Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in St Albans
Hardens guides have spent 32 years compiling reviews of the best St Albans restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 24 restaurants in St Albans and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing St Albans restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured St Albans Restaurants
1. Tabure
Turkish restaurant in St Albans
6 Spencer Street - AL3
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.
2. Megan's at the Old Bell
British, Modern restaurant in St Albans
22 Chequer Street - AL1
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”.
3. Lussmanns
British, Modern restaurant in St Albans
Waxhouse Gate, High St - AL3
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.
4. Dylans Kings Arms
British, Modern restaurant in St Albans
7 George Street - AL3
“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.
5. Thompson
British, Modern restaurant in St Albans
2 Hatfield Rd - AL1
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.
6. The Prae Wood Arms
British, Traditional restaurant in St Albans
Garden House Lane - AL3
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”.
7. Centurion Club
French restaurant in Hemel Hempstead
Centurion Club, Hemel Hempstead Road - HP3
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”.
8. Auberge du Lac
British, Modern restaurant in Welwyn
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.
9. The Waggoners
French restaurant in Welwyn
Brickwall Close, Ayot Grn - AL6
“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”.
10. The Glasshouse, The Grove
British, Traditional restaurant in Chandler's Cross
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.
11. Luton Hoo, Luton Hoo Hotel
International restaurant in Luton
The Mansion House, Luton Hoo Estate - LU1
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.
12. St James
British, Modern restaurant in Bushey
30 High St - WD23
“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.
13. Prime Steak & Grill
Steaks & grills restaurant in Chandler's Cross
Redhall Lane - WD3
“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.
14. The Alford Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Frithsden
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”.
15. Savoro
British, Modern restaurant in Barnet
206 High Street - EN5
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”.
16. The Bricklayers Arms
British, Traditional restaurant in Flaunden
Hogpits Bottom - HP3
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”.
17. The Gatsby
British, Modern restaurant in Berkhamsted
97 High St - HP4
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.
18. The Rising Sun
Italian restaurant in Mill Hill
137 Marsh Ln - NW7
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”.
19. Zaza
Italian restaurant in Berkhamsted
21-23 Lower Kings Road - HP4
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”.
20. Elephant & Castle
British, Modern restaurant in Wheathampstead
Amwell Lane - AL4
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.”
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