Grantham Restaurant Guide

You’ll look online in vain for the website of Harry & Caroline Hallam’s quirky venue – one of the country’s earliest supper-club-type experiences, which has seen them serving up to 10 guests in the red-painted front room of their Georgian house for the last 30 years (and which had a Michelin star until about 2010). Harry is still in the kitchen and Caroline still front of house. It only inspires a couple of regular fans in our annual diners’ poll nowadays but they continue to say it’s an exceptional experience (if one whose ambience necessarily derives somewhat from your dining companions on the evening).

2023 Review: A “great local for all the family” in a pretty village in the Lincolnshire flatlands, where Paul & Lorraine Willoughby look after their guests well in this classic seventeenth-century inn.

A “wonderfully atmospheric place, with idiosyncratic but comfortably plush surroundings” that was born when founder, the late Imogen Skirving, decided to open the doors to her family home three decades back. This country house oasis is now run by her granddaughter Lila Arora, with chef Gary Booth continuing their longtime focus on locally sourced produce, from Belvoir game to “truly delicious soufflés of the savoury and sweet variety”. Further praise this year for the “professional yet friendly service” – clearly this “quirky place knows what it’s doing” after all these years.

This relaxed Keralan venture (with, rather unusually for a subcontinental, a Greek name meaning ‘fellowship’), has won a good reputation for its “excellent South Indian food”, which comprises enjoyable dosas and “particularly good” coconut sambal. Top Tip from one reporter who over-ordered – it can be “tricky to gauge portion sizes” so don’t get carried away.

“A village pub, but one which serves really good French bistro food (escargots, oysters) and is excellent for fish” – owners Carol & Scott Craddock worked in London ‘fine dining’ (Bibendum, The Dorchester) before decamping to rural Rutland in 2008, creating a venue that is “more restaurant than pub, but retains a friendly local welcome and atmosphere”. Carol’s “well-sourced-and-cooked food” is backed up by “husband Scott’s truly first-class wine list” – and if it’s “a tiny bit predictable, perhaps that’s not a bad thing”. Top Menu Tip – “save room for the desserts!”.

Chef Richard Stevens grew up on the farm housing this cosily lit barn – complete with corrugated iron roof – which since September 2022 has become an ambitious venue for sampling his 20-course tasting-menu for £120 per person, with service from his wife Grace. Our reporters all rate it highly – “a proper hidden gem with a stunning location and setting with brilliant food and team”, although it skipped our highest rating due to the odd quibble (“I understand everything is local but just felt the prices were high in relation to the portions”). Certainly the Sunday Times’s Charlotte Ivers is a fan – in her November 2024 review she declared herself “in love – utterly enthralled” with a “magic” meal “you’ll remember forever”.