Cookham Dean, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: “Good food at a fair price” was reported again this year at this well-regarded pub: part of a local group with siblings in Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield. In good weather you can eat on the terrace, or book an ‘Oak Pod’ which seats up to 6 people, and incorporate a heater.

“Simply delicious British classics are executed to a high standard” at Tom Kerridge’s relaxed alternative to his famous (and over-pricey) flagship The Hand & Flowers just up the road, and a “very good-value set lunch” (two courses for £20 per person, three for £25 per person) adds to the appeal – no wonder several reporters “prefer it to the H&F”. “Every visit produces something special”, and there’s a “really lovely atmosphere, chatting with the chefs at the counter while watching them at their craft”. Top Tip – these days you can book on the day of your visit, so “book early”.

“The third Tom Kerridge pub in Marlow” (and far from the best-known), this “exciting” local boozer and butcher’s “took its time to find its feet”, but is now “really buzzy and a true carnivore’s dream”; “okay, it is expensive for supposedly pub food, but it’s not like any normal pub…you select your meat/steak or cut from the butcher’s counter”, as per their ‘Meat Locker’ concept, “sit down with your pint, and wait for it to be brought to you cooked as you ordered it” (namely “in unadorned splendour”, though they do offer fancy sides if you want to pimp things up).

“Ridiculous!”. “We’ve been to a lot of Michelin star restaurants, and we know this is a pub and not a tasting menu restaurant, but, sorry, only a limited choice of dishes for each course and very expensive for what they are at that” – typical feedback this year on Tom Kerridge’s famous Thames Valley boozer. Its fame was sealed in 2012 when it became the first pub in the world to be awarded two Michelin Stars, but after a sunny heyday and many years of celebratory reviews, its trajectory in recent times has been of steady decline and this year’s feedback was by far the worst yet. Over half of reporters consider the experience their most overpriced of the year, and – aside from the ludicrous prices – the food itself also takes flak for being “uninspiring” or “too salty”, with expressions like “inedible” and “made me angry” starting to feature in one or two accounts. It’s frankly hard not to conclude that only Tom’s TV celebrity stops the Tyre Men from pulling the gongs here. Perhaps he is aware, as change is afoot with a reallocation of the team – after our annual diners’ poll had concluded, in June 2025, Sarah Hayward was announced as the new head chef here, crowned Michelin Young Chef of the Year in 2023. Top Tip – during the week, there is a ‘Classics’ menu for £95 per person (not available at the weekends, hence higher formula-price shown).

“You feel like royalty” at this “amazing property” owned by the National Trust, which dates back to 1666, but was transformed into the Italianate mansion that you see today by Sir Charles Barry in the 1850s; Cliveden has welcomed a Who’s Who of 20th-century history, and was once owned by America’s richest man, William Waldorf Astor, as well as providing the backdrop to the notorious Profumo Affair. While the modern European cooking doesn’t always outshine that epic backstory, few places offer a more “amazing ‘Arvo’ tea”: “a truly wonderful retrospective experience of grand living in the 1920’s, with first class cakes and savouries and superlative views of the gardens”. One savory is ‘Winston Churchill Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding’, namechecking just one of the many famous former guests here.

A “beautiful location in the old stables at Cliveden”, where “you can sit indoors on a lovely cobbled terrace” in the summer, is the main attraction of the second-string restaurant at the Astor family’s glamorous Italianate mansion, where Christine Keeler came to salacious fame back in the Swinging 60s. It’s “expensive” and “relies on its setting”, of course, but “service is good” and there are no complaints about the food this year.

“Very much a local gem” – “Dom Chapman’s pub/restaurant remains a most attractive and well-run establishment”, with a “cosy and inviting interior”, “friendly staff” and a “great-value set menu if you want to save some money as well”. Ratings have slipped a notch on reports of some “pedestrian and inconsistent” dishes, but the broader message is of a “great local”.

“It has to be done… and at the price it’s possibly a never-to-be-repeated experience… but what an experience – theatrical, magical AND delicious!” – Heston Blumenthal’s famously wacky temple of weird molecular gastronomy is entering its 30th year, and most reports say it’s “still an unforgettable and amazingly inventive experience”. Perhaps sensitive to the odd accusation that it can “feel a bit dated and a bit behind the likes of Core, The Ledbury and Row on 5” nowadays the rate of innovation has stepped up this year. A cheaper à la carte option has been reintroduced after an absence of many years (three courses for £255 per person); and there’s now ‘Mindful’ and ‘Journey’ menus (including iconic dishes of the last 30 years) for £275 and £350 per person respectively. Bad vibes about its cost-levels abated somewhat in this year’s annual diners’ poll – only 1 in 6 now consider it “overpriced”.

“So pleased we went… the food, service and table decor was excellent and we look forward to going again” – this traditional pub on the village green parted ways with Dominic Chapman in 2023 and its nowadays run as part of a growing genre of UK establishments as an Indian-in-a-pub, serving fish ’n’ chips with curry sauce, chicken tikka burger… and on Sunday it’s tandoori chicken roast.

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 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.

A “fun” and smartly turned-out country pub offering “consistently good food and service” at a “price point you’d expect for Windsor: fairly high”. Launched in 2018 by industry insiders Jamie Dobbin (an ex-Savoy, Ivy and Groucho Club chef) and James Lyon-Shaw (ex-ETM group manager), it’s now the flagship of their five-strong Brucan Pubs group.

All-day outfit on the riverside highly commended for a “beautifully cooked and presented breakfast at very reasonable prices” – “the bonus is a great location if weather permits sitting outside”. It’s also a “solid venue for lunch” and later, with tacos, poke bowls, burgers as well as more substantial fare, including a “good vegan selection”. Founder Shaun Dickens was a hot-shot young chef at Le Manoir and Per Se in New York, but reined in his culinary ambitions to suit the venue.