3 Best Restaurants in Exeter, The West Country

Opposite the cathedral, this child-friendly tearoom and restaurant spread over two floors is ideal for lunch, coffee, or snacks. You can also sample one of Devon's famous cream teas, served with jam, scones, and clotted cream, or show up earlier for eggs Benedict or a cooked English breakfast. For lunch, try the Mediterranean-style couscous salad (with spring onions, tomato, red peppers, and focaccia), a "Devon fire burger," or just a sandwich. There's a good range of vegetarian, gluten-free, and dairy-free options, plus West Country beers and ciders. Tables are available outside in Cathedral Close in fine weather.

This friendly bistro with wooden floors and simple tables has been at the heart of Exeter's vegetarian and vegan scene for more than 30 years. It's an ideal spot for unwinding over leisurely conversation and enjoying such dishes as roasted pepper and red lentil lasagna; a jackfruit, beet, and bean burger; kari sayur (a Malaysian-style curry with split peas, butternut squash, peppers, and sugar snaps); or carrot and cashew nutloaf with a wild mushroom sauce. Leave room for such scrumptious desserts as "Heaven in Devon" (fudge ice cream with a chocolate brownie and a vanilla sauce). All the wines are organic or "natural" (unadulterated), too.

In a narrow alley off Cathedral Close, you can lift a tankard of bitter in the very rooms where Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh enjoyed their ale. The pub dishes out casual bar fare, from sandwiches and grills to steak-and-ale pies, either in the bar or in the beamed and paneled upstairs restaurant. Drake, in fact, once wrote, "Next to mine own shippe, I do most love that old ‘Shippe' in Exon."