Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Feniscowles
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Feniscowles restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 16 restaurants in Feniscowles and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Feniscowles restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Feniscowles Restaurants
1. The Inn at Whitewell
British, Modern restaurant in Clitheroe
Forest of Bowland - BB7
For “unfussy, non-pretentious dining”, plus superb wines from the on-site Bowland Forest Vintners, head to this “truly dazzling, remote inn set in the Ribble Valley”, which provides a “stunning romantic backdrop”. Those who overnight rate the “open peat fires in the bedrooms and sumptuous four-poster beds”, while the locally sourced food – overseen for over two decades by Jamie Cadman, during which time the late Queen Elizabeth II herself popped in to celebrate her 80th birthday over lunch – is sufficiently convincing that “you are happy to eat for several consecutive evenings” if on a longer break here.
2. Northcote
British, Modern restaurant in Langho
Northcote Rd - BB6
“Just awesome every time we go. The team… the food… the place. It’s been brilliant for 30 years” – constant expansion, innovation and reinvention has characterised the steady growth in profile and physical size of this Ribble Valley operation, just off the A59: nowadays one of the more recognised foodie destinations in the UK, certainly amongst those ‘up north’. Lisa Goodwin-Allen runs the kitchens with “stunning presentation and incredible light and purposeful cuisine, with her personality coursing through the menu”. MD Craig Bancroft leads “a front of house team with a real sense of character”. “Wine pairing at Northcote is almost as much part of the experience as is the food and head sommelier Magdalena Sleziak is a real asset, presiding over a tremendous wine list (offering both value and extravagance), well thought through with choices from all over the wine globe”. All the above are on display each year during the annual Obsession festival early each year, which the property has turned into a part of the annual social calendar for very many well-heeled diners throughout the North West. And yet more change is now afoot, as in October 2024, the owners for the last five years, Britannia Hospitality Limited (owners of The Stafford in London), put the property on the market with Savills. It comes with planning permission for a swanky new dining room at the rear of the property which may yet further transform the dining experience here. We presume any new buyer will keep the existing team in place, and carry out the planned extension. But who knows? So there is likely some change afoot in the next 12 months, but it’s not yet 100% clear exactly how this one will roll.
3. The Three Fishes
British, Traditional restaurant in Whalley
Mitton Rd - BB7
“It’s good to have Nigel Haworth back in a kitchen” and his 2022 return to this country inn, down the road from Northcote where he made his name (and in a pub that he originally helped run as part of the now-defunct chain, Ribble Valley Inns, 20 years ago) has put it firmly on the foodie map: it’s one of the top-100 most commented-on destinations in our annual diners’ poll. There is a ‘Choice’ menu (mains are typically £30-£40 per plate) or a ‘Farm to Fork’ tasting menu with five courses for £55 per person or eight courses for £85 per person. One local reporter “had a bit of a disappointing experience when Nigel was on holiday”, but most accounts here are of “fabulous” British cooking and “exceptional value” (“this is a regular for us although it’s a 70-mile round trip!”). Top Menu Tip – “highlight for me was the blood orange soufflé with chocolate milk ice cream and honeycomb”.
4. Bukhara
Indian restaurant in Preston
154 Preston New Rd - PR5
2021 Review: This large, modern roadside outfit, just off the M6 near Preston, has established an enviable reputation for its “well cooked, authentic Indian food” over the last 15 years. “Pity it looks rather like a works canteen”. Important to note: it is alcohol free.
5. Shajan
Indian restaurant in Mellor
Longsight Rd, Clayton-le-Dale - BB1
There’s “always a good eating experience with plenty of choice” of “excellent Indian food” at this Ribble Valley fixture, founded in 1992 by curry industry veteran Mohammad Ali and extended three times since then to cope with its popularity.
6. YU
Chinese restaurant in Copster Green
500 Longsight Rd - BB1
Victor Yu’s “top-notch” Cantonese cooking has wowed visitors to his famous roadside converted Ribble Valley pub (with very bling interiors) for 21 years – “What a chef! And what a great team, the front of house is amazing”.
7. Breda Murphy Restaurant
British, Modern restaurant in Whalley
41 Station Rd - BB7
2023 Review: “Simplicity” combines with “top quality” at Carlow-born Breda Murphy’s deli-restaurant, a popular destination in the Ribble Valley since 2006 for her Anglo-Irish home-style cooking. “At first it feels overly conservative, but every dish is perfectly cooked, often with a small and interesting twist such as thick-cut lime and soy-cured salmon.”
