Chalfont St Giles Restaurant Guide

“A great little pub with a lovely atmosphere”, leafily located beside a village green just outside Beaconsfield, serving food which “is certainly a cut above your average pub fare” from Tante Claire-trained Amanda Lillitou, who has run it with her husband Chris for 17 years.

“This wonderful neighbourhood restaurant with seriously good seasonal cooking” and “a relaxed, friendly environment” was launched back in 2011 by Terry Wogan’s daughter Katherine and her husband Henry – and is “still the very best in the area after all these years”, with “impeccable service from staff who are charming and helpful”. Top Tip – “Sunday lunch is sublime”.

2024 Review: This “great local” has had an up-and-down time of it of late, with the Gerrards Cross branch under new management, and The Grocer at 91, which had pivoted to being a food shop in the pandemic, now closed. On the plus side, this “very busy” outpost is still going strong with its “reliable” (if pricey) sandwiches, salads and toasties, and they also recently opened a new Amersham venue, The Grocer at 2 (Whielden St), spanning a grocery store and café.

2024 Review: “Tasty bistro food” is enjoyed in the “lovely setting” of a seventeenth-century former school in Old Amersham, a “cosy” local spot opened by the Gilbey’s gin dynasty 35 years ago. Founder Michael Gilbey passed away in summer 2022, and his widow, Lin, has put the site up for sale. (She also runs its sister restaurant in Eton.)

“Great curry house with friendly, helpful staff” – one of a trio (with siblings in Cookham and Marlow) that have been the last word in this corner of the Home Counties for top-class “authentic Indian cuisine with a price tag” since the late 1990s (Heston Blumenthal is a fan). Top Tip – “the Sunday buffet is an attractive outing”.

“A real delight” declares the strong local fan club of this “beautifully decorated out-of-town pub-cum-restaurant” in the heart of chichi Beaconsfield, which has been run since 2019 by Daniel Crump & Margriet Vandezande-Crump and has garnered no end of awards in that time. The food is very much not gastropub fare: you can eat à la carte (with mains about £40) or there’s a seven-course tasting menu for £110 per person and practically all reports say results are “superb”. One reporter this year, though, said that while “others seem entranced by this place, it seems to always be trying too hard and slightly misguided” (a view echoed by the Guardian’s Grace Dent in her August 2025 review who thought that “in a bid to be the best restaurant for miles around, they might just be missing the chance to be simply delicious”). For fans, though, “it just keeps getting better”.

2024 Review: This “great independent cafe recently changed hands when the owner sold it on to the longstanding manager” and, having initially been open just during the day (“very good salads and quiches” plus other South African-slanted breakfasts and brunch dishes and “excellent coffee”), it’s now also back to offering more complex meals at weekend dinners. Insufficient reports for a rating at this time of change.

“Very good Thai food” remains the order of the day at this “cramped” fixture of the local scene, whose extensive menu (wok dishes, curries, fresh papaya salads) represents excellent value for money. From Tuesday to Saturday there’s a lunchtime noodle bar, and they also do a swift trade as a takeaway.

A restaurant-within-a-restaurant, open in July 2025 within the town’s Crazy Bear (whose ownership was itself rejigged at the start of 2025). Well-known chef, Carlo Scotto, has come on board to bring an ambitious 14-seat chef’s table concept to the town in an open-kitchen environment whose launch PR promises ‘an intimate front-row seat to culinary artistry as it unfolds, with an atmosphere that feels more like a private dinner party than a conventional restaurant’. There are two experiences both with optional matched wines: the lighter, six-course ‘Carlo’s Edit’ (Tuesday to Saturday at 6pm) and ‘The Full Experience’ with eight courses (Tuesday to Saturday at 7.45pm). Sample dishes include Pickled Attika Kohlrabi, Langoustine, Jalapeno, Purple Shiso with Salad Burnet and a Moroccan Spiced Duck with morels.

A “classic English pub” that advertises itself as Britain’s oldest no less, and whose 900-year-old walls have welcomed more than their fair share of TV and film crews (‘The Theory of Everything’, ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Midsomer Murders’ were all shot there, the latter lending its name to their chicken pie). The menu takes in hearty soups, steaks and other pubby fare – and “what a fab atmosphere – it makes the food taste better”. Top Tip – if you want to compensate for the calories, the location offers “good post-meal walking options across fields and woods”.

Reopened after a £450,000 refurb and extension in May 2024, this venue from Heartwood Inns, founded by Raymond Blanc as the White Brasserie Company, offers a French-influenced menu of more ambition than most gastropubs.

You are advised to order 2-3 dishes apiece at this “lovely, little place in old Amersham”, praised consistently for its “brilliant small plates in a small space, and an excellent quirky wine list”. “Very friendly and welcoming” service adds to the experience. Top Tip – “Fantastic weekend brunch with great options that go beyond the norm”.

‘Bistro bar club’ is the sign advertising the presence of this cute eatery, where you eat in an inviting dining room underneath a pitched, wooden roof. All reports rate it highly all-round, with the “fantastic Sunday lunch” receiving a particular shout-out. A typical meal might incorporate Pig’s Cheek Croquette, followed by Grilled Monkfish and Strawberry Pavlova, but you can push the boat out and order 53 Day Aged Hereford Tomahawk for two at £130.

A “top choice for Spanish food” – this Hispanic high street haunt is run by owners Charlie Baxter with his wife Arantxa Fuentes and wins praise for some of the “best tapas ever”. Many familiar tapas options feature, and some dishes are substantial for sharing: for example Suckling pig shoulder, Stuffed Cornish spider crab cooked Basque style, or their signature Acorn fed 100% Iberian pork.

It has a star chef’s name over the door, but feedback was inconsistent this year regarding this outpost of Atul Kochhar’s empire of Indian restaurants. Amongst reports, one diner described dishes as plain “bizarre” and another who felt the “food is OK” added, “but it’s not worth the price and overall seems overhyped”.