Good Restaurants in England

This page does NOT cover all of England.   These are simply the places that we (John and Helena Cuthbert) know.    Click here for the counties Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Yorkshire, Sussex, or a group all around the country.

A la carte prices are for three courses, a drink and service.   Table d'hôte prices are just for the number of courses stated---drinks and tip to be added.

Price

£

Opening hours

Location

Beverley, East Yorkshire

Recently re-decorated, etc, excellent, comfortable rooms.    Top quality food, mainly traditional English (steak, steak and kidney pie, plaice fillets with mushrooms and prawns and white wine sauce, rack of lamb, salmon, halibut).    Complementary bread served warm with garlicky oil.    Beautiful, rich desserts.    Excellent organization and service in attractive dining room with tables well separated.    Also very adventurous bar menu.    Live music some evenings.   Should book, often full.   Air-con.    Non-smoking in dining room, smoking in bar and lounge.

14.95 three course menu  (not Sat)

25-40

Rooms 90 double

1200- 1430

1900- 2130

Above the fish and chip shop, next to Lairgate Hotel.   Founded in 1990 by Mr/Mrs Collinson, who still run it daily.   Lovely range of fishes, fishcakes, fritter, pattie.    Plus meat pies, pasties, chicken, jacket potatoes.   A few veggie dishes.   Special children's menu for under-12s.   Sides orders include vegetables, pineapple fritter, salad, homemade mushy peas (superb).    Wines and beer.   Desserts (included with any order of fish and chips).    Everything very fresh and superbly cooked.     Very good service.   Seats 86.   Air-con.    Pretty considerable portions---extra large haddock, chips, peas, bread and butter £ 6.90.

8-11

1100- 2000 (1800 Tuesday)

1130- 2000 Sunday

Closed Monday

Built in 1703 in a 13^th century street.    Excellent coffee, tea, scones, cakes, cream teas, hot dishes, breakfast, salads, huge Ploughman's lunch with hard-boiled egg and salad.    Very attractive.    Non-smoking.

Another excellent café.    Very attractive with a patio.    Excellent coffee, tea, snacks, cakes, etc.   Tables in garden, too.

Nellie was the landlady fifty year's ago, so well liked that it is still named after her.    You can not go to Beverley without going to Nellie's.   A 16^th century pub, still decorated as it was a century ago.   Gas lights, open fires, marble-topped wrought iron tables (in the bar), old wooden furniture.   Lots of small rooms.    Voted the best pub in East Yorkshire in 1999 and 2000.   Samuel Smith's beers (Old Brewery best bitter £ 1.28 per pint) are superb.   Lots of very good food at low prices.

York, Harrogate, Ilkley, Northallerton, Yorkshire

Not just tea rooms, but restaurants.   They also sell a huge range of the best coffees and teas, imported directly by them, plus they make their own breads, cakes, biscuits, chocolates, preserves, etc.   (We buy all our coffees and teas from them--- Sumatran Mandheling coffee is ideal for after meals-- rich, smooth and almost chocolatey.   Ceylon Orange Pekoe or Tippy Assam are the teas to drink at tea-time.)   Around 1900, "Frederick Belmont, a young Swiss confectioner, arrived in London and, unable to speak a word of English, boarded the wrong train at the wrong station and found himself in the depths of Yorkshire.  In 1919, he opened his first Café Tea Rooms in Harrogate, where the unique combination of Yorkshire and continental specialities...quickly brought Betty's popular acclaim."   It's still "in the family".   No-one knows who Betty was---there are lots of theories.   During the Second War, Betty's catered for many service-men, especially Canadian, Australian and New Zealanders.  There is a large mirror with about 600 of their signatures scratched on it.  If you want to know what real, traditional fish and chips is, try it here.    Also, if you want to know about real English cream teas, eat one here (but do not complain, as we heard two Americans do, that the butter and cream are bad for health).   The menus are a mix of traditional Yorkshire and Swiss---superb.    Yorkshire rarebit (with tomato or apple chutney), rösti or mushroom pancakes with cheese are excellent.   Of course, they have a wide range of freshly brewed coffees or teas, plus good Samuel Smith's beers, homemade juices, etc.   The one weakness is their wine list, which is also strongly Swiss influenced, and does not suit us.   Excellent service.    Good pianist in St Helen's Square 1800-2100 daily.   It is a beautiful place designed by the interior designers of The Queen Mary liner, with huge plate-glass windows.   Little Betty's is in a 16^th century building.   They don't take bookings, so you might have to queue at busy periods.   Air-con

