Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Gloucester
Hardens guides have spent 32 years compiling reviews of the best Gloucester restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 14 restaurants in Gloucester and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Gloucester restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Gloucester Restaurants
1. Corse Lawn Hotel
British, Traditional restaurant in Corse Lawn
In July 2022, Baba Hine put this long-established hotel (which she started with her late husband 40 years ago, and ran by herself for 17 years) on the market, having decided it’s time to retire. Incorporating a 40-cover restaurant and similar-sized bistro, it’s too soon as yet to predict the next chapter for this well-known establishment, hence for the time being it’s unrated.
2. The Wye Inn including Upstairs at The Wye
restaurant in Dymock
2 Broad Street - GL18
A traditional pub with a twist, The Wye Inn serves up nostalgic pub classics from award-winning chef Andrew Sheridan and his team. The Wye Inn has four unique dining areas including an outdoor Terrace with wood-fired pizza menu, and Upstairs @ The Wye Inn, a fine-dining offering serving an elegant tasting menu.
3. Severn & Wye Smokery
Fish & seafood restaurant in Westbury-on-Severn
Chaxhill - GL14
“Fabulous fish and seafood dishes” led by “smoked platters and whole fish of the day” are on the menu at this “small restaurant” in an “interesting setting” – above Richard & Shirley Cook’s long-established smokery on the Severn estuary. “Everything is yummy – including the wonderful desserts.” There’s also a more conventional café in the yard, the Barn.
4. Bhoomi
Indian restaurant in Cheltenham
52 Suffolk Rd - GL50
“Reliably enjoyable and interesting” Keralan dishes are the attraction at this crowd-pleasing outfit from prolific local restaurateur Michael Raphel (Prithvi, Holee Cow), who was inspired by the flavours his chef grandfather brought from South India as an immigrant 50 years ago. A switch from fine-dining to a more casual approach a few years back has paid dividends, and now there is a spin-off in Oxford. Top Menu Tip – “the thali are particularly wonderful”.
5. The Woolpack Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Slad
Slad Road - GL6
In Gloucestershire’s lovely Slad valley, “Laurie Lee’s local has just gone from strength to strength over the years – although it’s not clear what Laurie Lee would think about it now, as while it’s still all scrubbed tables and good cider, it now also has a talented chef producing high-end pub grub”. “Sometimes the food is exceptional” (it was on Giles Coren’s June 2022 visit) – “service has been varied, but everywhere is struggling with staff… but on the right day, a visit here is magical”.
6. Le Champignon Sauvage
British, Modern restaurant in Cheltenham
24-28 Suffolk Rd - GL50
“A place to eat for people who prefer food to Instagram…” – “No visit to Cheltenham is complete without a meal at the delightful Champignon Sauvage” according to the many fans of David & Helen Everitt-Matthias’s long-established foodie temple, which remains one of the more commented-on rural restaurants in the UK. For its many long-term devotees, “this is the yardstick used to judge everywhere else as its combination of skill, service and value is so hard to beat”. Famously the kitchen is never open when David isn’t in it to cook, and the result is “innovative, often-foraged seasonal dishes” – “precise, original and beautiful cooking that never strains for effect” and “whose flavours sing on the plate”. “Friendly and professional service to match is provided by Helen”, who also presides over the “super wine list with a great selection of half bottles”. No-one has ever pretended the rather sedate room is a riot, but fans say “its serenity encourages conversation” and “still don’t understand why this outstanding restaurant lost its second Michelin star a couple of years ago”. Ratings here dipped a little this year, however, on one or two mixed (if far-from-damning) reports. Typical would be “our favourite last year was somewhat off its game this time and lacked a little sparkle”; or “the food was great as ever but the room felt dead… the wrong sort of hushed”. Perhaps the strains of these pandemic times? Or “maybe it’s just that everywhere else has upped its game?” Still, for the majority, “it’s wonderful and creates some of the best things ever eaten”.
7. The Ivy Montpellier Brasserie
British, Modern restaurant in Cheltenham
Rotunda Terrace, Montpellier Street - GL50
“Do ask to sit under the rotunda” – which makes this spin-off from the national chain “a memorable place to eat”. “The food is not memorable, but overall it is fine and predictable, one can rely on getting a decent meal”.
8. Lumière
British, Modern restaurant in Cheltenham
Clarence Parade - GL50
“Our best meal of the year!” – “we benchmark all fine dining experiences against Lumière and nobody beats them”, say fans of chef Jon Howe and his front-of-house wife Helen’s small restaurant, whose “unassuming exterior camouflages” a “gastronomic delight”. “Sophisticated, balanced dishes with exquisite flavour” are “served with skill and passion” – and it’s “come through lockdown even better than before”.
9. L’Artisan
French restaurant in Cheltenham
30 Clarence St - GL50
This warmly authentic Gallic spot from chef Yves and his wife Elisabeth Ogrodzki, veteran restaurateurs who have cooked their way to Cheltenham from Paris, Provence and rural Leicestershire, wins consistent high ratings – and thrilled Jay Rayner of The Observer for channelling another age (the ’80s) “and beautifully so”.
10. Kibou Cheltenham
Japanese restaurant in Cheltenham
Regent Arcade, Regent Street - GL50
“What a wonderful experience” – this original of what is now a national chain (branches in Bristol, London and Solihull) serves “wonderful sushi” and other Japanese dishes that are “as good if not better since it moved to larger premises” – “the most stressful part of visiting is choosing from the menu!”. Top Tip – “the aptly named volcano roll”.
11. Purslane
British, Modern restaurant in Cheltenham
16 Rodney Rd - GL50
Chef-patron Gareth Fulford’s “intimate restaurant with great food and wine” is “a long way from the sea, but the fish is always beautifully cooked and so tasty”. It’s also “fantastic value”, offering a range of options from 2 to 7 courses. “This is up there with my favourites – I just wished we lived nearer”.
12. Prithvi
Indian restaurant in Cheltenham
37 Bath Road - GL53
“Classy in every sense”, this elegant 11-year-old shows “attention to detail in every department” resulting in “excellently executed takes on classic Indian dishes”, underpinned by “exemplary service”. It moved a few years ago to elegant Pittville Park premises.
13. Cowley Manor
British, Modern restaurant in Cowley
Opened in summer 2023, this Cotswolds country house hotel near Cheltenham is now part of the Paris-based Experimental Group (owners of the Henrietta Hotel in Covent Garden). Jackson Boxer, chef-patron at high-profile London venues Brunswick House and Orasay, has been hired to take charge of the menu offered in the 50-cover dining room; there is also a 50-seat dining terrace.
14. Muse Brasserie
Fusion restaurant in Cheltenham
60 St George's Place - GL50
“Fabulous cooking, mixing Indian and French cuisines to offer unusual, superbly flavoured dishes” is the USP of this three-year-old collaboration, bringing together two chefs from very different culinary traditions – Franck Grillet and Pramod Tirunagari – and “it works!”, producing meals of “fine-dining quality in a relaxed bistro atmosphere, and at bistro prices”. The pair opened a spin-off in Bristol late last year.
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