Hertfordshire Restaurant Guide

Part of the new Hertford House hotel collection (and just up the road from it), a tapas and pintxos bar that features wood-fired cooking.

Chef Andrew Clarke, formerly of St Leonards and Tramshed is in charge of this new hotel restaurant in Hertfordshire; the hotel also boasts The Store House deli and a pop-up takeaway The Hole in the Wall, as well as Anexo a few doors away.

The restaurant at the Jacobean country pile Hatfield House is now being run by Restaurant Associates; there's a courtyard garden for al fresco dining. Open from breakfast and brunch, through to lunch and afternoon teas

“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 two-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 last year with its earthy, high quality cooking.