The Mistley Thorn

This relaxed Essex venue  is a terrific place to stay if you're looking to get away for a weekend or even just a night, with a selection of very comfortable boutique rooms that perfectly match the quality food on offer at this riverside hideaway. A former coaching inn, the Californian owner Sherri Singleton is a long way from her original home but has been running this palce for quite a while now, having  rescued a grotty pub over a decade ago and turned it into one of the foremost places to eat in the area.

The Mistley Thorn is not really a pub anymore and doesn’t try to be; it’s a self-confessed ‘restaurant with rooms’ and has all the contemporary style that implies – a dining room where you want to linger, some very comfortable rooms, and the bonus of a cookery school and kitchen shop if the food so inspires you. There are 12 rooms – 8 ‘Standard’ and 4 ‘Premium’ – some in the main building, others in a separate building next door to the cookery school, whiel they also have a family suite behind the pub. They are all tastefully furnished in soothing shades, and all except one have baths (with showers), while two have their own kitchenettes.  They all come equipped with either king or super-king beds, Freeview TVs, tea and coffee-making facilities and complimentary still and sparkling water, robes and wifi.

The restaurant is made up of several connected rooms arranged around a central bar and is as suitable for a special night out as it is for casual dining. The menu is changed regularly and always accompanied by daily specials but usually full of things you want to eat – mussels and chips, great local beef cooked on a wood-fired grill, a mixed grill local fish and seafood. Desserts include fashionable Italian classics like affogato and pannacotta, Sherri’s mum’s cheesecake and a generous plate of English cheeses – and the wine list is full of lesser-known versions of European wines that you can buy to take home at the Thorn’s own wine merchants next door if you want.

It’s an unusual location, overlooking a working quay of the river Stour and easily accessible from London by train to nearby Manningtree. It's also also in a good position for exploring Constable Country – you can follow the Stour on foot all the way to iconic Flatford Mill in an hour or so, from where it’s just a quick hop to the pretty Essex village of Dedham. Or you can simply amble down to the landmark Mistley Towers – Robert Adam-designed remnants of a time when Mistley was briefly a spa town – and along the river to Manningtree, a 10-minute stroll away.