The Rat Inn at Anick, near Hexham, has been named among Britain’s best pubs for the second year running.

The hilltop pub, about a mile and a half north-east of Hexham, is number 31 in the Good Food Guide’s list of Britain’s 100 Best Pubs 2026, published on 2 November.

The guide picks out pubs around Britain “serving honest, top-quality cooking in a warm, welcoming setting”.

The Rat is the highest-placed pub in Northumberland, while the top spot went to the Queens Arms in Eccles, Greater Manchester.

Why the Rat Inn made the list

The guide calls it “a proper North Country pub with cooking of real character”.

It describes a “revamped 18th-century drovers’ inn” sitting “atop a hill with spectacular views of the Tyne Valley”.

It praises “an old-school bar” with “up to six ales from North Country microbreweries on tap”, and “lots of quirky items dotted around”.

“The kitchen is passionate about provenance,” the guide says, pointing to “the board detailing the local farms and herds that supply its meat”.

Steaks are sold by weight and served with the pub’s own steak sauce, which the guide calls “a must-have, by all accounts”.

Its daily specials offer “homely, rich pub food with a twist”, from baby lemon sole with cucumber, grapes and fennel butter to slow-roast, honey-glazed pork belly with grilled peaches.

Desserts “could range from pear Bakewell tart to lemon meringue panna cotta”, it adds.

Where to find it and when it opens

The Rat Inn is at Anick, NE46 4LN, and in its own words is “only a few minutes from the A69 Hexham roundabout”.

Inside, the pub says, are “polished oak, flagstones, open fires and collection of chamber pots hanging from the ceiling”, with a conservatory and a beer garden looking across the valley.

It says it is also ranked number 8 in the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs 2026, its 14th year in a row on that list.

Its opening page lists food from 12pm to 2.30pm and 5pm to 8pm from Wednesday to Saturday, and from 12pm to 3pm on Sundays.

Anyone hoping to go over the holidays should note that the pub is closed from Christmas Day to 28 December and on New Year’s Day, its Christmas page says.

As for the name, the pub’s history page says nobody knows for sure, though one local tale is of an ale keeper who informed on Jacobites in 1715 and 1745 and became known as “the Rat”.

Have you eaten at the Rat? Tell us in the comments.