8. Italian Orchard
Italian restaurant in Broughton
96 Whittingham Lane - PR3
2023 Review: “Completely consistent… they still do the best ever Pizza Napoletana” – this huge Italian ‘Ristorante & Pizzeria’ just outside Preston was opened in 1985 and has grown over the years to house 300 guests in one sitting, of whom about a third are in a striking glazed extension, complete with al fresco terrace.
9. Freemasons at Wiswell
British, Modern restaurant in Wiswell
8 Vicarage Fold Clitheroe - BB7
“Fantastic food… fantastic value for money… and you can even take the dog”: this pub with rooms in a Ribble Valley village has emerged in recent years as one of the area’s top food-led destinations despite – in fact maybe because of – its easygoing and “cosy” style and the fact that what it serves is “so much more than pub grub – clever, no-fuss, local food of the highest order, all served in a relaxed environment”. In June 2024, after our annual diners’ poll had concluded, chef Steve Smith departed, and chef Matt Smith (who had previously worked at the pub) returned. Exactly how the dust will settle on this switcheroo is still not definite but we have rated it on the optimistic assumption that it retains its high quality.
10. Eagle & Child
British, Modern restaurant in Ramsbottom
3 Whalley Road - BL0
2022 Review: “Great food and also a sense that they are putting back into the community” inspires support for this pub-with-rooms on the village green. Run as a youth-focused social enterprise, supporting young people to access training and paid work experience, it has won a string of awards over its almost ten years in operation. In summer, its ‘Incredible Edible Beer Garden’ comes into its own: almost an acre in size and with lots of interest as well as outside seating.
11. The Higher Buck
British, Modern restaurant in Waddington
The Square - BB7
Even in the foodie hotspot that is the Ribble Valley, chef-patron Michael Heathcote’s well-known destination stands out for its “relaxing pub atmosphere, great real ale and copious pub fare at fair prices”.
12. White Swan at Fence
British, Modern restaurant in Fence
300 Wheatley Lane Rd - BB12
“How lucky are the good folk of Fence and thereabouts to have such a wonderful restaurant on their doorstep – a go-to when in this neck of the woods”. Fans say chef Tom Parker offers “possibly the best-value Michelin Star food in the country”, served in a proper pub from a nine-course menu (in the evenings) for £85 per person.
13. The Assheton Arms
Fish & seafood restaurant in Clitheroe
2021 Review: This “lovely gastropub in the pretty village of Downham, under the shadow of Pendle Hill” is part of Jocelyn Neve’s Seafood Pub Company – the interior has been “completely renovated”, but retains a proper atmosphere with its “roaring fires”. Views on its performance diverged a little last year: most reports suggest the “excellent fish and seafood is definitely worth going for”, but a couple of mixed reports (“good but not as good as it was”; “trying hard but no organisation”) sound a warning note.
14. Aven
restaurant in Preston
10 Camden Place - PR1
Fans “predict big things” for this yearling – a “really amazing new Oli Martin place” located in the apartment-hotel where his former haunt ‘263 Restaurant‘ used to sit. The “super little restaurant” turns out “simple but superbly cooked British food focused on Lancashire produce” (much of it foraged), with their “humble sausage and smoked mash” the best one reporter had ever had – and all “extraordinary value” too.
15. Haighton Manor
British, Modern restaurant in Haighton Green
Haighton Green Lane - PR2
This crowd-pleasing pub once served as a hospital, but since its takeover and refurb’ by the Brunning & Price group some years back, it’s now a proper country gastroboozer (also with a handful of rooms); on the menu – high-quality British dishes abetted by some more exotic influences from around the world.
16. Roasta Preston
Chinese restaurant in Preston
43 Plungington Road - PR1
“Went here after reading Jay Rayner’s Nov 2022 review. Superb!” – this no-frills café near the Central Lancashire University campus (from Hong Kong natives Fai Tsang and her husband, Wai) is “very much a café rather than a restaurant but you can (need to) book”, thanks to brilliant Cantonese cooking that’s worth rolling up your sleeves for. Top Menu Tip – “The roast duck and siu yuk are delicious with the crisp skin contrasting the tender meat. Soy chicken is very flavourful and the brisket tender, tasty and well spiced”.
View full listings of 16 Feniscowles Restaurants
Popular Feniscowles Restaurant Searches
Feniscowles Restaurant News