St Albans Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: This “very good modern Turk” uses high-quality ingredients, including organic meats from Wales, to produce some interesting meals in this under-served town, and it “gets busy and can be very noisy”. There’s a spinoff branch in Berkhamsted.

With its inviting décor, this fast-expanding group has been a big “winner” since the pandemic, mushrooming to 18 sites, all of which have generally proved useful additions to their respective areas. But while “it certainly looks the part, and the staff look after you well enough”, the brunch-friendly fare can be hit ’n’ miss, with reports ranging from “surprisingly good” to “formulaic and really abysmal”. Top Tip – “always a top option for feeding the family”.

With its “tasty food” and “unusual setting” in a glass-roofed modern building next to the eleventh-century cathedral, this well-priced local bistro with an emphasis on sustainable cuisine makes “a good base for lunch or dinner”. It is part of Andrei Lussmann’s five-strong Hertfordshire-based group.

“Top grub, a cut above the local culinary landscape”, has earned a devoted following for this fifteenth-century pub in the St Albans cathedral quarter, named after a dog belonging to landlord Sean Hughes – who “continues to be the host with the most”. The menu changes monthly, but may include a smoked duck Caesar Scotch egg, or a spectacular prime rib of English dairy cow to share at £80.

Chef-patron Phil Thompson’s “lovely food continues to excite” at the restaurant he has owned for 10 years (formerly known as Darcy’s) – which makes an “excellent place for a leisurely romantic evening”. His classical style reflects his early years cooking for the Galvin brothers and Marco Pierre White.

2019 Review: A “beautiful location” – this “large, rambling and well-spaced” Georgian private home was opened as a gastropub by the Chester-based Brunning & Price chain in 2016, and has quickly built a solid reputation for a “pleasant” menu “full of excellent choices”, “allied with good service”.

2019 Review: “A modern interior, with views of the golf course” sets the scene at this Galvin Brothers yearling, which on most – if not quite all – accounts provides “a good welcome”, “high quality” cooking and a “relaxing” atmosphere. It’s a popular haunt for business entertaining, for which “there’s a perfect setting alongside the 18th fairway and a delightful lounge that feeds into the restaurant, where you can talk shop pre-, post- or during lunch”.

By the lake of the Brocket Hall estate, this former hunting lodge achieved fame in the early noughties but hasn’t since fully capitalised on its characterful style and beautiful location. Originally set to reopen after a major refurb in April 2022, it will now be 2023 before it is officially relaunched, although new chef John Barber will be organising pop-up events from October 2022 as an opportunity to try out some of his new dishes and entice diners to return once the Auberge re-opens.

“Consistently lovely” French food and “helpful staff” led by “genial owner Laurent Brydniak” and his wife Aude ensure that a meal at this “fantastic restaurant is always wonderful” – “I love the small rooms with just a few tables in each”.

2021 Review: “Just reopened and even better than before”, this ultra-lux country-house hotel has an unusual ‘high-concept’ buffet-style dining room inspired by Asian food halls, with chefs cooking at eight ‘live action food stations’ (robata grill, seafood, tandoor oven et al), from which guests choose as much as they want. It’s not fine dining, but it is good-value in its way and it’s something-for-everyone style suits entertaining or a family get-together.

2021 Review: Afternoon tea is “a real treat” in the “wonderful and friendly surroundings” of this country house hotel and spa, whose claim to fame is that it appeared in ‘Four Weddings’. Reports of more substantial meals here are more up-and-down.

“This stalwart carries on doing good food well” after 25 years in Bushey village, and is “an oasis in the culinary wilderness of West Herts”. “Under the benevolent guidance of Alfonso La Cava”, it “offers the best dining experience in the area. Lunches and early-evening table d’hôte meals are particularly good value”. Afternoon tea is served in its Betsy’s Tearoom.

“Lovely steaks and Sunday roasts” plus “lots of fresh vegetables and salads” tick the boxes at this local trio (branches in St Albans and Beaconsfield), specialising in British grass-fed beef, dry-aged on the bone. The banquette seating and kids’ activity sheets and menu make them good “family-friendly” eating options.

An “absolute favourite pub” – this “lovely spot” in a wooded valley just north of London is a “good local standby” that “is very popular at weekends, when booking is advisable”. “We would go back, less for the food perhaps, but certainly for the location and ambience”.

2021 Review: A former boathouse on the high street, turned hotel and dining room, that remains of note for its “delightful food impeccably served in a not overcrowded restaurant” – though you’ll need to book ahead on weekends, when they also lay on a “good Sunday lunch”.

Emphatically “not your most ordinary pub” – this ivy-clad Georgian boozer in a “lovely countryside setting” has been well run by Sally & Alvin Michaels for twenty-odd years, and boasts a “good menu of delicious food”.

2021 Review: “Well cooked and presented meals” – and “good value”, too – are served at this unusual venue in the foyer of the beautifully preserved 1930s Rex cinema. There’s also a cocktail bar with live pianist – and a particularly strong lunch and pre-film menu.

This “busy, picturesque pub” – a Grade-II listed 16th-century building in Mill Hill – serves “delicious and beautifully presented Anglo-Italian grub”. It’s run by “energetic brothers” Luca and Matteo Delnevo, who have “developed a loyal and upmarket following”.

2022 Review: Set in a “lovely building” with tables under a 200-year-old olive tree, this restaurant – one of eight in a local chain – is frequently packed with regulars, who come back for its “good honest Italian fare at a reasonable price”. There’s “something for everyone on the menu”.

2022 Review: Popular with walkers, this attractive eighteenth-century boozer is “very cosy inside and out” (the latter courtesy of a “godsend” of an outdoor tipi). On the culinary front, it's “a cut above pub grub, with surprisingly well-cooked and presented food, especially the fish dishes, and good veggie options too”. “Their own beer (Farr Brew) is also very fresh and tasty.”