Stafford Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: A “smart hotel” with its own lake set in the Staffs countryside, where the “cosy restaurant serves good value food using local produce”. Tuesday night is grill night – on other evenings steaks and pub classics feature on the menu alongside somewhat fancier fare.

2023 Review: You’re “always guaranteed a superb meal” from “a favourite top chef” – Liam Dillon (who has worked for the likes of Marcus Wareing and Tom Sellers) – at the “great pub” he has converted into an ambitious restaurant, with 4- and 6-course tasting menus in the evening and a chef’s table option.

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).

“Smart, flawless cooking with personality” (“the skill in elevating the ingredients is something I hadn’t experienced in a long time”) means it’s “hard to get a reservation” at this 28-cover space, which Tom Shepherd opened above his father’s jewellery shop three years ago. “Casual and relaxed, but with a genuine buzz about the place” – all reports are full of enthusiasm (“having made our reservation about nine months in advance, we were eagerly anticipating our first visit here, and the whole experience was well worth the wait!”). “Throughout the various courses the food is of a consistently high standard: the canapés are outstanding and everything that follows offers wonderful flavour combinations as well as being beautifully presented”. “Service is warm and knowledgeable, from people who clearly love what they do”. “We’ve already booked our next visit, which unfortunately is not for another 12 months!”