Where Exmoor meets the Bristol Channel, this foodie retreat that oozes personality and style has 'very comfortable rooms with lovely sea views. The food is up there with many Michelin-starred restaurants.' Chef and co-owner Pio Catemario di Quadri 'is clearly a perfectionist' when he cooks a 'really outstanding' no-choice menu that avoids food waste, using ingredients from foraging, the kitchen garden and local produce. 'A highlight was the really brilliant home-cured hogget bresoala,' writes a reader, also pleased with the 'very good sourdough'. Pio's business partner, Cindy Siu, has created quirky interiors, with Italian and English antiques and finds, artworks, subtle paint shades, a Murano glass chandelier, a vintage Brionvega radiogram. Each bedroom has its own style. Santa Maria, facing the sea across a car park, is 'very large, with a four-poster and huge bay window', a freestanding bath and walk-in shower. The hosts are 'very much in evidence'. In the morning, 'breakfast is precisely cooked with interesting choices' and fuels you for a walk on Exmoor. 'Artistry on the plate was matched by flavour – home-cured salmon under folded eggs surrounded by a delicate circlet of cress leaf tops.' (Steven and Irene Homer, Ingle Dawson, HB, FT)