Read Reviews About North Petherton Restaurants

Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in North Petherton

Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best North Petherton restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 7 restaurants in North Petherton and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing North Petherton restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.

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1. The Castle Bow Restaurant British, Modern restaurant in Taunton Castle Bow - TA1

2023 Review: With its Art Deco-style interior, this local landmark’s traditional dining room provides a heartily traditional environment. It has yet to reopen for lunch and dinner post-pandemic, but is currently dedicated to the service of afternoon tea, for which – on limited feedback – it comes recommended.

2. Brazz, Castle Hotel British, Modern restaurant in Taunton Castle Bow - TA1

2023 Review: “Well-cooked and well-presented food” is served in this 70-cover brasserie at the Castle Hotel, a well-known and picturesque-looking local institution (complete with crenellations) run by three generations of the Chapman family for 72 years, although the modern decor of Brazz itself means those searching for period style should look elsewhere. “Service is charming and very helpful” and the overall package is “good value too”. In April 2022, towards the end of our annual diners’ poll, Andrew Swann took over the stoves here. One of his early innovations has been the introduction of an eye-catching £15 lunch deal.

3. Augustus British, Modern restaurant in Taunton 3 The Courtyard, St James St - TA1

“As good as it gets in Taunton”, this “exceptional” French bistro (sleek, with a glass-walled extension) is a “gem of a place” that remains utterly “reliable” well into its awkward teenage phase (it was founded in 2011 by Richard Guest and FOH Cedric Chirrosel). It was praised this year for its “unhurried and relaxing atmosphere” and “wonderful food” – not least the prix fixe (“we were amazed when we saw the plates coming out…such generous portions and much more interesting than run-of-the-mill set menus”).

Price*

£66

£££

Food

Very Good

Service

Very Good

Ambience

Average

4. Holm British, Modern restaurant in South Petherton 28 St James Street - TA13

“Excellent food in a nicely converted old bank” make this three-year-old a “very handy stopover in an attractive Somerset village off the A303”. Fans of chef-patron Nicholas Balfe’s previous projects, Salon and Levan in south London, are happy to report “it didn’t disappoint – the set lunch came at a good price and à la carte just added to the experience”: “the roast was excellent, the starters precise and pretty, and even the bread was perfect – soft, moist and warm, wrapped in a crunchy crust”.

Price*

£85

££££

Food

Very Good

Service

Good

Ambience

Very Good

5. The Rising Sun British, Modern restaurant in Knapp Knapp Road - TA3

2023 Review: This 500-year-old building in a “beautiful part of Somerset” now houses an “excellent dining pub” that “serves up top-class modern British dishes using brilliant local ingredients”. Chef Olly Jackson and his manager wife Rebecca “used to run the nearby and sadly missed Langford Fivehead hotel”.

6. The Barrington Boar British, Modern restaurant in Ilminster Main Street - TA19

This “well-above average gastropub in a beautiful Somerset village” – from Exmoor-born chef Alasdair Clifford (ex-Chez Bruce and Harwood Arms) and his wife Victoria Collins – excels for its “refined cooking”: “Alasdair concocts amazing results from local ingredients” and from a “changing seasonal menu”. “Service is friendly and professional” and the “environment is open and spacious” – “never had a disappointing meal here”.

Price*

£58

££

Food

Very Good

Service

Very Good

Ambience

Good

7. The Candlelight Inn British, Modern restaurant in Chard Bishopswood - TA20

As the name suggests, “a great, intimate atmosphere” is found at this seventeenth-century village inn, which is “a cut above the usual for style and service”. Charlotte Vincent was crowned ‘pub chef of the year’ in the 2023 Great British Pub Awards – she sends out “a varied range of dishes, nearly all locally sourced and precisely cooked”, such as a bar snack of roasted marrow bone and Porlock Bay oyster with garlic butter and sourdough bread.