Smithfield, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

This “brilliant inn on the fringe of the Peak District” was praised this year for its “well above average and varied fresh fare”, from a menu that skips happily from Chinese-style bao buns to Thai fish dishes and Indian-spiced cauliflower. “Dan, the owner, ensures a great atmosphere – as does a surprisingly large crowd of regulars” (plus their furry friends, this being a venue that is “very dog-friendly, which we really appreciated for our puppy’s first meal out!”). Directly next door is the owners’ more casual sister pub, The Paper Mill Inn, for pizzas, pies and regular pop-ups.

“In the beautiful foothills of the Peak District”, a “cosy pub with its open fire, good draft beers and, importantly, a kitchen that can cook fish”, whether you go for Josper-roasted catch or a slap-up fish ’n’ chips. Far from a neophyte, the venue has graced this village since way back in the mid-1700s, with less antique additions including a new beer cellar and three boutique bedrooms.

2022 Review: Patrick Hannity's decade-old spin-off from his Manchester original is less well known than its progenitor but is “usually excellent”, too; the food is “light, balanced and filled with flavour”, incorporating produce from his Peak District farm.

2023 Review: Fooderati insider Thom Hetherington was amongst those sending out an SOS on behalf of this well-regarded neighbourhood restaurant in his hometown, which was gutted by fire in September 2022. By the end of the month it had crowdfunded the money to re-open and restore its mix of funky small plates (typically you would order 7-8 in a meal), plus gins, cocktails and a thoughtful small selection of wines.

“Very modern, Scandi-style with much foraging and fermenting” characterise the dishes at Sam Buckley’s famous foodie destination, which occupies the “beautiful”, airy space of a brick-walled former coffee warehouse in central Stockport, complete with bright windows and hip post-industrial vibes. It’s all “very well done and service is very good” too, but it’s never inspired the vast volume of feedback that its illustrious reputation would imply, perhaps due to what has historically been the high expense of dining here. Perhaps that’s all about to change, though, as in September 2025 the venue announced a major change of gear, with a considerably cheaper, new five-course sharing menu for £75 per person, with the aim stated on its website of “a format that feels more open, more generous and more relaxed”. What’s more: “The chefs’ table will always be open to walk-ins, offering wines and cocktails by the glass, along with a bar menu for those who just want a drink and a small bite”. More reports on the new approach please!

2022 Review: A collaboration between Sheffield cook Richard Smith, his restaurateur wife Victoria and the award-winning craft brewers Thornbridge; “creative fish dishes” feature alongside meats – all well-singed on the fancy Bertha indoor charcoal oven – and the “great location” (skirting the Peak District) makes it particularly “good for outdoor eating”.

Open in 2023 in the former premises of a pre-Victorian bank, this local two-year-old received a boost in July 2025 from The Times’s Giles Coren, who was strong-armed into a visit by former Tory minister Edwina Currie, now a colleague of his at Times Radio, to test her insistence that Derbyshire is “the fine dining capital of the civilised world”. The review detailed some “well-balanced and tasty” dishes all at “single digit price[s not seen] on a menu since before lockdown”. Our feedback is too thin for a rating but backs up Edwina’s enthusiasm.

“In an attractive old cotton-spinning and paper-making village” – reached after “a lovely drive over the Derbyshire dales” (although it’s also “full of walkers” who’ve arrived on foot) – a “wonderfully welcoming gastropub” run by husband-and-wife team Luke & Emma Payne. The former oversees dishes that are “packed with flavour”.

“In the middle of nowhere but definitely worth the journey” (even on a “very wet, very dark winter’s night”), Britain’s fifth oldest pub – formerly ‘Ye Olde Bull’s Head’, which was brought back to life by current owner Raab Dykstra-McCarthy, having fallen into disrepair in 2007. By all accounts, the 12th-century inn is a “special place for exquisite food” (“small and large plates eaten with a great view of the countryside”), and even if you go on “pie & quiz night, when pies dominate the mains”, all the cooking is “faultless”. Bonus points for the “well-spaced tables and calm atmosphere, so you can have a good conversation without having to shout”. They also have five bedrooms and a cottage if you wish to avoid a repeat of the “testing” journey by night.

This “superb country-house restaurant-with-rooms is a real delight”, with a “small-but-perfectly formed à la carte menu”, “professional and friendly staff”, and wines selected by sommelier-owner Alistair Myers – set in a “peaceful village in the Peak District”, it is an “offshoot of the venerable Rafters in Sheffield”. Last year Myers acquired the Old Eyre Arms in Hassop, an ivy-clad pub he passed regularly on the road between the two Rafters.

The “unbeatable” combination of “delicious food, good menu options and excellent service” “never disappoints” at this modern British outfit in the Peak District. Chef-patron Lee Smith grew up in nearby Mansfield and made his name cooking at Jersey restaurant Samphire before crowd-funding his debut here in 2020.