The Martins Arms

A Nottinghamshire Village and Its Pub

Colston Bassett is the kind of English settlement that rewards a deliberate detour rather than a casual drive-through. The village sits in the Vale of Belvoir, a stretch of south Nottinghamshire farmland that produced one of Britain's most protected cheeses and, apparently, one of its more quietly accomplished rural dining pubs. Arriving at The Martins Arms via School Lane, the building presents exactly as the genre demands: stone-fronted, unhurried, with a terrace positioned to catch afternoon light in a way that makes the choice between inside and outside a genuinely difficult one.

The interior anchors the experience in history before a single dish arrives. A carved Jacobean fireplace dominates the bar, and it reads as original rather than decorative, which matters. New ownership has refreshed the operation without erasing what made it worth preserving — a distinction that rural inns with genuine architectural fabric rarely manage cleanly. The bar and the more formal dining room offer two distinct registers of the same kitchen, which in practice means you can calibrate the formality of your visit to the mood of the occasion.

The Gastropub as a Working Model

The reinvention of British pub dining over the past three decades did not produce a single template. At one end, the format produced destination restaurants with pub frontage — Hand and Flowers in Marlow being the clearest example of that trajectory, where a two-Michelin-star kitchen occupies a building that still pulls pints. At the other, operators retained the social texture of the local and quietly improved what came out of the kitchen. The Martins Arms sits closer to the second model: the cooking has earned a Michelin Plate recognition in 2025, but the house hasn't repositioned itself as a destination restaurant in a pub wrapper.

That distinction carries practical weight. The Michelin Plate signals cooking that inspects well and uses good ingredients, without implying the kind of tasting-menu formality that can feel incongruous in a stone-floored bar. In the rural gastropub tier , which includes recognised pubs across Yorkshire, the Cotswolds, and the East Midlands , this positioning is more durable than the converted-barn-fine-dining format that peaked and contracted through the 2010s. For comparison, Pipe and Glass in South Dalton occupies a similar register in the East Riding: Michelin-recognised, rooted in a specific village, and costed to reflect a local rather than destination premium.

The Cooking and What It Tells You

The kitchen at The Martins Arms draws on hearty pub fare with the kind of directness the format requires. Ham hock and piccalilli is the sort of dish that reveals whether a kitchen understands British preserving traditions or merely references them: the sharpness of a properly made piccalilli is the counterweight that keeps cured pork from reading as heavy, and getting that balance right is a more considered act than the rustic presentation implies.

The cheese course deserves specific attention. Colston Bassett Stilton is produced by one of only six dairies in the world licensed to make it under protected designation of origin rules, and that dairy operates within the village itself. Ordering the local Stilton here is not a novelty choice , it is the most direct expression of place on the menu, and arguably the most honest thing the kitchen can serve. Guests who default to dessert at this point are missing the point of where they are. Across the broader British fine dining tier , from L'Enclume in Cartmel to Moor Hall in Aughton , provenance has become a structural argument, not just a menu note. At The Martins Arms, it is literal: the cheese comes from down the road.

Price point sits at ££, which places it below the destination-dining tier occupied by venues like The Ledbury in London or Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton, and appropriately so. The kitchen is not attempting what those rooms attempt. What it is doing , sourcing well, cooking with conviction at an accessible price point, in a building with genuine historical character , is harder to replicate than a higher spend suggests.

Planning a Visit

Martins Arms is in Colston Bassett, a village with no rail connection, so the visit requires a car or a cab from Nottingham or Bingham. The suntrap terrace makes warm-weather afternoon visits a reasonable argument for the journey in their own right, but the Jacobean fireplace tips the calculus toward autumn and winter for those who want to experience the building at its most atmospheric. Booking ahead is sensible given the village's limited dining options and the pub's recognition profile , a 4.5 Google rating across 382 reviews indicates consistent demand rather than a recent spike. For those planning a broader day in the area, our full Colston Bassett restaurants guide covers the surrounding options, and our Colston Bassett hotels guide maps accommodation for those who want to make a night of it. The bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide round out what the village and its surroundings offer beyond the meal itself.