Buntingford Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: Jamie Oliver’s parents Trevor & Sally retired from this sixteenth-century village gastropub after 44 years in November 2020, so it has recently changed hands: it’s now a part of the 12-strong Chestnut group of pubs. The Olivers always ran the Cricketers well, but regulars say “(even in the tepee) the food is possibly up a notch”.

2023 Review: This village pub-with-rooms just off the A1 offers “attractively presented food” on a menu which is “a cut above standard gastropub fare” – best enjoyed in the “new outside dining area, which in summer evokes a lovely Mediterranean feel”.

“Tucked away in a little corner of Hertfordshire”, this pub/restaurant from “brothers in perfection” Tom (self-taught chef) & Ben (ex-Fat Duck manager) Bainbridge trades in meals that are “innovative, fun and enjoyable”, with an “absolute focus upon flavour” – “staff are warm, caring and always willing to have a laugh”, while the “impressive and comprehensive wine list covers the globe”. (For one fan, it all even added up to “an experience well worth an awful 58-mile drive, mostly on the M25!”). Top Menu Tip – “the most astonishingly flavoursome carrot purée ever tasted”.

“Enjoyable” farmhouse in a countryside setting just north of London that’s “more restaurant than pub, and one of the best places in the area for good cooking” – “there’s lobster and oysters, you could ask for nothing more!” – from “an excellent and varied menu, alongside personable-but-efficient service and a good choice of reasonably priced wines”. It’s a “lively, vibrant” spot, and “in summer, tables out in the garden are lovely, particularly as the conservatory dining room can be very noisy”.

After working alongside Gary Rhodes and serving as Head Chef at Tom Conran’s Notting Hill venue The Cow, chef James Rix launched this smart Home Counties pub (replete with a large beer garden and heated gazebo) together with wife Bianca in 2004. Its rustic Italian- and French-inspired cuisine attracts reviews ranging from “good quality” to “excellent” – with meat (including Josper-grilled steak) a standout, and starters and desserts that are “not too shabby” either.

“Traditional village pub” serving “very good classic French food (“frog’s legs, boeuf bourguignon, crème caramel as a sample three-course lunch”) at a good price” – “Laurent [Brydniak, le patron] runs it very well and always makes a good occasion”. “Hidden down a quiet lane, it’s well worth the journey” – and makes a handy option if you’re visiting nearby Brocket Hall.

This gastropub from the local Cambscuisine group, in an affluent commuter village south of Cambridge, is “worth a detour for its lovely garden and good-quality food from friendly waiting staff”. (The pub is named for its flamboyant owner from the 1970s, ‘Squire Kim Joseph Hollick De La Taste Tickell’).

“Beautifully situated” beside a lake on the grand Brocket Hall Estate, this bucolic but luxurious former hunting lodge is acknowledged by fans as “a truly great choice for a special occasion”. It’s known for a high standard of traditional Anglo-French cuisine and for (older) traditional types it’s “very pleasing that all fellow diners make an effort to dress accordingly”. But it’s also often attracted lukewarm feedback over many years, and has a stop-go record with numerous long periods of closure, changes of chef, refurbs and relaunches, yet another of which is underway in September 2025 following a closure in May 2025.

Open in July 2025, a newly opened gastropub set in a 450-year-old coaching inn (that was previously operating as a restaurant). Led by Chef Alex Corley and Operations Manager Adam Msetfi, the pub offers modern British cuisine in a historic setting. Samples dishes include Cornish crab tartlet, elderflower and Granny Smith apple; Brioche doughnuts with pulled beef; Herefordshire rump of beef, Blythburgh Farm pork belly, and North Devon roast chicken.