A PUB in Preston Candover has been crowned the regional Readers’ Restaurant of the Year by The Good Food Guide.

The Purefoy Arms has won the title for the South East based on nominations from a total of more than 39,000 members of the public, who put forward their favourite restaurant for the award.

Andres Alemany, who owns the pub with his wife Marie-Louise, said: “Winning has made us immensely proud – you can’t get a bigger compliment than being nominated by your customers.”

Mr Alemany appeared on ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish – The Chefs, in 2011, a culinary challenge programme.

Elizabeth Carter, consultant editor of The Good Food Guide, said: “It may be a textbook country pub – pretty village location, winter fires, beer garden – but it’s the quirky but appealing modern cooking and genuinely lovely hospitality which makes this pub so popular with our readers.”

The pub will now go on to compete against the other nine regional winners to be crowned the overall winner of The Good Food Guide Readers’ Restaurant of the Year, which will be announced at a ceremony in London on June 19.

The Good Food Guide verifies all the nominations before picking 10 regional winners.

The awards champion independent restaurants which offer regional or local produce where possible.