The Ingham Swan

When it's cold outside, and the wind blows across the marshes just to the east of Stalham, there's no better place to be than sitting down to a meal at the Ingham Swan, a lovely old pub that has been turned into a renowned restaurant with rooms by chef-patron Daniel Smith, who has updated the stonewalled and beamed interior perfectly to showcase his high quality Modern British cooking.  You can come in here for a drink, but it's primarily a place to eat, as well as having some very comfortable boutique rooms next door if you fancy staying a little longer – somethingwe would thoroughly recommend.

The style is in keeping with the building – a thatched, originally 14th -century pub with big fireplaces, bare flint and brick walls and ancient wooden beams that mercifully survived a fire a few years ago. It has two smallish dining rooms plus a few tables on a terrace behind the pub for sunny days. It’s not a cheap place to eat, with most main courses around the £30 mark, but they do various set-price menus including a 7-course taster menu that gives a good sample of the principal a la carte offerings. The food is really good – classic in style and inspiration, with big flavours based on high-quality, often local ingredients. Breakfast is a short and simple menu, with toast and cereals, a good Full English and smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.

They have seven rooms, four in the converted stables next door, and three more in one of the cottages in the same terrace. They are contemporary and ever-so-slightly retro, with exposed brick walls, cool greys and neutral tones – all very simple and understated, as if to say that while the rooms are very comfortable, it’s the food that’s the real deal here. The rooms vary in size and come with tea/coffee, kettles and Nespresso machines, complimentary water and biccies, wifi and smart TVs. The bathrooms are right up-to-date, with toiletries and powerful showers.

Looking out over flat fields and big skies and marked by the impressive medieval bulk of Ingham’s Holy Trinity church and leafy churchyard, you couldn’t ask for a more authentically Norfolk location than this. There’s nothing much nearby, apart from lots of lovely footpaths, but that’s very much the point: you can walk cross-country as far as the nearby coast if you want; or just jump in the car and visit the unique, privately owned Old Vicarage gardens at East Ruston, whose owners – Alan Gray and Graham Robeson – are regulars at the restaurant.