Hertfordshire Restaurant Guide

“I felt like a judge on MasterChef!”. The 2015 runner-up in MC:The Professionals, Scott Barnard has created “a great new addition to the town” with this year-old, “most-amazing, intimate chef’s-table experience”, which features 14 seats around the counter of an open kitchen. “The food is good, sometimes great” and “the concept of watching Scott and his team prepare the tasting menu in front of you, with the opportunity to ask questions and get involved in fabulous conversation makes this an amazing culinary experience”. A Henley spin-off is planned to open next year.

“What a discovery, hidden away in the beautiful Chilterns!” in “a remote rural setting far from the madding crowd” – this “very characterful family-run pub” is highly rated for its “well-presented and slightly unusual cooking”. “You feel like you’re a million miles from anywhere, when in reality it’s only a 40-minute drive from London”.

Brothers James & Tom Bainbridge are behind this popular pitstop, on the village green, where the “food is above average for Hertfordshire gastropubs”, being split between relaxed pub classics and more adventurous British cuisine; the “ambience outside is particularly great”, and you can have “a lovely meal on a hot summer evening under the pergola”.

“A perfect experience – superb canapés, mains and desserts”: former Auberge du Lac chef Phil Thompson (from a family of chefs and butchers) wins consistently excellent ratings for his town-centre venue with a conservatory and terrace. “Never had a bad meal here”.

This former ballroom gains most praise for its “great breakfast/brunch” that makes “a brilliant way to start the weekend, with lots of free top-up coffee and newspapers to read”. In addition to “the best brews, home bakes and bagels”, there’s also a full dinner menu featuring sustainable local produce.

Revamped in summer 2018, this fifteenth-century pub-with-rooms nowadays incorporates a stylish dining conservatory, which – notwithstanding the odd downbeat report – scored very highly this year with its earthy, high quality cooking.

The “beautiful setting” – right on the lake, within an old hunting lodge on Lord Palmerston’s former estate – makes this rural hideaway a natural choice for a “lovely Sunday lunch” or “wonderful afternoon tea”. Its glory days foodwise (under JC Novelli in the early noughties) are long gone, but those who go unburdened by great foodie expectations enjoy its modern French cuisine and say the overall experience is “superb”.

“Friendly French owner” Laurent Brydniak oversees this “attractive” old boozer with separate dining room where the “menu changes regularly”. The set-up is fancier than one might expect for the genre, and the “very reasonable fixed-price menu at lunch” is a major draw.