The story
Glebe House is a guest house, farm-to-table restaurant, and 15-acre smallholding set in the rolling hills of the Coly Valley in East Devon. The kitchen is the heart of the property, and its cooking is deeply rooted in the surrounding landscape. The food is heavily inspired by the country cooking of Italy and France, while remaining firmly of Devon. This is country cooking that lets the ingredients speak for themselves.
Head Chef David Knapman brings experience from kitchens like The Fat Duck and Maison Lameloise in Burgundy. At Glebe House, he focuses on artisan techniques, nose-to-tail cookery, and a true respect for seasonality. The menu is not a fixed document but a daily reflection of what is ready in the garden, what has been foraged, and what local producers have to offer. The restaurant’s Lop pigs are reared on the property, and every part is used with care, from salumi to stock. Naturally leavened bread is baked daily, and surplus from the garden is preserved.
Glebe House has been awarded a Michelin Green Star, a recognition of its deep commitment to sustainability, seasonality, and low-waste craft. This award celebrates restaurants leading the way in responsible gastronomy, rooted in land, community, and care. It is a natural fit for a kitchen where composting is standard, producers are chosen for shared values, and every decision is guided by the land.
The restaurant offers several dining options, all available to both house guests and non-residents. The Glebe House Dinner (Thursday to Saturday) is a five-course fixed menu that showcases the best of the garden, the aging room, and the exceptional meat, seafood, and poultry of Devon. For a more relaxed affair, the Kitchen Supper (Monday to Wednesday) is a generous three-course offering featuring elevated home cooking, often with a pie, roast chicken, or local fish. Saturday lunch and Sunday lunch are also served, with the Sunday offering a four-course menu that begins with snacks and ends with a classic pudding.
The drinks list follows the same philosophy: thoughtful sourcing and minimal intervention. It features cocktails, cordials, and kombuchas made on site, alongside local fizz, beers, ciders, and wines from small European vineyards. The restaurant also hosts a Guest Sommelier series, with special evenings where the Glebe House Dinner menu is paired with wines chosen by visiting sommeliers.
Beyond the dining room, Glebe House offers a range of seasonal experiences, from bread-making and preserving workshops to a mackerel fishing trip followed by a twilight dinner on the beach. It is a place where the rhythm of the seasons sets the pace, and the cooking is always a direct expression of the land.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
Getting to Glebe House is an adventure in its own right. A series of narrowing country lanes leads north from Seaton, diving about patchwork fields and rummaging through copses, before the house itself materialises – a whitewashed Georgian pile poised high on a grassy slope, set within 15 acres of grounds. Interiors are a study in contemporary country house cool (grandfather clocks and kilim rugs, Welsh dressers and colourful objets d’art), creating a place that is eclectic, eccentric and full of fun. That spirit extends to the kitchen too – a small and faintly domestic space, where guests can perch on a long rustic table and watch Italian techniques being applied to Devon produce (much of it sourced from the kitchen garden). Head chef David Knapman's late-summer set menu began with antipasti of Glebe salumi with sublimely gooey Vacchino cheese, before segueing into a wonderful zesty octopus terrine doused in sauce vierge, served alongside a salad of beets, figs and blackberries. The faintest West Country accent was detectable in a pasta dish of ricotta and Ticklemore cheese agnolotti, though the kitchen saved the best for last in the form of guinea fowl with sweetcorn and girolles, lathered in sherry and tarragon sauce. 'Dolce' might include tarta di riso (Italian rice cake) with poached rhubarb and yoghurt ice cream or an innovative take on a historic ‘Exeter pudding’ (layers of financier, lemon curd and berries), while an Italian-leaning wine list kicks off with bottles from around £30. Glebe House also offers a range of characterful accommodation – both in the main house and in a cabin in the grounds – for those who would rather postpone their return journey along those narrow country lanes.
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