15-20

(0830- 1900 Sat)

Their Web site

Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire

Chris and Marie Perkins run this restaurant and coffee shop.    It is a beautiful room in an old cottage.    They serve excellent food and wine---it is so good, they could charge three times as much if they moved to London.   All the meal is accompanied by fresh, homemade bread with black olive, garlic and red pepper butter---wonderful.    Examples of food are: roast rack of lamb with fresh herb and mustard crust finished with rich gravy flavoured with rosemary, red wine and redcurrants.  Deep fried tiger prawn tails wrapped in filo pastry and finished with sweet chilli dressing.   Baked haddock topped with rich white wine sauce flavoured with tomatoes, mushrooms and fresh herbs.   Roast leg of pork with sage and onion stuffing and apple sauce.  Baked local trout served with a bacon and prawns tarragon sauce. Homemade soups are served with crispy croûtons and finished with a splash of cream.   For desserts, how about lemon and pineapple roulade or chocolate truffle tort ?.    Tossed green salad extra course after main course.    Homemade parmesan biscuits to go with a selection of cheeses.   Homemade petits-fours with coffee.   Presentation is superb on the plate, plus lovely silver cutlery, blue cloths with yellow napkins, flowers and candles.   No smoking.  

19.95 three course, 23.95 four course, 25.95 five course   26.70 six course dinner

7.70 two course lunch + light dishes à la carte

Supper Club 12.95 three courses;  fifth visit at half price, tenth visit free

0930- 1600

1200- 1500 Sun

1930- 2300 Fri- Sat

1800- 2030 Wed Supper Club

Closed Mon

Cerne Abbas, Dorset

The Independent rated this as the third-best village pub in the UK.    It has Awards in the Good Pub Guide, AA seafood, Golden Jubilee Heritage, and is les Routiers' South-West Host of the Year, 2003.    Superbly cooked food concentrates on first-class local produce, and ranges from Light Bites and Walkers' Favorites to very sophisticated English dishes.    So, you might have things like ham, egg and chips, or fish and chips, honey-roast Dorset ham and mustard open sandwich, or specials like steak and Blue Vinney (local cheese) pie with shortcrust pastry, local game pie, local venison sausages with onion gravy and mash, Magret duck, Dorset lamb shank with apricot cranberry and raspberry sauce, fish pie, fish plate.    How about two pheasant breasts braised in red wine with jus, veg and mash ?   There is a very good vegetarian menu.    Afterwards, there is a West Country Cheese Platter, local ice-creams, treacle sponge, toffee pudding, etc.    Drinks include five real ales, lots of wines by the glass and bottles.   Service is excellent.

12-20

Light Bites and Walkers' Favorites 3-6

1800- 2300 (later in summer)

Sunday open at 1200

Food starts one hour after opening

Farnham, Dorset

Mark 5 in the Good Food Guide, les Routiers' Regional Restaurant of the Year, 2002.   Prime local produce is taken very seriously.     Traceable meats, local game, free-range poultry, local organic herbs and vegetables.   Every dish has that little, extra, component that brings it alive.   Cooking is top quality.   Posh baguettes, plus dishes like roast shoulder of lamb with black olives and basil jus, or roast grouse with potato fondant, blackberries and balsamic jus, or John Dory (fish) with streaky bacon and Lyonnaise potatoes, or goat's cheese bruschetta with pesto, aiôli, tomatoes and wild rocket.    Starters like homemade chicken liver parfait with red onion marmalade and toasted brioche, or marinated sardines with basil, Balsamic vinegar and parmesan crisps, or ballotine of game with spiced pears, celeriac, lemon and mustard.    Desserts include a selection of cheeses and things like sticky toffee pudding with vanilla icecream, or creamed rice pudding with oranges, praline and pistachio nuts, or smooth white chocolate mousse with spiced oranges.   Real ales, good wines.  Excellent service.

