Restaurant in Tavistock, United Kingdom
Michelin value, proper pub, no fuss.
The Cornish Arms holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for 2024 and 2025, making it the most credible value dining option in Tavistock. At ££, the kitchen delivers precise traditional pub food — including the standout BFG Trifle — in a genuinely welcoming atmosphere. Easy to book, hard to fault at the price point.
If you want a Michelin-recognised meal in Devon without paying £100+ per head, the Cornish Arms in Tavistock is the clearest answer in the region. Most Bib Gourmand pubs skew either too gastro (where the food outpaces the atmosphere) or too local (where the welcome doesn't extend past regulars). The Cornish Arms avoids both traps. It holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand for 2024 and 2025, a 4.6 Google rating across more than 1,100 reviews, and a reputation for being genuinely welcoming to both locals and visitors. If your alternative is driving to Gidleigh Park in Chagford for a formal tasting experience at three or four times the price, think carefully about what you actually want from dinner tonight. For most people, the Cornish Arms is the better booking.
The kitchen here doesn't chase trends. The food is described by Michelin as combining "no-nonsense appeal with detailed and careful execution" — which is about as concise a brief as a pub kitchen can hope for. The menu reads as traditional British comfort food, but the execution is precise enough to earn two consecutive Bib Gourmand citations. Dishes like 'The BFG Trifle' — a Black Forest Gateau fused with a classic trifle format , show the kitchen's willingness to play with familiar flavours rather than simply replicate them. Rich, recognisable, and better than the sum of its parts: that's the flavour register here.
The atmosphere runs along the same lines. This is a high-street pub in the full sense: a mix of drinkers and diners sharing the same room, a team described by Michelin as "gregarious," and the kind of consistency that comes from knowing exactly what you are and executing it well. It doesn't try to be a restaurant that happens to have a bar. The pub format is the point, and the food earns its place within that format rather than sitting uncomfortably above it.
That service philosophy matters when you're assessing value. At a ££ price point, you are not paying for tableside theatre or a sommelier with opinions. What you get instead is a team that looks after everyone in the room , locals at the bar, families at tables, tourists who wandered in , with the same energy. For a special occasion on a budget, or a low-pressure date where you want good food without the formality of a tasting menu, that dynamic works well. For a milestone birthday where the occasion itself demands ceremony, you may want to look elsewhere.
The Cornish Arms has been running this formula long enough to build real credibility in the town. Tavistock is a small market town on the western edge of Dartmoor, and the Cornish Arms sits at the centre of its dining scene in a way that few pubs achieve outside major cities. The consistency of the Michelin recognition across consecutive years suggests the kitchen isn't riding a one-year wave , this is a reliable operation. For visitors to the Dartmoor area, it's a more useful booking than a long drive to a destination restaurant, and for locals, it remains a dependable weekly option rather than a special-occasion outlier.
If you're planning a trip around Tavistock and want to understand the wider scene, our full Tavistock restaurants guide, hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the full picture.
The Cornish Arms is classified as easy to book. Demand is steady rather than frantic at this price point, and walk-ins are realistic for quieter midweek sessions. Weekends will be busier given the Michelin recognition and tourist traffic through Tavistock, so booking ahead for Friday and Saturday evenings is the sensible move. No specific booking method is listed in our data, so check directly with the venue. The address is 15 West St, Tavistock PL19 8AN.
See the comparison section below for how the Cornish Arms stacks up against other options.
| Venue | Price | Booking Difficulty | Style | Leading For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornish Arms | ££ | Easy | Traditional pub dining | Value, relaxed atmosphere |
| Gidleigh Park, Chagford | ££££ | Moderate | Country house fine dining | Special occasions, tasting menus |
| Hand and Flowers, Marlow | £££ | Hard | Michelin-starred pub | refined pub dining, serious food |
| hide and fox, Saltwood | £££ | Moderate | Modern British | Tasting menu, destination dining |
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cornish Arms | Traditional Cuisine | It feels like nothing ever changes at The Cornish Arms – and that is meant in the best possible way. This traditional high-street pub continues to serve up proper pints, flavour-packed food and a joyous atmosphere. A mix of locals and tourists, drinkers and diners, are all well looked-after by the gregarious team, while the kitchen does its part with a menu of dishes that combine no-nonsense appeal with detailed and careful execution. The result is dishes like 'The BFG Trifle', where a Black Forest Gateau fuses wonderfully with a fellow staple pudding.; Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025); Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) | Easy | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
The Cornish Arms doesn't operate as a tasting-menu venue. It's a traditional high-street pub with a regular menu, which is exactly why it holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand rather than a star. At ££ pricing, the format is order-what-you-want rather than a set progression, making it a better fit for diners who want value and flexibility over a curated sequence.
Demand is steady rather than frantic at this price point, and walk-ins are realistic on quieter midweek sessions. For weekends or if you're travelling specifically to eat here, a few days' notice is sensible. It doesn't require the weeks-out planning that a Michelin-starred restaurant would.
As a traditional pub, the Cornish Arms accommodates both drinkers and diners across the space. The venue is described as welcoming a mix of locals and tourists in a pub setting, which typically supports bar-area eating. Confirm with the venue directly for current seating arrangements.
Yes, clearly. A Michelin Bib Gourmand at ££ pricing is the closest thing to a guaranteed value signal in this category. Michelin awards the Bib specifically to venues offering good cooking at moderate prices, and the Cornish Arms has held it in both 2024 and 2025. For Michelin-recognised food in Devon without fine-dining spend, this is the most direct option in the area.
The venue data doesn't include a full menu, so specific dish recommendations beyond what Michelin has noted aren't available here. Michelin highlights the kitchen's careful execution alongside crowd-pleasing appeal, and singles out 'The BFG Trifle' — a Black Forest Gateau crossed with a classic trifle — as representative of that approach. Check current menus directly with the pub.
Tavistock is a small market town, so the Cornish Arms sits at the top of the local dining options by recognition. For comparable Bib Gourmand pub dining elsewhere in Devon or Cornwall, Michelin's UK Bib Gourmand list is the most reliable reference. If you're willing to travel, Plymouth offers a wider range of mid-range restaurant options within roughly 30 minutes.
It works well for a relaxed celebration rather than a formal one. The atmosphere is described as joyous, with a gregarious team and a mix of locals and tourists. At ££ and in a pub format, it's the right call for a birthday dinner where you want good food and a warm room, not for a proposal dinner requiring white-tablecloth formality.
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