Lutterworth Restaurant Guide

2024 Review: This “great local restaurant” from Chris & Abby Ascough has built a solid reputation over 19 years for its “beautifully cooked and presented food” at “exceptionally good value” – including a £20 set lunch and a six-course tasting menu for £48 per person with matching wines for £20 per person.

Stephen & Tracey Fitzpatrick’s “popular” 16th-century pub-with-rooms in a village just outside Market Harborough has a traditional bar and a more modern dining room offering a "very good standard of cooking”. There’s enough going on to attract a regular crowd, such as “Monday’s ‘auberge’ nights, three courses for £22, which is packed with locals” (and “can get very noisy”).

“Not your ‘bog standard’ Indian” (“don’t look for chicken tikka masala, onion bhajis and poppadums here, you won’t find them”) – this stalwart Leicester local – now with offshoots in Nottingham, Leamington Spa and West Byfleet – instead specialises in “innovative” Keralan dishes “using the likes of rabbit, pork or salmon” that “never fail to hit the spot”.

Nisha Katona’s Liverpool-based operation has two branches in London (Charlotte Street and Westfield Stratford) offering her “very tasty” Indian street food – “with the occasional hint of raw spice”. The Lancashire-born former barrister launched the business in 2014 and now has 28 outlets around the country, whose “enjoyable, authentic food” is “really great for a chain”.

2024 Review: This “beautiful old country pub” – thatched and beamed, with a “lovely cosy atmosphere, open fire and low lighting” – serves “top-quality food” from chef Emilie Bull, backed up with an “impressive wine list” overseen by proprietor Tim Hubbard, here for 22 years with his wife Kate. “Kate and Tim know what they’re doing and they do it very well indeed” – “they’re always so friendly and happy to see you again”.

“Not your usual Indian”, down to the bright, café-style décor – this “totally authentic” icon on the Golden Mile was founded in the 1970s, and is still run by the Lakhani family; it’s built a huge reputation over the years for its “vegetarian, mostly Gujarati-style, home cooking” – and, surprisingly, its afternoon tea, acclaimed by TV chef Rick Stein, and offering unlimited sweet and savoury snacks washed down with masala chai. Top Tip – “try as many new dishes as possible – they won’t disappoint!”

2024 Review: With its oak beams and flagstone floors, this family-run rural gastropub between Leicester and Lutterworth continues to win a solid thumbs up from Midlands-based reporters in our annual diners’ poll. The fairly traditional, bistro-style cooking (e.g. chicken liver parfait, steak or seabass, panna cotta) is in a more ambitious mould than typical pub grub.

“The cooking is always fresh and innovative” at this “thriving” Nepalese/Indian restaurant with a “great menu and impeccable service”.

Having recently celebrated its first birthday, this “largish, newish” Indian dining spot was launched by sisters Shweta, Shivani and Natascha Joon. The “premium location” and décor set the tone for some “excellent” and “affordable” food, ranging from street-food nibbles to eclectic small plates and mains.