British, Modern Restaurants in Warminster
1. The Olive Tree, Queensberry Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Bath
Russell St - BA1
“An incredible, unpretentious dining experience” with “varied and sumptuous tastes and service that’s attentive but not fussy” is hailed in all reports on Chris Cleghorn’s long-established venue. “The nine-course tasting menu is imaginative, beautifully presented and very tasty with some unusual flavours” (it’s £160 per person, with a six-course option available for £130, and other cheaper menus available at lunchtime and earlier in the week). It’s located in the cellar of a ‘proudly independent’ boutique hotel and is currently the city’s only establishment to hold a Michelin star.
2. The Bath Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Horningsham
The Longleat Estate - BA12
In a picturesque location on the Longleat Estate, this old rural pub with rooms is consistently well-rated. Wine is sourced by a sister business – The Beckford Bottle Shop in nearby Bath (about 30 minutes’ drive) – while meat and game from the estate help supply the kitchen. In April 2023, The Telegraph’s William Sitwell pronounced himself a fan, and enjoyed “a faultless lunch of amped-up pub classics”.
3. Beckford Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Fonthill Gifford
This “superb country pub with fabulous food” on the Fonthill Estate dates from 1740 and boasts a “country-house ambience and upper-crust service” that make it “popular with the local gentry” (and very well commented-on in our annual diners’ poll by the standards of venues in the area). An ivy-clad facade and “roaring log fires” are complemented by a smartly modernised interior, while “seasonal menus mix traditional country fayre and touches of the more exotic” – so there’s “truly something for everyone”.
4. Pythouse Kitchen Garden
British, Modern restaurant in West Hatch
“In a beautiful setting in the Wiltshire countryside”, Darren Brown’s “most wonderful” venture occupies an eighteenth-century walled garden and “makes full use of the produce grown” there in its “wholesome, creative fare”. “The fire pit conjures smoke, fire and primal appetites” which are ably slaked by the “superb” meats and “imaginatively done” vegetables – limited mostly to lunch, plus the odd Equinox-themed dinner. In summer they also run the ‘Slow Food Kitchen’ from Thursday to Sunday, while you can overnight year-round in their Shepherd’s Hut.
5. The Compasses Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Lower Chicksgrove
This “lovely old pub” with rooms – a thatched survivor from the 14th century – wins solid ratings for its “friendly service”, “great atmosphere and interesting food”, which ranges from standard pub burgers to Turkish eggs and Goan pork vindaloo. Owner Ben Maschler, son of restaurant critic Fay, ran Soho House’s food operations before heading to rural Dorset.
6. The Forester Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Donhead St Andrew
Lower Street - SP7
2022 Review: “A friendly and welcoming atmosphere” marks out this thatched fifteenth-century gastroboozer, where the “high-quality fresh local produce” (but also more adventurous sourcing, including from Paris’s famous Rungis market) leads to some “interesting variations on the traditional style”.
7. Roth Bar & Grill
British, Modern restaurant in Bruton
Durslade Farm, Dropping Ln - BA10
This “excellent part of the Hauser & Wirth Somerset gallery, garden and cultural centre” was founded 10 years ago, as the opening gambit in the Swiss art dealership’s Artfarm hospitality wing, which now has venues from Scotland to Los Angeles, including The Groucho Club in London. Named after Dieter Roth, one of their stable of artists, it’s a “very attractive location”, with “efficient service, a generally laid-back, happy ambience and good, generous cooking”, using home-produced Durslade Farm ingredients.
8. Osip
British, Modern restaurant in Bruton
1 High Street - BA10
“Worth the trip to the pretty, hip rural Somerset village of Bruton for an occasion” – Merlin Labron-Johnson’s “incredible” venue enjoys a massive following out of all proportions to its tiny size; and is one of the most commented-on destinations outside London in our annual diners’ poll this year. There’s no menu at this “very farm-to-table oriented place” – for £120 per person (with a cheaper, cut-down lunch alternative) you put yourself in his hands and the “expertly prepared” results are “exquisite… bursting with flavour”. “Service is light but gracious and the atmosphere, in the small but beautifully decorated room, is lovely if lacking a bit of life…” but all that’s about to change since, in autumn 2023 he successfully completed an oversubscribed £125,000 kickstarter campaign to create ‘Osip 2.0’ in a new space. Details to follow.
9. At the Chapel
British, Modern restaurant in Bruton
28 High St - BA10
This stunning converted chapel (with rooms, artisan bakery and wine shop) was long in the hands of Catherine Butler, but in summer 2022 slotted into the Stay Original Company’s roster of SW boutique hotels and pubs. “For a small town Bruton has plenty of places to enjoy good food” – and, albeit “less fancy than the others”, this remains a safe choice for “straightforward, well-cooked fare” (including “a lovely lunch after a walk round the wonderful Newt” country estate).
