Hatfield, British, Modern - Restaurant Guide

“Beautifully situated” beside a lake on the grand Brocket Hall Estate, this bucolic but luxurious former hunting lodge is acknowledged by fans as “a truly great choice for a special occasion”. It’s known for a high standard of traditional Anglo-French cuisine and for (older) traditional types it’s “very pleasing that all fellow diners make an effort to dress accordingly”. But it’s also often attracted lukewarm feedback over many years, and has a stop-go record with numerous long periods of closure, changes of chef, refurbs and relaunches, yet another of which is underway in September 2025 following a closure in May 2025.

2025 Review: In the safe hands of Phil Thompson (whose CV includes becoming Head Chef at the Auberge du Lac at age 24), this decade-old venture continues to do the casual fine-dining thing with aplomb. Reporters “like that there are a number of small rooms” in which to dine (upstairs is the main restaurant, and there’s also an airy conservatory opening onto the Victorian-style courtyard), while the “imaginative cooking” is “creative and beautifully presented” too, whether you opt for the set menus (£55 or £69 per person for two or three courses) or fancier tasting menu (£95 or £115 per person for five or seven courses).

“Yummy mummy hangouts” that have proliferated across the capital and its surrounding high streets over the past few years, with “relaxed and colourful décor” and “friendly waiting staff”. They are very accommodating to families, both “child-friendly” and “pooch central, with snacks and water” – although if you don’t bring your own, you might find there are “too many dogs”. The eastern Med-style cooking varies between “fresh and well prepared” at best to “adequate, sometimes slow” – while “bottomless Bloody Mary or Mimosa on a Sunday can be dangerous!”.

“A consistently good local” from this indie group based in Hertfordshire and with a focus on sustainability – something they pioneered way before it became trendy, running their outposts on green energy and recycling all their waste. Handy for the High Street and the 11th-century cathedral and abbey church, the bright and airy three-floor venue offers “well-sourced, mostly local food” that’s also well priced: £20.95 for two courses, and £23.95 for three.

Run by Sean Hughes and his family – the dining room at this pub in the Cathedral quarter has built a more-than-local reputation for its “very good cooking”, with headline features being some very fancy steaks, including the option of 1kg of Txuleta Prime Rib for £110 per portion. Top Menu Tip – “Good salt cod brandade; excellent chalk stream trout as is the Gorgonzola soldiers pudding”.

“Tucked away in a little corner of Hertfordshire”, this pub/restaurant from “brothers in perfection” Tom (self-taught chef) & Ben (ex-Fat Duck manager) Bainbridge trades in meals that are “innovative, fun and enjoyable”, with an “absolute focus upon flavour” – “staff are warm, caring and always willing to have a laugh”, while the “impressive and comprehensive wine list covers the globe”. (For one fan, it all even added up to “an experience well worth an awful 58-mile drive, mostly on the M25!”). Top Menu Tip – “the most astonishingly flavoursome carrot purée ever tasted”.

“An oasis in North London” for 25 years – Austrian-born Julius Oberegger’s “excellent local restaurant” in Whetstone is “the closest to fine dining without going to the West End” – with a “well prepared and imaginative menu” that skips round the world from fresh Jersey rock oysters and English rack of lamb to chicken Milanese, wok-fried noodles, and chilli and soy-glazed tofu.

“Enjoyable” farmhouse in a countryside setting just north of London that’s “more restaurant than pub, and one of the best places in the area for good cooking” – “there’s lobster and oysters, you could ask for nothing more!” – from “an excellent and varied menu, alongside personable-but-efficient service and a good choice of reasonably priced wines”. It’s a “lively, vibrant” spot, and “in summer, tables out in the garden are lovely, particularly as the conservatory dining room can be very noisy”.

2025 Review: Away from the main property, with a terrace facing onto the golf course, this casually luxurious venue is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and would suit a smartly dressed-down weekend family meal. With its brasserie menu incorporating a selection of burgers and chicken and steak grills, fans “prefer it to the generally more highly rated Glasshouse at the same venue” although even some who mark it highly say: “it’s good, but some of the prices are just far too high”.

