Maidensgrove Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: This cosy brick and flint seventeenth-century pub has the seal of approval from cake deity Mary Berry no less, while reports – although on the scant side – generally proclaim it for some “really good” grub (not least the two-course set lunch); extensive gardens are an added boon.

“Great food, great live music and great attention to detail” add up to “a perfect venue” at this country pub, run for 35 years by former rock musician and self-taught chef Paul Clerehugh (ex-Sweet). It’s a “lovely building with great décor and a nice atmosphere”, and if the “portions are way too big” – most guests are very happy with that.

2023 Review: Chef-patron Olivier Bouet, who had presented “excellent rustic French cuisine” at this Chilterns village gastropub for five years, recently moved on, and the new owners reopened in July 2022, announcing their plans for an ‘eclectic modern British menu with South African influence and popular grill favourites. Every item on the menu will be made on the premises’. It’s a big change of style, hence for the time being we’ve left it unrated.

2021 Review: Henley residents can now save on the rail fare to ‘The Smoke’. Hot on the heels of opening a luxury food court in Harrods, the famous store’s first café outside London is to open in late 2019 on the market place of this chichi town (in what was formerly a branch of Nicolas). We are promised an experience akin to the new food hall approach recently adopted in SW1: ‘a menu of dine-in and dine-out options, replicating the current food-to-go and deli offering’ in Knightsbridge.

Set on the water by the town bridge over the Thames, a “typically old-school” outfit that’s “family-run”, “long-established” and “excellent value for money” for what is “authentic Italian food”; you dine in a smart, tiled room with a “nice buzz” and “well-paced service”.

This “very old pub in a great location next to Henley Bridge” has been a scenic boozer for yonks, but now comes in a “fabulous new incarnation”, having been taken over by seasoned restaurateurs Matt Dockray and Phil Renner, who relaunched in late 2022. The hugely stylish interior (not least in the vaulted dining room, strewn with trinkets) makes it a “great place for a first date”, and there are positive early reports on the elevated pub classics by head chefs Joshua Wilde and George O’Leary – both previously senior sous-chefs at Tom Kerridge’s Marlow joints The Coach, and The Hand and Flowers.

“Perhaps the best located restaurant on the Thames” in these parts provides a “great river view and a good buzz”. Run by Shuan Dicken, it provides an all-day menu that offers an easygoing selection of straightforward dishes, especially a “top breakfast”. It used to offer fancier fare, though, and the odd reporter feels the ambition is a little “basic” nowadays.

A short drive from Henley, Antony & Jay Worrall Thompson’s attractive gastropub serves a globally inspired menu with burgers and steaks a highlight of the selection. Fans – including those on a trip out of ‘the smoke’ – rate it as a “reliable” destination.

“Great cheese toasties” – dripping with home-produced cheese and consumed “before or after a walk” – are the attraction at this ultra-casual spot on a family-run dairy farm which believes in “keeping things simple”: it is literally a modern agricultural shed to keep off the rain with bales of straw to sit on.

Smart pub with nine guest rooms near Henley-on-Thames from Sika Inns, run by a former Harwood Arms duo. The menu features game from the estate, from a kitchen headed by ex-Claude Bosi exec chef Dom Robinson.

2022 Review: For “restaurant-quality food in a lovely country setting” head to this country pub, a few miles from Henley-on-Thames. The venue has been serving locals since 1860, and continues to draw positive reports for its simple yet refined seasonal plates.