Datchworth Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: “This lovely country pub” run by brothers Tom (a self-taught cook) and James Bainbridge (a former Fat Duck manager) wins consistent ratings for its high-quality cooking using “good-quality meat and fresh, tasty ingredients”. There’s a “lovely ambience and service to match”, all at “amazing value-for-money prices”.

This “French gem” in a “pleasant little pub tucked away in a corner of Ayot Green” serves “good food at sensible prices” in an atmosphere that’s “refined without being daunting”. Patron Laurent Brydniak has “run the place well” for 15 years, and does a good trade at lunchtime feeding walkers visiting the nearby Brocket Hall Estate.

“At last, the Auberge has found its feet again and is now up and running smoothly” following its reopening in May 2023, after a three-year hiatus. While the “beautiful setting” in a hunting lodge on the Brocket Hall Estate remains unchanged, these days chef John Barber (ex-of London’s Mandarin Oriental) is at the helm, his “confident and assured” cooking more modern British than during the venue’s Gallic heyday under Jean-Christophe Novelli – and more democratic too (particularly the “good-value fixed-price lunch”). As ever, “the decor could still do with a refresh but, on a sunny day, a table out on the terrace by the lake is unbeatable”.