After working alongside Gary Rhodes and serving as Head Chef at Tom Conran’s Notting Hill venue The Cow, chef James Rix launched this smart Home Counties pub (replete with a large beer garden and heated gazebo) together with wife Bianca in 2004. Its rustic Italian- and French-inspired cuisine attracts reviews ranging from “good quality” to “excellent” – with meat (including Josper-grilled steak) a standout, and starters and desserts that are “not too shabby” either.

2023 Review: “No menu and it’s whatever is made on the day – I love it!”. Australian chef Chris Honor’s all-day neighbourhood café in Muswell Hill serves “Ottolenghi-style food” to a high standard.

“A hidden gem, off the beaten track in Ashridge Forest”, this village pub is “well worth finding” for its “very interesting menu (that changes every fortnight) and pretty rural location” just outside London. David & Becky Salisbury have been at the helm for more than 25 years, and ensure that the kitchen keeps abreast of contemporary dietary requirements.

A handsome boozer with a huge terrace that’s a top choice in the heart of Highgate thanks to its “reliably good food putting some very interesting spins on pub classics”. Inside, it’s “warm and cosy on a winter’s day”, while the “comfortable ambience, good service and dog-friendly attitude are everything you want in a pub”.

2023 Review: This village pub-with-rooms just off the A1 offers “attractively presented food” on a menu which is “a cut above standard gastropub fare” – best enjoyed in the “new outside dining area, which in summer evokes a lovely Mediterranean feel”.

This major gastropub destination in Highgate attracts a busy crowd from across north London with its high-quality menu – “often with some fine seafood” (from Flying Fish Cornwall, Rossmore Oysters and Portland Shellfish, alongside meat supplied by Aubrey Allen) – “quality real ale” and an “extensive wine list” put together by Kiwi landlord Heath Ball. A garden with “plenty of outdoor tables” is a big draw, and “Sunday lunch is highly popular”. Top Tip – there’s a good range of bigger shared dishes if you order a few days in advance, up to a whole suckling pig that feeds 8–10 for £250.

A pub has stood on this leafy site on the road to Golder’s Green for three centuries, and was made famous by Edwardian music-hall star Florrie Forde as a ‘little nook down near old Hampstead town’ where Cockneys would head on a day trip. These days a “stalwart still going strong”, it offers a “good-value set lunch in the dining room” (2 courses for £20.95; 3 for £24.95).

“There’s always a great atmosphere” at this “very comfortable” Georgian tavern in Hampstead, brilliantly run for more than 20 years by Beth Coventry, sister of restaurant critic Fay Maschler (“it’s a real favourite of ours, and whenever we bring friends they invariably love it”). Top Menu Tip – “best roast beef anywhere!”

“Still a great pub to have as a local” – Giles Coren’s favourite gastropub and one of our annual diners’ poll’s highest rated in north London is well-placed for a stroll on Hampstead Heath and thronged at the weekend. It is also the “kind of gastropub where you can still just have a drink”. Its ratings staged something of a comeback this year: “the cooking remains good”: in particular “dinner is stunning and good value”. (If you’re an out-of-towner, consider staying in one of their seven guest rooms).

Firmly on the map for East End hipsters – from the same stable as Westerns Laundry – this very stylish, post-industrial, all-day café/bakery in Newington Green comes complete with metal-topped tables, painted brick walls and concrete floor. It provides “a tempting menu that changes daily. Sometimes daring, often unusual and always delicious. The ambience is warm and the staff are welcoming. Love it!”

“An excellent local with an always-good selection of fish” – reports attest that this West Hampstead fixture lives up to its name and the cooking here can be “surprisingly good”. On the downside, “some tables are not the most comfortable, and very close together”. Top Tip – look out for the good lunch deals.