Shepperton Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: “The best by far in the locality” – with “upmarket pub food that puts many expensive restaurants to shame” – this “buzzing” gastroboozer is “always excellent, whether you want a quick lunch or are celebrating a special occasion”. Top Tip – “walk there along the towpath on a sunny summer evening”.

“Contemporary Indian cooking with flair and finesse” makes for an attractive dining option in the outer ’burbs at this colonial-style villa – a sister venue to Manor Vasaikar’s highly regarded Indian Zing, near Hammersmith. “The taste-stimulating amuse bouche to kick-off is definitely a harbinger of things to come” – (and “the loo decor must be seen...”).

2021 Review: A refurbishment/relaunch a few years ago added to the charms of this good all-round boozer, handy pre- or post catching the nags at Sandown Park, whose food was consistently well-rated last year.

The “only upmarket Chinese in the area” – and part of an eight-strong, otherwise London-based, chain; admittedly the “menu hasn’t changed in decades” (this location opened in 1980) and they don’t tend to treat diners to specials, but reporters “love it” all the same – and “the outstanding team match the quality of the food”.

The intimate, seven-table dining room at this grand manor-house hotel features a tapestried wall and spectacular Tudor fireplace, making it an ideal showcase for ambitious and refined classical meals from chef Alex Payne, who grew up a mile away in Egham and trained under Heston Blumenthal and Gordon Ramsay. The hotel also serves smart afternoon teas in the Anne Boleyn drawing room and relaxed meals in the Estate Grill, with an impressive vaulted ceiling.

“The best Middle Eastern for miles” – a smart operation, handy for Hampton Court Palace, that offers “bold flavours a world away from many Lebanese places”; there is “lots on offer to explore – if anything perhaps too much”, and also a newer offshoot, Mezzet Dar, a couple of doors down, that turns out Spanish and Lebanese-inspired tapas.

Food TV staple José Pizarro’s first outfit outside the capital – and first gastroboozer (with rooms) – is set in “a not-completely-obvious location” in the Surrey ‘burbs. Reviews were slightly muted this year: while most praised the “great modern Spanish food” (including “fabulous tapas”), others noted a lack of atmosphere (“wouldn’t be hard to make it feel a bit more intimate”).

2021 Review: FKA ‘The Manor at Foxhills’: this “beautiful” dining room of a top golf course – set in an impressive Victorian manor house – “has been refurbished, with no carpets or window furnishings so it’s noisier than it used to be”. Too little feedback as yet from which to rate this new, more modern guise, but prices are not punishing and there is a menu for ‘Young Adults’. A traditional afternoon tea in the adjoining plush lounge is still an option.

From a growing popular chain of ‘no membership’ clubs, this comfortable venue has a bar, lounge, orangery and terrace, along with “fun” all-weather igloos on the roof, in which to graze on a pretty standard all-day menu of Italian-inspired dishes, including pizza and pasta. Not a culinary fave rave, but handy for many occasions.

2023 Review: A couple of excellent reports suggest it’s worth considering this old pub reinvented as a hotel and restaurant (a couple of years ago), between the maze of Hampton Court Palace and Bushy Park. The refit is very attractive and the menu of superior gastropub fare is well-rated.

The Rarebreed Dining Group’s boozer is far from your regular beast: the in-house butchery and smokery turns out “excellent” meaty cuts including chateaubriand, t-bone or sous-vide sirloin; in August they also run an outdoor cinema if you’d like some celluloid after your steak.

2022 Review: Having opened high street hit Osso Buco[s] in 2011, owner Elena Vahedi and her husband ventured into more trendy, casual eating territory in the same location with this equally popular Italian, born in 2018. “Top pizza” of the wood-fired variety (and wonderful pasta too) has earned it a real local following.

Still on top form after 27 years, scrum-half-turned-chef JP (Jean-Philippe) Gravier and his FOH English wife Kim won particularly strong feedback this year for the “fresh and creative dishes in a charming environment” at their classic Gallic bistro across the river from Hampton Court Palace. It’s “family-run from top to bottom”, with daughter Victoria working in the kitchen these days – so “what’s not to love”?