Melksham, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

Since 2006, chef Hywel Jones has been at the helm of the kitchen of this traditional, period dining room which provides a very classical country-house retreat in a rural Palladian mansion: go somewhere else if you want stripped floors and open kitchen, as here you will get swagged curtains, tablecloths, silverware and aperitifs in the lounge. Limited feedback this year, but remaining positive on its high-quality, classically rooted cuisine: there is a tasting menu, but the à la carte offers three courses for £115 per person.

2023 Review: A “quirky and interesting” local with a “good atmosphere” serving a “creative menu, with cooking of a consistent high standard”. It makes a “fantastic pub for Sunday lunch”, with “outstanding roasts”.

Set within the Georgian surrounds of the Indigo Hotel, this indie restaurant from Harwood Arms co-owner Mike Robinson has rejigged its formula, with diners treated to cocktails in a vault-set speakeasy, before heading upstairs to the clubby dining room for a seven-course dinner showcasing the best of British wild food. Reports on the new format were limited but what there were proclaimed the food “truly epic, with plenty of slightly off-the-beaten track choices, e.g. hare” (that seem less surprising given Robinson’s reputation as a game guru). The celebrated chef is joined here by exec chef Liam Goldstone, who also runs the hotel’s more casual Brasserie Beau.

Launched in 2016 by Chris Tabbitt (ex-of Bibendum and the Old Bridge hotel in Huntingdon) and Sarah Olivier, this “small and beautifully formed” modern European is a “very comfortable, dependable” sort of place indeed. From the “perfectly executed”, “very well-priced” food (e.g., steak-frites, washed down with “even better value” red wine), to the “very personable service”, it offers an “intimate dining experience” that’s “hard to beat”.

2022 Review: Taking afternoon tea in this “wonderful Georgian setting with a trio playing during the meal” – and the Roman baths next door – is to wallow in English history, with literary visitors from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens as your guides. The nibbles – “beetroot-cured smoked salmon with homemade blini”, perhaps – are a secondary consideration, “but well worth having!”.

“Everything is good and as it should be” at this “delicious small plates” outfit tucked in a wine shop and where, as a result, there’s a “large choice of wine by the glass and you can buy any wine from the shelves and pay an additional £15 corkage, rather than the usual mark-up”. Bonus points for the “really nice atmosphere too” (“in summer it’s an absolute sun trap to sit outside under the awnings” and “in winter it’s cosy and candlelit”). This venue is part of the growing Beckford group, which runs a series of well-regarded venues in South-West England – including, of more recent vintage, Bath’s Beckford Canteen.

“A great location in the centre of Bath” is backed up by “very competent cooking and good service” at this well-established corner-restaurant, whose level of cuisine and elegant interior are a cut-above. It’s run by chef Rob Clayton – who was formerly head chef at the posh Bath Priory Hotel for seven years – and his family.

Their original venue on Walcot Street is no more, but this “friendly and casual” sibling on Chapel Row – indie fine wine shop meets bar and small plates venue – is doing a swift trade, not harmed by its gorgeous heated terrace and garden. Alongside “wines outside the usual suspects” (they run a Wednesday wine club and tasting nights), the food is “a cut above” what one might expect from a booze merchant, even for those who are “usually not a fan of small plates and explanations”.

“Been going so long it’s become an institution in Bath – and all the better for that” – this bistro set in a Georgian house was taken over three years ago from the founding Golden family by head chef Matthew Lisanti. Ratings would be higher were it not for reports of cooking that was “competent but not mind-blowing” – possibly “a problem of too-high expectations”.

2023 Review: The “food and wine are always interesting” and are “still as good as ever” at engaging Anglo-Scottish chef Gordon Jones’s former sandwich shop on the southern edge of town. There’s “a single tasting menu available” (the only choice is whether to have 7 or 9 courses) and it comes as a complete surprise, with each dish introduced as it arrives at your table (and no vegetarian or other options).

“Outstanding views from the dining area” and “lovely garden” over the surrounding countryside (top walking territory) characterise this well-liked stone gastroboozer; there are plaudits too for its “small menu of good classics” (plus latterly small plates).

With its “nice cosy atmosphere” and “interesting gastropub food”, this Georgian hostelry with a courtyard garden near the Royal Crescent makes “a good mid-price choice in a wonderful city with so many charming places to eat”. It was acquired by St Austell Brewery in 2023, but no major changes are afoot.

Celebrating three decades as part of the Brownsword Hotels stable in 2024, this lavish getaway in two adjoining Georgian houses has much to love about it, from the four-acre gardens to the UK’s only L’Occitane spa. Dining options are split between the dining room, open for afternoon tea or a £98 per person three-course dinner showcasing “skilful cooking of delightful food”; and the more casual ‘Pantry & Terrace’ which also offers breakfast, brunch and lunch.

2022 Review: Chef Rob Potter wins solid praise for the consistency of his cuisine at this plush Cotswolds five-star hotel with golf club. The style is “traditional rather than super-inventive” (“we didn’t experience stand-outs but good quality throughout”).

In a “lovely setting next to Longleat” and its lions, this “attractive” 1700s boozer “with good rooms” is “part of the Beckford group”, whose SW England mini-empire includes a bottle shop in nearby Bath. The “upmarket” dining room offers a concise but “approachable” menu (game is from the Longleat Estate and fish from the south coast), with a “good standard around the table” and (courtesy of their sibling) some “unusual wines by the glass or carafe”. PS – if you’re in need of R&R, they’ve just launched a new treatment cabin on the grounds.

Under chef Ricki Weston, this Cotswolds country-house hotel has maintained its reputation as a significant foodie destination, with the main event in the dining room being a seven-course tasting menu at £175 per person, although there is also an à la carte menu for £120 per person. But while all feedback rates the experience as “exceptional all-round”, it was more limited this year and consequently we’ve continued to rate it quite conservatively.

2022 Review: The more informal dining option at this luxe Cotswolds country-house hotel, with an elegant grey colour scheme and a garden for summer months – the British-slanted menu offers “tasty food” in “good portions”, drawing on fresh produce from the kitchen garden.

“Great pub food at the funky end of gastro” and “amazing Sunday roasts” are crowd-pleasers at this 18th-century coaching inn in the centre of town, which also ticks the boxes for “friendly staff and good service”.