Royal York & Faulkner Hotel

The Royal York & Faulkner is a Regency building dating to 1810, and its restaurant traces back to 1939 when Freddie and Violet Hook bought the Faulkner Hotel - Freddie had trained in the kitchens of Sidmouth's Victoria Hotel before becoming chef at the Fortfield Hotel, where he cooked for the Duke of Connaught. The Faulkner was the only hotel in Sidmouth not requisitioned during the Second World War, and in 1970 the neighbouring Royal York Hotel was bought and merged in to form the hotel as it exists today.

The Hook family have run it as resident proprietors for more than seventy years, and that continuity shows in the oak-panelled restaurant, where high standards of silver service are still the norm rather than a nostalgic flourish. Head chef Saul Vicary and his team prepare menus daily, mixing classic British dishes with modern, seasonal cooking built on locally sourced ingredients. It is as much a destination for a proper sit-down dinner as it is a hotel restaurant, trading on a reputation for hospitality that has been built up, not bought, over decades.