Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Cheltenham
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Cheltenham restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 39 restaurants in Cheltenham and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Cheltenham restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Cheltenham Restaurants
1. The Wye Inn including Upstairs at The Wye
restaurant in Dymock
2 Broad Street - GL18
A traditional pub with a twist, The Wye Inn serves up nostalgic pub classics from award-winning chef Andrew Sheridan and his team. The Wye Inn has four unique dining areas including an outdoor Terrace with wood-fired pizza menu, and Upstairs @ The Wye Inn, a fine-dining offering serving an elegant tasting menu.
3. The Inn at Welland
British, Modern restaurant in Welland
Hook Bank, Drake Street - WR13
“All you want in a dining experience”: “interesting food, seasonal and of good provenance” (plus served in “reasonable” portions) is “professionally served by friendly staff” at this crowd-pleasing gastroboozer – a regular hit in our annual diners’ poll. While the low-key, New England-style dining room is “nice enough”, for spirit-raising views of the Malvern Hills dine in the garden under the glass canopy.
4. Corse Lawn Hotel
British, Traditional restaurant in Corse Lawn
2023 Review: In July 2022, Baba Hine put this long-established hotel (which she started with her late husband 40 years ago, and ran by herself for 17 years) on the market, having decided it’s time to retire. Incorporating a 40-cover restaurant and similar-sized bistro, it’s too soon as yet to predict the next chapter for this well-known establishment, hence for the time being it’s unrated.
5. Lumière
British, Modern restaurant in Cheltenham
Clarence Parade - GL50
John & Helen Howe’s “small dining room” just “gets better and better” and is nowadays the most highly rated restaurant in the area in our annual diners’ poll. “Inspired cooking with accuracy and precision, and with an ability to produce some unlikely but amazing combinations” with “intense individual flavours” characterises the glowing feedback we receive on the “sublime, seasonal tasting menus showcasing many of their home-grown vegetables and herbs plus wine flights and a well chosen wine list”. (“A great feature is the tablet on each table which allows diners to gain further information about the various courses”). “The atmosphere is calm, friendly and welcoming” and “the small team provides a warm welcome”. It accounts for many of our reporters’ best meal of the year, and though pricey, no-one begrudges the cost: “just wish we lived closer as visits involve an overnight stay in Cheltenham… but it’s most definitely worth it”.
6. Kibou Cheltenham
Japanese restaurant in Cheltenham
Regent Arcade, Regent Street - GL50
2023 Review: “What a wonderful experience” – this original of what is now a national chain (branches in Bristol, London and Solihull) serves “wonderful sushi” and other Japanese dishes that are “as good if not better since it moved to larger premises” – “the most stressful part of visiting is choosing from the menu!”. Top Tip – “the aptly named volcano roll”.
7. No. 3 Restaurants
British, Modern restaurant in Cheltenham
12 Royal Crescent - GL50
2022 Review: Rugby World Cup AND Celebrity MasterChef winner Phil Vickery has opened his own restaurant, with his wife Jules and chef Tom Rains, after a year of running a delivery service, No.3 at Home.
8. Purslane
British, Modern restaurant in Cheltenham
16 Rodney Rd - GL50
Just off the high street, this “understated” indie from Gareth Fulford pairs sustainably caught seafood with top Cotswolds produce. In addition to their excellent-value set lunches, tasting menus and bi-monthly-changing à la carte, they’ve “just started doing a once-a-month small- plates evening” showcasing British seafood, and the results are “very tasty and enjoyable”.
9. The Ivy Montpellier Brasserie
British, Modern restaurant in Cheltenham
Rotunda Terrace, Montpellier Street - GL50
“The rotunda is wonderful”, and “can make a visit stand out” at this branch of the ubiquitous chain, which otherwise conforms to type with “food and service that are professional, reliable and entirely anonymous” – “one could eat the same dish every day and find it unvarying, while being treated politely but distantly by the staff”.
10. Prithvi
Indian restaurant in Cheltenham
37 Bath Road - GL53
“Expensive but wonderful fine-dining Indian food that’s definitely several cuts above your average curry house” maintains Jay Rahman’s interesting venue as one of the town’s main culinary destinations. Chef Thomas Law combines subcontinental flavours and spicing with modern European culinary ideas to create “elegant” dishes that are “a real treat”. In February 2024, they announced they are on the hunt for a second site in the Cotswolds.
11. No 131
British, Modern restaurant in Cheltenham
131 Promenade - GL50
2022 Review: In a prime town-centre location, this luxurious hotel (ultimately owned by Superdry founder Julian Dunkerton) is converted from a trio of Georgian townhouses. On limited feedback in this survey, the themes here are the same as in previous years: “attractive setting and good food… but all at a high price”.