10. The White Hart Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Bath
Widcombe Hill - BA2
2023 Review: A “quirky and interesting” local with a “good atmosphere” serving a “creative menu, with cooking of a consistent high standard”. It makes a “fantastic pub for Sunday lunch”, with “outstanding roasts”.
11. Menu Gordon Jones
British, Modern restaurant in Bath
2 Wellsway - BA2
2023 Review: The “food and wine are always interesting” and are “still as good as ever” at engaging Anglo-Scottish chef Gordon Jones’s former sandwich shop on the southern edge of town. There’s “a single tasting menu available” (the only choice is whether to have 7 or 9 courses) and it comes as a complete surprise, with each dish introduced as it arrives at your table (and no vegetarian or other options).
12. The Elder at The Indigo Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Bath
2 South Parade - BA2
“Great for game if you are in Bath” – a “pleasant” and clubby hotel-restaurant that’s the brainchild of Mike Robinson, of London’s acclaimed Harwood Arms, and accordingly strong on venison et. al. The venue occupies several adjoining Georgian townhouses, and the victuals are “gusty” and “immensely satisfying”, as The Telegraph’s William Sitwell put it in a Nov 2022 review (also proclaiming that he would “rave about this joint well into the New Year”).
13. The Pump Room
British, Modern restaurant in Bath
Stall Street - BA1
2022 Review: Taking afternoon tea in this “wonderful Georgian setting with a trio playing during the meal” – and the Roman baths next door – is to wallow in English history, with literary visitors from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens as your guides. The nibbles – “beetroot-cured smoked salmon with homemade blini”, perhaps – are a secondary consideration, “but well worth having!”.
14. Chez Dominique
French restaurant in Bath
15 Argyle Street - BA2
“Very enjoyable French food in a convivial atmosphere” ensures the continued high success of Chris Tabbitt (ex-of London haunt Bibendum) and Sarah Olivier’s modern European, est. 2016 and named after their first child. It’s a “comfortable and not showy” sort of place with “casual” service, where no one doubts the “very proficient” cooking (“not cheap, but definitely felt good value for the overall meal”).
15. Corkage (Chapel Row)
British, Modern restaurant in Bath
5 Chapel Row - BA1
Limited but positive feedback this year on this well-established wine bar and bottle shop, whose distinguishing feature is a large, barn-like extension and terrace that really comes into its own during the warmer months.
16. Clayton's Kitchen
British, Modern restaurant in Bath
15a George St - BA1
“Buzzy” and “very popular city centre spot” that excels for its “great food, friendly ambience and good value”. Chef-patron Rob Clayton opened it 12 years ago, after seven years as head chef at the Bath Priory Hotel. He has worked in top kitchens for 35 years, including a stint at Chez Nico in London.
17. The Beckford Bottle Shop
British, Modern restaurant in Bath
5-8 Saville Row - BA1
This “interesting restaurant set in a bottle shop” (est. 2015) is part of the Beckford group, which runs four SW England inns, and – as of December 2022 – Bath’s Beckford Canteen, set in a Georgian greenhouse. The “tapas-style food” is “very moreish” and there’s unsurprisingly a “good, reasonably priced wine list” to go with it, making it “very popular” and “deservedly so”.
18. The Circus
British, Modern restaurant in Bath
34 Brock St - BA1
“Pleased to say standards remain high in this popular and much commented-on bistro serving modern European food”, in a useful central location. it’s “one of the best choices in a city served mainly by the chains”.
19. The Bradley Hare
British, Modern restaurant in Maiden Bradley
Church Street - BA12
This Victorian boozer on the Duke of Somerset’s estate reopened in 2021 (with rooms) after a posh refit by Andrew Kelly and James Thurstan Waterworth (the ex-European design director at Soho House). Despite the rather rapid exit of initial chef Nye Smith – to Rochelle Canteen boss Margot Henderson’s new venture, ‘The Three Horseshoes’, in Batcombe – its local/seasonal menu gained solid marks this year.
20. The Three Horseshoes
British, Modern restaurant in Batcombe
“Tom Parker Bowles was dining near us and William Sitwell apparently was in earlier in the week so we will be reading about it the the press!” – and indeed we have, regarding this bucolically located inn (with five bedrooms), which has been lovingly and stylishly restored. It has proved one of the most hotly anticipated openings of the year, due to owner Max Wigram’s long-trailed invitation to the stoves to star chef Margot Henderson OBE (of East London’s Rochelle Canteen) who he has known since her teens. It opened in the middle of our survey and generated too little feedback for a firm rating, although what we do have mentions of “admirable” service and some “very good lemon sole with exotic homemade tartare sauce and excellent tossed chicken”. Meanwhile the aforementioned press critics have fallen over themselves to swoon… although given Margot’s impeccable in-crowd credentials this was always likely.
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