Feast your eyes on our latest round-up of the hottest happenings – awards, new openings and a fantastical immersive experience – in Somerset, Dorset and Bristol.

Somerset restaurant is the best in the UK

Congrats to Osip, Merlin Labron-Johnson’s small but oh so perfectly formed Michelin-starred farm-to-fork restaurant in Bruton, who’ve just been named SquareMeal’s Best Restaurant In the UK. Two questions: Have you booked a table yet? And will they win Best Restaurant in Somerset & Dorset in the upcoming Muddy Stilettos Awards 2022? It’s up to you…

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The world’s first Amazement Park® is in Bristol

What’s an Amazement Park® you say? Wake the Tiger is a fantastical interactive world called Meridia, part art gallery, part theme park, part film set with an added psychedelic twist *eek* Explore ‘multi-layered maze of immersive environments, secret passageways, hidden forests, temples, ice caves and mesmerising wonders’ in St Phillips this summer.

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Hipster chef comes to Somerset

One of the UK’s most acclaimed chefs, New Zealander Margot Henderson OBE of Rochelle Canteen (a super cool restaurant in the bike shed of an old school in Shoreditch), is coming to Somerset to open her first pub, the 17th century The Three Horseshoes in Batcombe, just outside Bruton. Expect unpretentious, heartfelt, wholesome – brilliant – food and a warm welcome. Opening in November. Watch this space.

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Best burger in the UK is in Bristol (it’s official)

Get your chops around this beauty! Bristol-based Danny’s Burgers’ The Beef Chucky 5.0 has been proclaimed the best in the UK in the National Burger Awards 2022. We’re talking 50-day dry aged beef blend, dry aged ex-dairy chuck roll, Kerrymaid American cheese, a beer cheese sauce, Kühne sliced dill pickles, mustard, candied jalapeños and fresh white onions in a seeded brioche bun *drool*. Shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, chef Danny Hawke was Burger Chef of the Year 2021.

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New seafood restaurant and bar in Bridport

Loving the sound of the latest addition to Bridport’s culinary scene, where you can now nosh on locally caught fish and seafood dishes (and the odd steak and burger) and slurp great wines in an Art Deco dining room, piazza or terrace at the Bridport Arts Club. Chefs George & José’s menu is classic and modern British with Asian and European influences. Open Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner.

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