The Cornish Arms in Tavistock has won best dining pub at the Food Magazine’s Food Reader Awards 2023.

The popular Tavistock pub, based on West Street, beat other South West-based finalists in the category such as the Eversfield Organic Dartmoor Inn in Merrivale, the Rising Sun in Truro and The Talbot Inn in Mells.

The awards this year saw a total of 100,000 votes cast by members of the public, with winners revealed at a celebratory meal and awards ceremony at Nancarrow Farm in Cornwall in May where finalists and industry insiders enjoyed a multi-course feast which included rustic dishes such as wood-roasted dayboat fish with asparagus, roasted chicken aioli and gribiche and whipped pannacotta, served with strawberry, elderflower and marigold. Cornish Arms chefs Will Ride and Ashley Webb attended the ceremony where they found out the pub had won.

Assistant manager Bob Finbow said: ‘We had three tickets to go so Will and Ashley went down. The magazine contacted us in advance to let us know we had been shortlisted and that the public had been voting for us. It’s great to receive this award — we’re over the moon. We never go into something expecting to win and we were up against some really good pubs too. We were really happy to be involved and to win was just a huge boost. We’d like to thank everyone who voted for us and extend our congratulations to the nominees and winners in the other categories too.'