25-35

B&B doubles:

Stable 75

Cottage 95

General's four-poster 120

All 10 less for single occupancy

1800- 2300

(2230 Sunday)

Food starts an hour later and finishes an hour earlier, except Sunday lunch goes on to 1500

Corscombe, Dorset

A small village, accessible by very narrow roads, from the A37 or A356.    It is on an ex-droving route, near to Yeovil.

Good Food Guide, Which? Pub Guide, Which? Hotel Guide, AA, les Routiers recommend it since 2001.   Large, ex cider house.  Stone and thatch with roses and foxgloves decorating the front.   Lovely rural surroundings.   Two bars with beams, inglenook fireplace, stone floors, old pine furniture, pleasant local customers.   Everything is from fresh local produce (meat Bridport, veg Charminster, game Yeovil, Fish Bridport and Wimborne, butter Crewkerne, eggs Beaminster, dairy Dorchester).   Typical dishes are Barbary duck, rack of Dorset lamb with mustard mash and rosemary jus, local venison with rich game sauce, fish pies.   Crab cakes, lobster and crab salad, grilled Somerset goat’s cheese salad, local pigeon breast with bacon are amongst the starters.   The salad and warm French bread that accompanies these are superbly tasteful.   Desserts include things like rich chocolate torte, clotted cream meringues, lemon crême brulée.   Exmoor ale and Butcombe bitter on draft, lovely wines, homemade elderflower cordial, sloe gin and damson vodka.   Superb service---all staff named on the menu.   One area is no-smoking.    Garden and conservatory available.   A few bedrooms with antique beds.

25-30

1900- 2100

(2130 at weekends)

Closed Christmas Day

Their web site

Portland, Dorset

On the start of the Ferrybridge to Portland, on right just before Ferrybridge pub/hotel.   Smallish, lovely wooden building, with plenty of tables outside as well.   Their local fisherman's fish and seafood catch of today, plus the Bar's own raised oysters from their water tens of yards away.   Mixed seafood platters as well---clams, mussels, scallops, lobsters, crabs, etc are superb.   Can buy produce from them and take it home.   The best oysters that John has ever had in England (even better than Loch Fyne).   Bottled beers, soft drinks, lot of good wines.   Very good real bread, chips and veg freshly cooked for you, lovely salad accompaniments.   Dorset icecreams.   Superb quality cooking and service.

20-25

Might be closed in January for staff to have a holiday

Harpenden, Hertfordshire

A bar and restaurant in the American style.   Lots of Tex-Mex (fajitas, etc), barbecued chicken, prawns, ribs, etc.   Plus daily specials, including fish.    Good wine list.   Extremely good oysters (Loch Fyne---see below).    Good, homemade desserts and ice-creams.   Cooking and service excellent.   Bar menu also.   Must book at weekends.   Tables in garden.   Air-con.

15-20

(-2400 Thurs, Fri, Sat)

Fax: 0 158 246 2217

Fax:0 172 783 5155

From outside it looks just like a pub;   inside, it's definitely a restaurant with a bar.   Nicely decorated, wood floor, wooden furniture, lots of lovely, carved wooden panels on walls, attractive colours on walls and ceilings.   Interestingly designed menu presents dishes in 7 types.    Little Dishes, eg soup, or gambas with rocket and aioli.   Leaves, eg crispy duck with watercress, beansprouts, plum sauce.   Fired Pizzas, eg Giardinieri---mushrooms, olives, red pepper, leeks, petit pois.   Pastas.    Stove/Grill/Rotisserie, eg Hoegaarden battered haddock, chips, homemade tartare.   Starches and Greens, eg Belgian chips, mayo.    Puddings.   All the cooking is very professional and so is the presentation.  Good choice of meat, seafood, veggie dishes.  Good service and wines, beers, etc.   Some dishes are available in two sizes---beware, their portions are huge and we go for the smaller size.   Usually pretty full, booking advised, especially at weekends.

