Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Ashbourne
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Ashbourne restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 17 restaurants in Ashbourne and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Ashbourne restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Ashbourne Restaurants
1. The Duncombe Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Ellastone
Main Rd - DE6
“A gem in the middle of the country” – this Peak District inn presents itself as a “welcoming pub, but scratch the surface and you find a hearty flavour-driven menu without frills, plus a wonderful thoughtful wine list, and staff that want you to have a great time in their little corner of Derbyshire”. All-in-all it’s a definite “cut above a pub” with a “lovely location with indoor and semi-outdoor dining areas to suit the weather”. Top Menu Tip – “the cooking focuses on pub classics and modern British dishes that highlight local and seasonal produce. Dishes might include crispy pig’s head with Yorkshire forced rhubarb and smoked pancetta; chicken liver parfait with black-truffle butter; hazelnut cake with blood orange or rhubarb soufflé with cardamom custard. Prices do reflect the style and quality, which is understandable”.
2. Stones
British, Modern restaurant in Matlock
1C Dale Rd - DE4
“A lovely restaurant by the River Derwent serving well-executed food at good prices”, run by head chef Kevin Stone, wife Jade and sister Katie Temple. Perhaps not as foodie as some nearby rivals, but “for the quality and the friendly and efficient front of house, the place takes some beating”. “In warm weather try to get a table on the terrace overlooking the water”.
3. The Horseshoes Long Lane
British, Modern restaurant in Ashbourne
Long Lane - DE6
“Pleasant old pub, with a modern dining room at the rear, in the Derbyshire countryside near Ashbourne”. “Very competent” cooking emerges from the kitchen of chef Gareth Ward, “including top-class fish (from the same source as sister establishment The Cow at Dalbury) – not often do you find both turbot and halibut on offer alongside good-quality local beef and lamb”.
4. The Cow Dalbury
Fish & seafood restaurant in Ashbourne
The Green, Dalbury Lees - DE6
The kitchen at this Peak District pub – with six bedrooms – is overseen by Cornish-born Nathan Senior, and it shows through in the emphasis on fresh fish sourced from the West Country. “They like to promote the hotel aspect, but in fact this is a very good fish-oriented restaurant, with the freshest of supplies from Devon and Cornwall and the menu reflecting what is best on the day, all served by a friendly, enthusiastic team”.
5. Jack Rabbits
Sandwiches, cakes, etc restaurant in Ashbourne
10 Saint John Street - DE6
2022 Review: At the back of The Greenman retail and entertainment complex, this stylishly designed venue – with quirky angled roof and steel-and-glass frontage – is worth knowing about as a useful all-day option.
6. The Fork & Furrow
British, Modern restaurant in Alfreton
The White Hart Inn, Inns Lane, Moorwood Moor - DE55
After undergoing a £50,000 renovation in March 2023, The White Hart Inn restaurant became brand new restaurant concept – The Fork & Furrow.The expertly designed menus offer culinary experiences to surprise the senses, partnering with local suppliers to...
7. The Saracen's Head
British, Modern restaurant in Shirley
Church Lane - DE6
2021 Review: “Really pleasing food”, “very good service” and a “lovely location” have earned plaudits over many years from the locals for Robin Hunter’s Derby Dales village gastropub, which has recently added the Church Lane Deli to its attractions.
8. The George
British, Modern restaurant in Alstonefield
2023 Review: “The days when this was a pub have long gone: it is an unashamedly ambitious restaurant which charges a full price for some very good cooking” – so say fans of this Peak District gastropub near the Dove Valley, who say “the chef knows what he is doing, and as long as you can afford it this is one of the best places to eat in the Peak District”. William Sitwell of The Telegraph paid it a visit in September 2022 and gave a similar but more nuanced view: the “cooking really is excellent and delicate with clever flavours” and “there is talent and charm by the bucket-load”, but he felt the dishes on the menu were presented and served in tiny portions, and he was encouraged to think of them as tapas. He declared, they “are the most un-tapassy things I’ve ever seen”.
