Knapp Restaurant Guide

“A lovely traditional out-of-the-way pub with lovely traditional pub food”, this ancient thatched village inn is these days owned and run by Ben Maschler (son of restaurant critic Fay and a former operations director at Soho House) and long-term fans say “it never fails to please”, with a menu that offers hearty country dishes alongside more ‘pubby’ options.

2022 Review: “A friendly and welcoming atmosphere” marks out this thatched fifteenth-century gastroboozer, where the “high-quality fresh local produce” (but also more adventurous sourcing, including from Paris’s famous Rungis market) leads to some “interesting variations on the traditional style”.

Born in 1740 but updated for modern times – a country inn on the edge of the rolling parkland of the Fonthill Estate, not far from Salisbury. “Too many pubs serve food that is overpriced and disappointing, but not here though” – a “fab place” where you can expect “superb cooking every time”, be it suckling pig, wood-fired pizzas or local meat and game (“a lunch featuring duck lingers long in the memory”). Want to overnight? There are plush bedrooms and lodges but the pick of the accommodation is the ‘Arch’ which sits at the entrance to the Fonthill Estate’s driveway.

“Wessex meets India” at this smart curry house with a longstanding fan club – “I’ve been once or twice a year for two decades and it’s always a treat: the food is unchanged, although the style is now more casual”. For many it is “a go-to meal when round the corner at the theatre, and it always rounds out a great evening”.

2022 Review: “Consistently good and authentic street food” with “lots of extras” ensure a “very different Indian experience” at Muhammed Rasheed’s five-year-old, close to the cathedral. There’s a shaded patio out the back and craft beer available.

2023 Review: This “brilliant thatched country pub” has “lots of game dishes” on its menu – appropriately enough for a traditional establishment in the historical hunting landscape of Cranborne Chase. “Vegetarians and vegans are well provided for” too, while there’s also a “well-stocked bar with local ales and a reasonably priced wine list”.

“Just heaven”. “You can’t get more idyllic than a meal here sat in the most beautiful walled kitchen garden” of Darren Brown’s Wiltshire destination (est. 2016) – “out of the way (but handy for the A303)” – “it is so relaxing, and such a treat and the surroundings are so beautiful with their mixture of flowers and vegetables and herbs”. “On the Cote d’Azur it would work fine most of the year. In Wiltshire it is often cold and wet at which time you eat indoors in Spartan conditions (at which times ambience 2/5 at best)”. When it comes to the cooking (much of it over an open fire), they “really make an attempt to be green with lots of own-grown stuff, retired dairy cows for meat etc. you can even pick a bunch of flowers to take home!”. But what is plain “magical” to some, is more nuanced to sceptics, who say: “problem is, the food’s not that good, with relatively little choice in practice and combinations that are seasonal but don’t always work”. Likewise service can be “enthusiastic but not always knowledgeable”. Still, mostly the vibes here are positive. Top Menu Tip – “They bring you a non-alcoholic fizzy wine to kick things off and it’s the best thing – not sweet but deliciously refreshing. Some good bread and a dip to kick things off, then the main event, you either pick meat or veggie; then all the sides, with veg straight from the garden all so fresh and beautifully accompanied with herbs and butters”.

2022 Review: “Amazing food and friendly service” characterise this “impressive” restaurant on the edge of the New Forest, run for more than 20 years by chef Mike Womersley (ex-Lucknam Park) and his wife Jayne. “The ambience has been transformed by a refurbishment – a welcome surprise since our last visit”.

“Superb French cuisine in outstanding New Forest scenery” attracts a dedicated following for this characterful country bistro, whose “delightful ambience” and “friendly, very Gallic service” are directed by patron Claude Laage, originally from Alsace, who founded the establishment more than 30 years ago. This year’s biggest gripe? “A bit less emphasis on red meat in the mains and 20th-century British confectionery brands in the desserts would make it even better!”

This “lovely” red-brick gastroboozer in a New Forest village recently changed hands, and is now run by the same team as The Royal Oak at North Gorley. The menu offers British classics with a twist, and based on “really top-quality ingredients”, whether you go for the Sunday roasts or finer dining. There’s also a “garden with well-spaced tables for the summer and pleasant walks close by” – and, should you wish to overnight, you can stay in the dedicated ‘Desert Orchid’ room, which draws its name from the Grand National winner, whose former HQ, the Whitsbury Manor Stables, is just behind the building.

Guy Ritchie’s new smokehouse restaurant at Compton Abbas Airfield took flight in May 2025 (too late for any survey feedback), blending Texas-style BBQ (e.g. oak-smoked pork belly, Smokehouse nachos, and a slow-braised jackfruit burger) with views of the 1960s airfield and the Dorset countryside (it’s a sibling to his Fitzrovia pub, Lore of the Land). All this, plus draught beers, ales, and ciders from local breweries, including ‘Altitude’ lager, created in-house.

“Recently refurbished to a very high standard”, with a “beautiful, airy restaurant and cosy bar”, this pub-with-rooms three miles from Stonehenge is part of the Great Durnford estate (owned by hedgie Ross Turner & his wife Gemma). Ex-Moor Hall chef Jordan Taylor prepares sustainable meals using “lovely local produce”, including foraged ingredients and game from the estate (although you won’t see the bird after which it is named on the menu: hunted to extinction in England by the 1830s, the great bustard has been successfully reintroduced here in the last few years).