Heston's Hinds Head is Michelin pub of the year

Heston Blumenthal's Hinds Head in Bray-on-Thames, Berkshire, has been named as Pub of the Year 2011 in the new Michelin Eating Out in Pubs guide.

The pub's menu combines traditional favourites with rediscovered recipes and sample dishes include shepherd's pie, oxtail and kidney pudding, Scotch quail egg and quaking pudding.

According to the Good Food Guide 2011, the Hind's Head's head chef Clive Dixon has recently left the pub.

Blumenthal who owns the award-winning Fat Duck restaurant, has just opened a second pub in Bray called the Crown, opposite the Hind's Head.

Blumenthal's pub menu is a world away from his more radical style of cooking at the Fat Duck.

The chef's vision at the Hind's Head was to uncover long-forgotten recipes and recreate down-to-earth dishes but using up-to-date techniques.

He spent time behind the scenes with food historians from the Tudor Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace and historical desserts on the menu include Sussex pond and quaking puddings.

Guide editor Derek Bulmer said: "Our guide shows that pubs are not dying, they are merely changing. The traditional drinking pub has undoubtedly been suffering but those that are making efforts with their food are flourishing.

"Even some of the breweries have acknowledged this and have begun recruiting talented chefs. If there is one message it is; adapt and thrive.

"We are also finding that these food-driven pubs are playing an even greater part in the local community.

"Chefs are rediscovering regional specialities and often deal directly with local farmers and many hold food-themed nights, such as pie nights or fish nights.

"We are pleased to see that most are also moving away from restaurant-style cooking and are now serving 'proper' pub food."

The guide also features 116 inspectors' favourite establishments. These include the late Paul Whittome's Hoste Arms, Burnham Market, Norfolk; Nigel Haworth's the Three Fishes, Mitton, Lancashire; the Sands End, Fulham, London; the White Hart in Oldham, Lancashire; the Freemasons Inn, Wiswell, Lancashire and the White Oak, Cookham, Berkshire.

The 2011 guide includes more than 500 pubs across Great Britain and Ireland, of which over 70 are new entries. These include the Wheatsheaf Inn at Dry Doddington, Lincolnshire, the Samuel fox, Bradwell, Derbyshire, the Sun at Northaw, Hertfordshire, the Blue Anchor, St Albans, Hertfordshire and the Ingham Swan, Ingham, Norfolk.

The guide is launched tomorrow priced £14.99.