The Drawing Room

A number of Welsh country inns are beginning to lure visitors with sophisticated food that rivals the quality of the bucolic views. Londoners are willing to drive almost four hours to reach the Drawing Room, a five-table restaurant and three-room hotel near the historic market town of Builth Wells. The inn, with antique pine furniture, fireplaces, and a perfectly tended garden, inhabits a 1725 Georgian house. Chefs Melanie and Colin Dawson prepare Cardigan Bay crab salad with prawns, avocado, caviar, and mustard mayonnaise for dinner, and favorites such as duck eggs with wild mushrooms at breakfast. All ingredients are locally sourced—except for the beurre français, which the Dawsons adopted only after much deliberation.