Berkhamsted Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: Set in a “lovely building” with tables under a 200-year-old olive tree, this restaurant – one of eight in a local chain – is frequently packed with regulars, who come back for its “good honest Italian fare at a reasonable price”. There’s “something for everyone on the menu”.

2021 Review: “Well cooked and presented meals” – and “good value”, too – are served at this unusual venue in the foyer of the beautifully preserved 1930s Rex cinema. There’s also a cocktail bar with live pianist – and a particularly strong lunch and pre-film menu.

An “absolute favourite pub” – this “lovely spot” in a wooded valley just north of London is a “good local standby” that “is very popular at weekends, when booking is advisable”. “We would go back, less for the food perhaps, but certainly for the location and ambience”.

“Fabulous food” (including “outstanding vegetarian options”) brings people together at chef Scott Barnard’s sociable chef’s table. “Think of sitting round a table with your friends cooking in front of you, chatting and explaining what they’re doing. When you’ve finished your 6 or 12 courses, you will have spoken to most of the guests at the same sitting as you (15 maximum)”. There’s a separate cellar bar and dining room. The spin-off restaurant-with-rooms in Henley closed down just as we went to press.

Emphatically “not your most ordinary pub” – this ivy-clad Georgian boozer in a “lovely countryside setting” has been well run by Sally & Alvin Michaels for twenty-odd years, and boasts a “good menu of delicious food”.

“Really good Thai cooking” inspires high ratings and positive feedback for this simple local fixture. “It’s a bit cramped when it’s full, but the take-home is good”.

A fixture of Old Amersham for more than 30 years, this bistro from Michael Gilbey of the gin dynasty is a “fab example of old-school dining” – quite literally, given that the seventeenth-century premises were originally part of Dr Challoner’s Grammar School. Even long-time fans, though, have begun to grumble that “having been a favourite for years, it has become more ordinary – not bad but no longer worth a journey”. There’s a sister branch in Eton.

2022 Review: The Grocer at 91 pivoted to being a food shop during the pandemic and all the eating now happens at this intimate sibling café, whose 24 covers are expanded by three tables outside, and where the mostly vegan menu spans satisfying, well-priced salads, toasties and locally made cakes. Their Gerrards Cross branch is now under new management, operating as Huddle.

2019 Review: “A modern interior, with views of the golf course” sets the scene at this Galvin Brothers yearling, which on most – if not quite all – accounts provides “a good welcome”, “high quality” cooking and a “relaxing” atmosphere. It’s a popular haunt for business entertaining, for which “there’s a perfect setting alongside the 18th fairway and a delightful lounge that feeds into the restaurant, where you can talk shop pre-, post- or during lunch”.

“Lovely steaks and Sunday roasts” plus “lots of fresh vegetables and salads” tick the boxes at this local trio (branches in St Albans and Beaconsfield), specialising in British grass-fed beef, dry-aged on the bone. The banquette seating and kids’ activity sheets and menu make them good “family-friendly” eating options.

2021 Review: “Just reopened and even better than before”, this ultra-lux country-house hotel has an unusual ‘high-concept’ buffet-style dining room inspired by Asian food halls, with chefs cooking at eight ‘live action food stations’ (robata grill, seafood, tandoor oven et al), from which guests choose as much as they want. It’s not fine dining, but it is good-value in its way and it’s something-for-everyone style suits entertaining or a family get-together.

2019 Review: A “beautiful location” – this “large, rambling and well-spaced” Georgian private home was opened as a gastropub by the Chester-based Brunning & Price chain in 2016, and has quickly built a solid reputation for a “pleasant” menu “full of excellent choices”, “allied with good service”.

2021 Review: Afternoon tea is “a real treat” in the “wonderful and friendly surroundings” of this country house hotel and spa, whose claim to fame is that it appeared in ‘Four Weddings’. Reports of more substantial meals here are more up-and-down.

“Top grub, a cut above the local culinary landscape”, has earned a devoted following for this fifteenth-century pub in the St Albans cathedral quarter, named after a dog belonging to landlord Sean Hughes – who “continues to be the host with the most”. The menu changes monthly, but may include a smoked duck Caesar Scotch egg, or a spectacular prime rib of English dairy cow to share at £80.

With its “tasty food” and “unusual setting” in a glass-roofed modern building next to the eleventh-century cathedral, this well-priced local bistro with an emphasis on sustainable cuisine makes “a good base for lunch or dinner”. It is part of Andrei Lussmann’s five-strong Hertfordshire-based group.

2021 Review: This “very good modern Turk” uses high-quality ingredients, including organic meats from Wales, to produce some interesting meals in this under-served town, and it “gets busy and can be very noisy”. There’s a spinoff branch in Berkhamsted.