Lincolnshire Restaurant Guide

Chef Gavin Aitkenhead and FOH Samantha Tomkins continue to preside over this well-known destination, occupying the second oldest house in the country (circa 1170). Feedback is limited but upbeat, saying “prices have gone up a notch this year… but so has the quality”. Menus are very focused: the three-course option, available early week till Thursday has a couple of options at each stage for £88 per person, or there are four-course and six-course tasting menus always available for £99 and £125 per person respectively.

Things look cute and ivy-clad on the outside, and properly quirky on the inside (copper kettles hang from the eaves, there’s comedy taxidermy and, most dramatically, an 18 feet-deep well between the lounge and restaurant), at this gastroboozer in one of the villages on the outskirts of Lincoln. The British pub grub (steak and ale pies, Grimsby-landed haddock) is largely locally sourced and was soundly rated.

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.

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.

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).

In an “unassuming location adjacent to the A1”, this is a “great little restaurant” (with rooms) where the victuals – from nostalgic classics like prawn cocktails to burgers and pizzas – are never less than “steady” (and sometimes “delicious”, say fans). Top Tip – “the special themed evenings are particularly great”, and might take in tapas or surprisingly upscale Japanese and Indian tasting-menu nights.

In this Lincolnshire town’s Cornmarket, this April 2024 newcomer is the first solo project of ex-Winteringham Fields head chef Gareth Bartram and his wife Lucy. Billing itself as a ‘café restaurant’, it’s a flexible venue where you can drop in for a coffee or cocktail, or make a full meal from the flexible menu which includes both ambitious small or large plates. For £60 per person, you can go the whole hog and opt for a chef’s selection.