9. The Lighthouse Restaurant
International restaurant in Ashbourne
New Road, Boylestone - DE6
2022 Review: Over a decade on, this fine dining spot “sitting at the back of the Rose and Crown plum in the middle of nowhere” is “a revelation” to some reporters, “trying too hard” for others. The “regularly changing tasting menu” (the only option, coming with or without wine flights) is “getting even better, if anything”.
10. Darleys
British, Modern restaurant in Derby
Darley Abbey Mill - DE22
2021 Review: This “old mill overlooking the river and weir” – part of the Darley Abbey Mills World Heritage site on the Derwent – has an “interesting menu and consistently high-quality cooking”. “Lunch here is always a pleasure, thanks to its setting, space and service as much as its food”.
11. Ebi Sushi
Japanese restaurant in Derby
59 Abbey St - DE22
“Down the road from Toyota” (whose employees explain its unlikely presence) “a café-sized and café-style Japanese restaurant serving exquisite food”; despite the “strange mix of very high standards (the sashimi, sushi and tempura dishes) and almost homemade kitsch (the menus, the furniture)”, it’s “a delightful experience” by absolutely all accounts.
12. The Peacock at Rowsley
British, Modern restaurant in Rowsley
Bakewell Rd - DE4
This “old manor house” handy for Chatsworth (and “not to be confused with the Peacock Inn in nearby Bakewell”), may “feel old-fashioned”, but its “great food and interesting menu” (from tasting menus to more “relaxed” options, both taken in the “fine dining room”) make it “a pleasure” by all accounts. Local ingredients (beef and lamb, say) are sourced from the Haddon Estate on which it sits.
13. Anoki
Indian restaurant in Derby
Old Picture Hall, 129 London Road - DE1
“Worth a visit” for its “high-quality food from the Indian subcontinent” – Naveed Khaliq’s 21-year-old flagship occupies a grand former picture palace whose plush decor and lavishly uniformed staff bring a sense of occasion to the meal. There are spinoffs in Nottingham and Burton.
14. Piedaniels
French restaurant in Bakewell
Bath St - DE45
“Great-value French cuisine” has drawn guests for more than 25 years to this family-run venture from Eric & Christiana Piedaniel – both career chefs. It makes a “lovely quiet environment for lunch” just 10 minutes’ drive from historic Chatsworth House.
15. The Devonshire Arms at Beeley
British, Modern restaurant in Beeley
Devonshire Square - DE4
2022 Review: This “lovely gastropub” on the Duke of Devonshire’s Chatsworth estate gets mostly positive feedback for its “good food and real ales”. There’s sometimes a perception, though, that “it falls short” of its potential: “the cooking was fair, but it could be so nice here”.
16. Restaurant Lovage by Lee Smith
British, Modern restaurant in Bakewell
Bath Street - DE45
“Correctly described in last year’s guide as ‘What the Peak District needed… and now has” – this “warm, welcoming” and unmistakably ambitious venture (crowdfunded five years back) occupies the cosy setting of a converted stable block. Chef-patron Lee Smith oversees the modern British cooking, based on “really good locally sourced produce (meat is from a real farm shop next door)”, and “tasting menus are not obligatory” since there’s also a “good à la carte” – plus the £23 per person ‘Market Menu’, which will have you in and out in under an hour. Whichever you go for, it’s all “exceptionally good” and “definitely worth the detour” if you’re heading up north.
17. Rafters at Riverside House
British, Modern restaurant in Ashford-in-the-Water
Riverside House Hotel, Fennel Street - DE45
The River Wye is the river in question, and this attractively located period restaurant with rooms (dating from the 1600s) sits nearby, complete with walled garden. It doesn’t inspire huge volumes of feedback, but fans are enthusiastic: “a fabulous meal here to celebrate an 80th birthday – wonderful food was beautifully presented”.
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