20-30

Italian pasta and pizzas, plus a few daily dishes.   16 starters, 28 pastas, 14 pizzas, including all the old favourites, plus daily specials.   Very well cooked (ie the pasta is al dente), delightful service.   Good antipasti, desserts, wines and coffee.    Specially welcoming to children, who are encouraged to draw graffiti on the paper tablecloths (so are adults).   Some good graffiti are posted on the walls.    Must book at weekends.   Air-con.

15-20

-2130 Sunday

Several small rooms in an old house.   Real Thai, which is very rare in England (ignore lots of pubs that claim to offer it).   Long menu, also several set meals.   Lots of choice for veggies.   Very nice starters, eg crab claws, Thai fish cakes, spring rolls, pork sesame toast served with appropriate dips, some hot.   Lots of noodle and rice dishes.   Red and green curries (meat, veg and fish), Thai salads, lovely desserts.   Stir-fried seafood, including prawns, scallops, mussels, squid.    The list of specials is superb.   For dessert, try rambutan or tapioca delight (tapioca pudding with coconut milk and nuts).    Wine does not go with Thai food, but Singha Thai beer does (or tea).   Very efficient service.   Air-con.   Book evenings and weekends.

15-20

1800- 2245

Hatfield, Hertfordshire

Was an overspill town for London after the War.   Fairly awful housing estates.   Depends a lot on British Aerospace plc (where Helena used to work).   Also has a part of Hertfordshire University (where Helena did her degree).   The old Hatfield House is well worth visiting.

A large bar/restaurant, with old beams, beautiful modern wooden furniture (including sofas), lovely décor, plenty of space.   On the old Great North Road (now A 1000), NOT the A1 (M).   Quite extensive menu (8 starters, 10 main courses, 6 puddings, 16 bar snacks), changes seasonally.   Everything home cooked, including bread (walnut and sultana, black olive ciabatta, plain ciabatta), fruit chutneys, farmhouse pâté with sweet red onion marmalade.   Steaks, prawns, pork chops, lamb rump, chicken and bacon, deep-fried fish in beer batter, swordfish, salmon and dill fishcakes (with salmon and watercress sauce), wild boar and apple sausages (with deep-fried leeks), roast duck breast on rösti with green peppercorns and apricots, pasta, fruit crumbles, vanilla cheesecake with raspberry sauce, Belgian waffles, chocolate pudding and icecream, etc.   Bar snacks include sandwiches and wraps (eg Brie and watercress, Hoi-sin duck)    Large portions.   Seven white, seven red wines, one rosé, one champagne, by the glass or bottle, with clear descriptions on the list.   McMullens local beers, and others.   Good range of coffees and teas.    Very good service.   Air-con.    One large room is non-smoking.

15-20

Bar snacks 4-5

1200- 2200

(midway between Hatfield and Potter's Bar)   4 miles north of M25, J24

Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire

Was an overspill "New town" for London after the War.   Fairly awful housing estates.   But, the Old Town is attractive, including the High Street, where this restaurant is.

A real Indian restaurant, serving excellent, authentic Keralan food (SW India).   About half the dishes are vegetarian (eg Potato Puri, lentil curries, potato and aubergine curry, spinach and dall, dahai vadai), one-third seafood (eg crab curries, lobster curry, prawns, fried kingfish in slightly spicy coconut milk), and a few meat dishes (lamb and chicken).   Good variety of rices and breads (eg Appam, which is like a lacy pancake).    Remarkable selection of snacky, crisp starters with dips (plate for £5 that suits 2-4 people).     Homemade pickles.    Cobra and Kingfisher Indian beers, plus English ones and wines, etc.    Service superb---they'll explain the dishes well.   Air-con.   70 seats, hoping to expand.    Must book.

15- 20

1777 fax

A "country pub and eating" place.    In a tiny hamlet near Hemel, just next to the Frithsden vineyard.   David and Becky Salisbury produce exhilarating food, very expertly served.    Small Plates include things like seared salmon with roast beetroot and crème fraîche;  home-smoked duck breast, chilli and ginger relish; dolcelatte, fig, rocket and mint salad;  oak-smoked bacon on bubble and squeak with Hollandaise sauce and poached egg.   Mains include things like grilled hake with aromatic clam and noodle broth;  confit belly pork on Dauphinoise potatoes with apple and sage compôte;  chestnut mushroom, Mascarpone and spinach pastry;  pan-fried chiken suprême on garlic potato cake with watercress and cracked black pepper sauce.   Puddings are like warm apple tart with butterscotch sauce;   roast figs in Marsala with Mascarpone;  Cornish icecreams;  British cheese plate.   Not a lot to choose from for veggies, but some good ones.   Smaller plates for smaller people     Great Roasts on Sundays.   Very difficult to get a table, most evenings must book a month in advance !!!   Easier at lunchtimes.

