What the experts recommend

The Woolpack Inn Slad Road, Stroud (01452-813429) Slad’s most famous son, Laurie Lee, is buried opposite this centuries-old pub, and his spirit still lurks by the bar, says Tom Parker Bowles in The Mail on Sunday. There’s a gathering of his books, various black-and-white photographs and even his collection of old beer bottles. But while this “handsomely ramshackle” inn with lovely views is a place of pilgrimage of sorts, it is “many miles removed” from being “some trite tourist trap”. Rather, the Woolpack is a warm and friendly old-fashioned boozer with a “discreetly modern” menu that’s a “quiet marvel” of simple, confident cookery. A mozzarella and peach salad, lavished with good olive oil and fistfuls of basil, whisks me straight to Sorrento. Tomatoes in a “creamy aioli embrace”, studded with pieces of bread, is a splendid English spin on a Tuscan panzanella salad. Even the cheeseburger is a “work of handheld beauty” made with freshly minced steak, proper pickles and sharp cheddar. “By all means go for Lee, but do make sure you stay to eat.” About £26 a head.

Sambal Shiok 171 Holloway Road, London N7 (020-7619 9888) Mandy Yin, the chef-owner of this new Malaysian laksa bar, has been wowing Londoners with her pop-ups and supper clubs for a few years, said Grace Dent in The Guardian. Sambal Shiok, her first permanent base, is so good it will set her on the road to “national treasure” status. Her signature Kuala Lumpur laksa is a “sunset-coloured, shrimpy, umami, soupy face-slap of a bowl” filled with fat noodles, green beans and bean sprouts. It comes with poached chicken, king prawns, charred aubergine – or you can have it vegan. Yin has developed a shrimp-free laksa paste, and it is “unfathomably good”. An Assam fish curry is fierily excellent. Fenugreek crackers with tomato salsa are “gloriously” fresh. We “were in and out in about 45 minutes, but gosh, it was a lot of fun”. Tue-sat dinner only; about £20 a head plus drinks.