Hertfordshire Restaurant Guide

“Consistently lovely” French food and “helpful staff” led by “genial owner Laurent Brydniak” and his wife Aude ensure that a meal at this “fantastic restaurant is always wonderful” – “I love the small rooms with just a few tables in each”.

By the lake of the Brocket Hall estate, this former hunting lodge achieved fame in the early noughties but hasn’t since fully capitalised on its characterful style and beautiful location. Originally set to reopen after a major refurb in April 2022, it will now be 2023 before it is officially relaunched, although new chef John Barber will be organising pop-up events from October 2022 as an opportunity to try out some of his new dishes and entice diners to return once the Auberge re-opens.

“This lovely country pub” run by brothers Tom (a self-taught cook) and James Bainbridge (a former Fat Duck manager) wins consistent ratings for its high-quality cooking using “good-quality meat and fresh, tasty ingredients”. There’s a “lovely ambience and service to match”, all at “amazing value-for-money prices”.

Chef-patron Phil Thompson’s “lovely food continues to excite” at the restaurant he has owned for 10 years (formerly known as Darcy’s) – which makes an “excellent place for a leisurely romantic evening”. His classical style reflects his early years cooking for the Galvin brothers and Marco Pierre White.

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.

With its inviting décor, this fast-expanding group has been a big “winner” since the pandemic, mushrooming to 18 sites, all of which have generally proved useful additions to their respective areas. But while “it certainly looks the part, and the staff look after you well enough”, the brunch-friendly fare can be hit ’n’ miss, with reports ranging from “surprisingly good” to “formulaic and really abysmal”. Top Tip – “always a top option for feeding the family”.

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.

“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.

“Great food” from “an imaginative menu” makes this “delightful traditional farmhouse hotel” a real “local favourite” – and a useful bolthole just 25 minutes from London. But service, particularly from junior staff, “can be hit and miss”, and some find the new conservatory (opened February 2022) to be “very noisy with sound bouncing off the hard surfaces”.

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.

2021 Review: 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.

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”.

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”.

2022 Review: “Best restaurant I’ve been to for a long time. It blew our socks off!” – limited but highly enthusiastic feedback on this offbeat ‘restaurant led by nature’: part of a hard-to-define wellbeing hotel near London and set in airy converted stables. The food is led by the Dairy/Sorella’s Robin Gill and Ben Rand in a tasting format, and can be “outstanding”. (The Guardian’s Grace Dent also raved in her September 2020 review).

2021 Review: A former boathouse on the high street, turned hotel and dining room, that remains of note for its “delightful food impeccably served in a not overcrowded restaurant” – though you’ll need to book ahead on weekends, when they also lay on a “good Sunday lunch”.

This “lovely old gastropub with way above average cooking” “keeps up the standard year on year” – chef-patron James Wix and his wife Bianca have run it for almost 20 years. There’s a “lovely atmosphere and friendly staff”, and James’s “first-class cooking” has plenty of European influences.

This “really buzzy upmarket Turkish restaurant” puts a modern slant on the traditional Anatolian grill. It makes a “great local addition” to Cockfosters, and celebrates its tenth year in 2023.

2019 Review: “An oasis” in Whetstone and the outer fringes of north London, which locals reckon is the best bet in the area for “good food and friendly, excellent service”.

This ‘country pub’ in Totteridge village, on London’s northern fringe, boasts a global menu that covers everything from oriental-inspired dishes to steaks from the grill, and wins a general thumbs-up from reporters.