20- 30

1200- 1430

(-1500 Sunday)

1900- 2200

0 144 287 6893 fax

Battle, East Sussex

Just opposite the entrance to Battle Abbey (where the battle of 1066 was fought), this restaurant is in a building dating from 1440, with a lot of lovely old timbers, window frames, etc.   Arm chairs in a lovely lounge for pre-dinner drinks.    They serve a superb selection of real, local English fare and French.    Homemade breads.    Eg, herring roes on toast, lamb's kidneys, Bourride (Provençal fish soup with rouille, crôutons), white fish cakes for starters.   Steamed Sussex steak and kidney pudding (with red wine in the sauce), Châteaubriand, local venison, roast Rye Vale plaice, Hastings fillet of cod, gigot de mer, baked red squash, omelette forestière (local woodland mushrooms) as mains.   Sweets are exceptional---tarts with local Northiam cream, homemade ices and sorbets, and a whole page of chocolate desserts.   John is taken with warm Belgian chocolate tart with bitter chocolate ice-cream.   How about Colonel (lemon sorbet with a shot of frozen vodka) ?   Cheese board served with a glass of Taylor's LBV 1996 port.   Cooking is very good and so is the attentive, but unobtrusive, service.

12.75 two course lunch

20- 45

1000- 1500 lunch, 1900- 2130 dinner (but stays open in between).

Sunday 1000- 1700

All around the country

Loch Fyne is the longest and deepest sea loch in Scotland.    In the 1970's, two people set up oyster beds there, moving on to smokeries and helping/catching other seafood.   Their philosophy is "total sustainability".   More recently, they have opened restaurants around England, and are continuing to do so.    All the food is top, top quality.     Extremely flexible menus--- eat what you want, when, never mind describing it in "courses".     Light dishes include their smoked fishes, scallops, mussels, mackerel pâté, salad of Isle of Mull cheddar with crème fraiche dressing, smoked haddock chowder.     Oysters (far better than in any supermarket) can be raw (with lemon and Tabasco, or with onion and wine vinegar), baked with spinach and mornay, or grilled with garlic.    Their kippers are real, smoked herrings, not dyed and flavoured as in most shops.   Main courses of fish and shellfish are large and top, top quality.   There are a few vegetable and meat dishes, including Glen Fyne rib-eye, and smoked Rannoch venison.   Scottish cheeses with homemade oatcakes, and desserts are superb.   In the mornings they also serve breakfast.   Air-con.    There is a counter selling shellfish, fish and smoked and cured seafood.    Ambience is light coloured walls, wooden floor, light wooden tables and attractive wooden chairs.   Attractive pictures relevant to fish, lochs, etc.     This Review is of their Barnet, Cambridge, Oxford, Reading and Loughton sites.    The other addresses are to help you, if you are near any of them.

12 Hadley Highstone, Barnet;    24 Milsom St, Bath;   70 London End, Oxford Rd, Beaconsfield;   95-99 Western Rd, Brighton;  Cairndow;   Little Rose, Trumpington St, Cambridge;    5-6 High St, Egham;   Old Dairy, Elton;    20 Market Place, Henley-on-Thames;   Bank House, High St, Knowle;     280-282 High Road, Loughton;  30-32 St. Giles Street, Norwich;   17 King Street, Nottingham;   55 Walton Street, Oxford;   Bear Wharf, Near Fobney St, Reading;    63-65 High St, Sevenoaks;   11 All Saints' Place, Stamford;   175 Hampton Road, Twickenham;  18 Jewry Street, Winchester.

9.95 two course lunch

20- 40

0900- 2200

-2300 Fri, Sat

1000- 2130 Sunday

Closing times vary slightly between sites--- see their web site