Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Oundle
Hardens guides have spent 34 years compiling reviews of the best Oundle restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 13 restaurants in Oundle and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Oundle restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Oundle Restaurants
1. Fern
British, Modern restaurant in Uppingham
The Falcon Hotel, High Street East - LE15
Fern is a seasonal restaurant rooted in Rutland, serving small plates, organic wines and British aperitifs with quiet confidence. Our menu is led by ingredients — not trends — and shaped entirely by what’s growing, reared or landed nearby. Our drinks reflect ...
2. The Blue Bell
British, Modern restaurant in Glinton
10 High Street - PE6
“Superior pub food” (as well as burger or fish ’n’ chips on the menu you might see Sea bass fillet or a Lentil Wellington) is “well executed, and in generous portions” at this attractive 18th-century Cambridgeshire pub, which has been run by Will & Kelly Frankgate since 2013. You also get “a warm welcome and variety of seating choices from gazebo to snug”.
3. Hambleton Hall
British, Modern restaurant in Hambleton
“Everything a country house hotel should be with the added bonus of an award-winning restaurant” – Tim & Steffa Hart’s long-established destination is the epitome of a successful classic formula that’s increasingly an extinct breed. They’ve owned this fine old house since 1979, a former home purchased from a scion of the Hoare banking dynasty, and it sits in “exquisite grounds” with an “unmissable view of Rutland Water” (the 1970s reservoir that is much younger than the house itself). “In some ways it’s rather old-fashioned, but that’s intended as a compliment – it’s a return to a more formal style that makes dining seem special”. Chef Aaron Patterson has been in-post since 1992 and his classical food is likewise “very good, albeit in an old-fashioned mould” and “never fails but to deliver a top gastronomic experience”. And it’s backed up by one of “the most extensive and detailed wine lists ever seen”. Service is “exemplary” too and – for traditionalists – this is “a perfect experience if you have something to celebrate”.
4. The Lake Isle
British, Modern restaurant in Uppingham
16 High Street East - LE15
The “calm and generally quiet dining room” of this 450-year-old townhouse in the old part of this cute town – now a “slightly old-fashioned (which we love) and tremendously good value” restaurant-with-rooms that takes its name from a poem by WB Yeats – serves “excellent food: fine dining without Michelin-style fussiness” from chef Stuart Mead, who has run the kitchen for more than 20 years. (“We had our wedding breakfast here and have returned every year since – it gets better and better”). Top Tip – vegetables undergo “especially thoughtful treatment, which will satisfy the vegan in your family”.
5. Tap & Kitchen
British, Modern restaurant in Oundle
Station Road - PE8
2024 Review: Celebrating its 10th year, this “very lively option with good cooking on Oundle Wharf” is “now a stalwart of the local dining scene”, with an “interesting menu that showcases local produce” – and “the beers are not too bad either, being brewed next door” at the Nene Valley brewery.
6. Prévost, Haycock Hotel
Mediterranean restaurant in Wansford
Haycock Manor - PE8
“Interesting, contemporary, fun and welcoming” – this attractive hotel just off the A1 near Peterborough had a major re-launch in 2022 and its main dining room in a converted orangery wins praise from locals for “one of the best tasting menus around and a beautiful room”. “There was a recent change of head chef” (it’s now Rikki Hughes at the stoves) “but the quality is still top notch” with an affordable a la carte ‘entry’ option at £45 per person, and an eight-course menu of real ambition for £95 per person.
7. The Pheasant at Keyston
British, Modern restaurant in Keyston
Loop Rd - PE28
“A nice old thatched pub just off the A14 with a considerable history of offering fine food and drink to locals and travellers alike”. Most feedback is positive, but the odd “inconsistent” or “disappointing” report this year dragged down its ratings average – perhaps the arrival of new landlord Stevie Norman a couple of years ago will steady the ship: he first worked here as a 17-year-old catering college student before spending 20 years at the highly rated Old Bridge Hotel in Huntingdon.
8. The Chubby Castor
British, Modern restaurant in Castor
34 Peterborough Road - PE5
2024 Review: Adebola Adeshina (ex-Gordon Ramsay) left London to set up this restaurant in a Grade II-listed thatched pub. Fans say that this fine diner is “very romantic” and “superb all round” – while, for the odd critic, “dishes are picture perfect but tastes lack follow-through”. PS – Adeshina has now developed the open space behind the pub into a casual summer lunch spot, The Yard.
9. The George Hotel
British, Traditional restaurant in Stamford
71 St Martins - PE9
Dating back over 1,000 years (although rebuilt many times in the interim), this marvellously grand coaching inn is “a truly wonderful institution that helps define Stamford”. “One may eat in the glorious setting of the courtyard on fine summer days, or in one of several other sites inside”, not least its “historic panelled Oak Room” (to which this review relates). “None of the food is at the pointed end of modern cooking”, being “of the gleaming trolley of roast beef and whole Dover sole mode” (or else of the “fabulous afternoon tea” mode), but – while it’s most definitely “on the pricey side” – this is arguably the kind of old-school rarity that “should be treasured” (and if you’re at all price conscious, the “good value set lunch” is the way to go). Former owner Lawrence Hoskins – whose legacy lives on in the “very decent wine list” – passed away in 2023, having celebrated 50 years at the helm just a few months earlier.
10. Finch’s Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Hambleton
Oakham Rd - LE15
“Always a favourite”, this 17th-century country inn is a “lovely old” place – “at least in the bar and older parts” (there being a “less lovely modern bit on the back built to take advantage of the location with fine views over Rutland Water”). The “food is pretty much standard gastropub fare”, but makes for handy refuelling before a walk round the reservoir.
11. The Slanted Door
International restaurant in Stamford
43 Saint Mary’s Street - PE9
Opened in 2020 and now a firm part of the Stamford scene, Oliver & Joseph Regis’s quirky venue is a “delightful, if slightly cramped, space” in one of the town’s gorgeous 16th-century buildings, where Dameon Clarke (ex-of Rywell’s ‘Wicked Witch’) oversees the “well-accomplished food” – be it the small plates available in the bar or the relaxed fine-dining menu on offer by night.
12. Cloisters
restaurant in Stamford
9 Saint Mary’s Street - PE9
A “lovely Italian restaurant” in this attractive town, where “the menu is fairly standard (antipasti, pizzas, tasty pastas) but the quality is high”, and there’s “absolutely delightful service” to wash it down. Even those who have “eaten here many, many times” find it “unfailingly good in all regards – food, service, ambience and pricing”. They also run a next-door deli if you fall in love with their ingredients and want to take them and cart them off to your casa.
13. No 23
Mediterranean restaurant in Uppingham
23 High Street East - LE15
This “lovely restaurant” in a splendid 300-year-old building on the High Street makes a “fantastic new addition to the market town, whether you’re here for a drink at the beautifully designed bar or a full meal” – much of the produce on the eclectic, modern menu is from the owners’ farm just out of town. Founders Ben & Toby Cripps have moved the offices of their property company Langton Homes into the building; their local hospitality group now comprises the Sun Inn, Nevill Arms and Red Lion.
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