pipers Farm, who produce 100% grass fed beef, sustainably and in harmony with nature. Their beef was cooked to perfection for judging by the chefs at Exeter College and you know you’re onto a real winner when the judges keep on going back for more.
Best New Food
Best New Food Product is Shepherd Shack’s Thai Pork Pie. Not a pork pie in the traditional sense, this features slow cooked Westcountry pork seasoned with Thai spices and coriander in a crispy pastry case. Judges loved “the combination of flavours. Not too over-spiced. Pork and pastry both delicious”. Shepherd Shack are kings of the artisan scotch egg but have also gained a reputation for handmade deli items such as this delicious winning pie. Ask your local farm shop or deli if they stock it, and if not, why not?!
Best Drink
Best Drink product this year was awarded to Ventons Devon Cyder for their 6.5% medium-dry Thirst Responder. It’s a traditionally made, whole juice, local cider, rich gold in colour with aromas of baked apples and autumn, and a robust flavour. “Great apple sweetness with a balance of tannic dryness and a lovely woodiness, with a great lingering finish”. Sounds very tempting. The judges thought it would go particularly well with a local cheeseboard. Count us in!
Best New Drink
Panther, a bottle-conditioned, 5.5% English-style black IPA, by The Cottage Beer Project is the New Drink Product of the Year. One of this nano-brewery’s seasonal beers, is it only available direct from them so snap it up while its available. Judges liked the notes of chocolate and spice, citrus and toast and thought it a very well-balanced beer with good depth and an exemplary finish. “Dark as a panther on prowl at midnight”. They brew on the southern edge of Exmoor, so who knows!
Devon Wine of the Year
Our final drink award, Devon Wine of the Year, is new for 2024. We asked Head Judge and wine writer, Susy Atkins, to tell us about the award and its inaugural winner, Sandridge Barton's Classic Cuvee, so hop over to Susy's article for full details on this outstanding wine.
Retailer Awards
Best Large Retailer
Best Large Retailer is the supremely well stocked, friendly and helpful Aune Valley Farm Shop and Butchers in Loddiswell. Our judges thought their claim that 80% of their stock is from Devon was, if anything, an understatement. But it is the way they display and talk about local food and drink - with passion, knowledge and care - which impressed us, including handwritten labels giving food mile distances. “The whole place was buzzing and it was a delight to be shopping in a such a lovely setting - and knowing exactly what we were purchasing and where it came from”.
Best Small Retailer
This year’s Best Small Retailer, Copplestone Farm Shop may be more petite, but with equal passion for all things local, artisan and delicious they punch above their weight. “I loved this little shop! It has Devon at its heart. I would say that over 90% of items I looked at, and purchased, were from Devon producers and the quality was exceptional. Copplestone is a lucky village to have such an asset on their doorstep”.
Best Online Retailer
Best Online Retailer Devon Hampers is family-run business based in Lifton. They personally select a fantastic range of products from Devon and Cornwall and curate them in bespoke hampers or let you ‘build your own’. You can order anything from a clotted cream tea for two to a large hamper brim-full of goodies. Our judges were impressed with the great choice, easy ordering, eco-friendly packaging options, and problem-free delivery.
Best Training School
Ashburton Cookery School & Chefs Academy is one of the most respected cookery schools in the country, and this year’s winner of Best Training School. Our judge experienced the bread making course which covered an astonishing amount of ground in a day, with plenty of time for demos, questions, baking and rising, and lunch (but notably no washing up!) A passionate and knowledgeable tutor, welcoming staff and excellent facilities made for a most enjoyable and interesting course.
Sustainability Pioneer Award
One of our special annual awards is Sustainability Pioneer. While we ask all members to demonstrate their commitment to quality, sustainability and provenance, each year we invite entries from any Devon food and drink business and recognise one which stands out from the crowd.
This year our Sustainability Pioneer is Devon Farm Kitchen, an innovative and environmentally focused social enterprise providing delicious frozen meals to South Devon resident while raising funds for Rowcroft Hospice. Read more about them and their impressive service in our October Sustainability Spotlight.
Devon Farm Kitchen | Sustainability Spotlight
Platinum, Gold and Silver Awards
We also awarded 22 Platinum Awards this year, to products ranging from vodka to chocolate, beer to biltong, salsa to salami. Click here to read the full list of this year’s Platinum, Gold and Silver Awards, all of them very well worth tracking down. Congratulations to you all.