Market Drayton Restaurant Guide

Stuart & Frances Collins opened in this cute market town in 2017, and have won it local renown as a “favourite” for a high-quality meal thanks to its “creative and excellent tasting menu and good quality wines” – ten courses for £100 per person.

“Slightly different comfort-food dishes” grace the menu at this “attractive gastropub” – with a “relaxed atmosphere” in an old school building. Steak ’n’ kidney pie is the pick of the main dishes, while the “excellent desserts” include an appropriately ‘Old School Ram Roly-Poly Pudding’. There are more than 300 gins behind the bar, along with a “good range of real ales”.

Opposite a leafy churchyard in a small town south of Stoke-on-Trent, this unassuming “gem” is rated on ongoing upbeat feedback from a small, dedicated fan base, praising its “fantastically skillful food with a brilliant balance of flavours”. Sophie Hardman & Jake Lowndes are celebrating their tenth year of business in 2026 and offer imaginative cuisine from either à la carte or tasting menus, the latter is £90 per person.

This “lovely old coaching inn” in a village of picturesque Tudor houses is a “real addition to a part of Shropshire not awash with good places to eat” and achieves an impressive level of feedback for somewhere out in the boonies. Owned by Sir Algernon Heber-Percy, who lives close by in Hodnet Hall (the kitchen garden supplies the vegetables to the inn); his son Tom was responsible for the inn’s “gorgeous makeover” a few years back. “The food covers fine dining to light lunches and afternoon tea” and all reports say it “functions well as a foodie pub while still catering as a bar for locals… one of the best around”.

“A local’s delight” with a “great atmosphere” – this long-running trattoria offers “amazingly reasonably priced” Italian cooking, “prepared so consistently” by Roman-born chef Claudio Murru and served by his wife Jo, “who really cares that you enjoy your meal” (“we’ve been five times this year with different friends, and it met with universal approval”).

Too little feedback this year for a full review on this intriguing eatery in The Potteries – part of the World of Wedgewood experience – whose high-profile founding chef, local Staffordshire lad Niall Keating, left after three years in May 2024. There is a full-on chef’s table blow-out, but most visitors opt for the relatively affordable posh-brasserie menu (which is the formula price given).