12. The Coconut Tree
International restaurant in Cheltenham
59 Saint Paul's Road - GL50
2022 Review: Part of a now eight-strong chain, this youthfully spirited Sri Lankan street-food venture is a laid-back and “homely” (mostly bar stool seating) spot to indulge in some “delicious” sharing plates and wacky “cocktails” – the latter sometimes on fire; best bit – it's “not pricey”, either.
13. Le Champignon Sauvage
British, Modern restaurant in Cheltenham
24-28 Suffolk Rd - GL50
“Champignon never fails to deliver outstanding cooking and amazingly good value” and “it is remarkable how such high standards have been maintained over such a long time” – that’s the unanimous verdict this year in the good number of reports on this famous foodie Mecca: a traditional temple of gastronomy run by David & Helen Everitt-Matthias since 1987, which famously closes whenever David cannot be at the stoves. The cooking continues to be truly accomplished and shouts out the personality of the chef: qualities which remain exactly the same as those which guests have experienced for decades. Each year, reporters say that “this remains the standard to which I compare other places” – the cooking is “always original, seasonal, well judged, and carefully presented (whilst avoiding the irritating Instagrammability sometimes found elsewhere)”. “Service is both friendly and professional, and Helen presides over the room and the wine with grace”. There is a notably strong wine list and also an “amazing cheese selection”. Even fans note that “some might find the room sedate”, while adding: “I’d prefer to say serene; tables are well-spaced and the atmosphere is calm and good-humoured. If there is a better place to enjoy terrific cooking whilst having a good conversation, I’d like to know about it!”
14. Bhoomi
Indian restaurant in Cheltenham
52 Suffolk Rd - GL50
“The Keralan cooking is always good and the service is lovely” at this popular spot from Michael Raphel (owner of Prithvi and Holee Cow), whose chef grandfather came to Britain from South India 50 years ago. “At lunchtime the thalis are a delight and exceptional value”. There’s now a spinoff branch in Oxford.
15. 5 North Street
British, Modern restaurant in Winchcombe
5 North St - GL54
“Delicious, innovative food served in an intimate setting” has been the draw at chef Gus Ashenford and his wife Kate’s former Cotswold village tearoom for 22 years. The cooking is rooted in the classical French cuisine of Gus’s mentor, the late Michel Roux senior, but the ratings were dragged down this year by a reporter who felt “the food is interesting and individual, but not as exceptional as my last visit some years ago”.
16. The Butcher’s Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Eldersfield
Lime St - GL19
2021 Review: It’s still early days for Grain Store chef, Mark Block, who took over this celebrated county inn in January 2018. While there’s the odd complaint – of food that’s “competent but has no zing” – the general sense is that, despite the former regime being “quite a tough act to follow, it’s doing nicely under the new ownership”: no longer chasing Michelin stars, but “very much a rural pub with good food”.
17. The Woolpack Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Slad
Slad Road - GL6
This “beautiful traditional country pub, a favourite of Laurie Lee, has bags of atmosphere and views over the Slad Valley” – and is one of the few to offer regular tarot readings! “The food is amazing, with a real Italian twist and lots of fresh, in-season ingredients” – often just “three ingredients on a round white plate, done to perfection”. Daniel Chadwick, the landlord for 25 years, opened a spinoff bistro called Juliet in nearby Stroud in autumn 2024. Top Menu Tip – “devilled kidneys starter a must”.
18. Wheatsheaf Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Northleach
West End - GL54
2022 Review: Superdry sartorial star Julian Dunkerton, behind the Lucky Onion Cotswold group, owns this “reliable and buzzing” country hotel, where “amazing local ingredients” are “beautifully cooked in a gorgeous setting”. The odd service blip but it's “overall a very memorable eating experience”.
19. Buckland Manor
British, Modern restaurant in Buckland
2023 Review: A “country house atmosphere”, “excellent service” and “delicious food” win praise from fans of this “beautiful” Cotswolds hotel – owned by greetings card mogul Andrew Brownsword – and it “should please every romantic”. Ratings were dragged down, though, by other reporters who feel that the house is “lovely but tired”, while “the food is good-ish, but certainly could be better”.
20. The Bell at Sapperton
British, Modern restaurant in Sapperton
2021 Review: A “charming, lovely and well-run village pub” that “has had its ups and downs, but seems to be on an ‘up’ at the moment”; and serving an “interesting but not over-ambitious menu”.
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