Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Thatcham
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Thatcham restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 23 restaurants in Thatcham and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Thatcham restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Thatcham Restaurants
1. The Mutton at Hazeley Heath
restaurant in Hook
. - RG27
The Mutton at Hazeley HeathWith an illustrious heritage, The Mutton is certainly one of a kind.Located on Red Hill, alongside the famous Hazeley Heath, overlooking Hazeley Farm, The Mutton echoes style with an array of gorgeous spaces available to book.
2. The Vineyard at Stockcross
British, Modern restaurant in Stockcross
“Exceptional wines, especially the selection from California” have always been the main talking point from a culinary point of view at this well-known Berkshire property, run as a passion project by Sir Peter Michael and his family for the last 26 years (and boasting an amazing cellar of 30,000 bottles and 3,000 bins). Widely acknowledged as “a lovely place” (especially if you stay in one of its 49 rooms), it once held two Michelin stars, but currently holds none despite cuisine that rates consistently well in our survey and inspires no complaints (“the cuisine on this occasion reached new heights. Exceptional locally sourced fallow deer, cooked with wonderful accompaniments including parsnips and pear plus some great spiced cubes of potato. Just delicious and exquisitely presented. Desserts all excellent”). We’ve maintained its rating, but in October 2024 it was sold by the family to Apex Hotels, so change is likely afoot.
3. Three Tuns Freehouse
British, Modern restaurant in Great Bedwyn
High St - SN8
2021 Review: “A super pub and family destination, with good food” – James Wilsey’s sizeable operation, with beer garden, has a beautiful rural location and is consistently well-rated.
4. The Woodspeen
British, Modern restaurant in Newbury
Lambourn Rd - RG20
“Despite losing its Michelin star, standards at the Woodspeen remain very high” according to practically all of the many reports on this restored pub in West Berkshire, which was transformed in 2013 by top catering CEO, Alastair Storey (and which is one of the top-50 most commented-on destinations outside London in our annual diners’ poll). There is a variety of menus, including a sensibly priced à la carte option all served in a stylish setting (which includes a striking, high-ceilinged contemporary space added onto the original building). “I have been dining at The Woodspeen since it opened. I have seen the team develop over the years. It’s an excellently run restaurant with great food. May have lost its Michelin star but it is as great as it always has been in my view”. Top Tip – “good value for money, especially for the set lunch”.
5. The Pot Kiln
Game restaurant in Frilsham
Yattendon Estate - RG18
Reopened in June 2024 (after our diners’ poll had concluded), this well-known inn (Kate Middleton’s favourite back in the day) has been relaunched under new management and after a £750,000 refit with seven rooms for accommodation. Gone are the days of its traditional British menu: Nick Galer and his team now present Basque-influenced dishes, including tapas and cured meats, and the interior has been significantly changed, incorporating a charcoal-fired grill at the centre of a big open kitchen. There’s still a separate bar and big outside area; and they still run their popular weekly pizza nights (now on Sundays) when they fire up the big oven in the garden.
6. Royal Oak Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Yattendon
The Square - RG18
“Excellent pub with rooms with a superb restaurant, serving delicious food” that “shows influences from the Mediterranean to the Middle East and beyond”. “They’re the bunch who have taken over the nearby Pot Kiln gastropub, so we were bumped into the hotel… but it was a pleasant bump – great food, reasonably priced and welcoming service/surroundings”.
7. The Wellington Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Baughurst
Baughurst Rd - RG26
Jason King & Simon Page met in Hong Kong before coming back to these shores to take over this “quintessential country inn” on the Hampshire/Berkshire border in 2005. While the odd diner feels that “prices are on the high side”, all agree the kitchen hits “consistently high standards”, with herbs plucked from the “beautiful gardens”, and staff “doing their best to cope” amid a “pleasantly chaotic” ambience.
8. The Miller of Mansfield
British, Traditional restaurant in Goring-on-Thames
High St - RG8
2022 Review: “This superb gastropub” – an eighteenth-century inn “two minutes from the Thames and convenient for London day-trippers” – serves “interesting food with some high gastronomy”: “all produce is locally sourced, and bread made and butter churned in-house”. Husband-and-wife patrons Nick & Mary Galer (both ex-Fat Duck Group) “clearly care about what they do and look after their diners”. Ratings dropped a notch this year amid reports of “the odd off note” – possibly they “need a bit more practice after lockdown”.
9. Don Giovanni at The Leatherne Bottel
Italian restaurant in Goring-on-Thames
Bridle Way - RG8
2023 Review: “A brilliant location” – on a picture-perfect stretch of lush Thames riverbank – is the justification for maintaining the listing of this Thames Valley veteran, on the fringe of Goring. On a sunny day, there are few nicer places to be. Its “classic Italian menu”? Not much commented on (nor, to be fair, criticised) and not the main point.
10. The Beetle & Wedge Boathouse
British, Modern restaurant in Moulsford
Ferry Ln - OX10
“A lovely setting on the river” (the stretch of the Thames commemorated in ‘Wind of the Willows’, and best admired from the terrace) elevates a visit to this former boathouse, last used for the ferry in 1967. Happily, the “charming modern interior still retains some of the character of this long-established venue”, despite a more pub-like refurb in recent years, and there was praise this year for some “tasty and filling” cuisine (and at a “very reasonable” price tag too).
11. Eliane of Hungerford
International restaurant in Hungerford
24 High Street - RG17
2021 Review: “Really healthy food” (be it gluten-free, veggie, vegan or even more specific – think raw vegan) is the calling card of this bright “cafeteria-style” outfit, which spawned a Sunningdale spin-off in 2017.
12. George & Dragon
British, Traditional restaurant in Hurstbourne Tarrant
The Square - SP11
2021 Review: A “high-quality gastropub (with rooms) not too far from Andover”, winning increasingly favourable reports for its “interesting food, varied flavours and unusual takes on traditional fare”. Add in “obliging service and not too outrageously expensive” prices.
13. London Street Brasserie
British, Modern restaurant in Reading
Riverside Oracle, 2 - 4 London Street - RG1
This “Reading institution” occupying an 18th-century tollhouse in the town centre has “had a few ups and downs over the last 25 years, but this year is back on top form with a solid menu and excellent service”. Self-taught chef owner Paul Clerehugh, a former rock guitarist with Sweet, also runs the Crooked Billet music pub in Stoke Row (see also).
14. Thames Lido
Spanish restaurant in Reading
Napier Road - RG1
This “lovely restored Victorian lido” (complete with heated swimming pool and spa) has been “the best ticket in the culinary disaster of Reading for several years now”. One regular feels that the Mediterranean-style food “is still good, but the à la carte prices seem to have gone up more here than most places – still, it always feels like you’ve had a mini-holiday when you’ve been here”.
15. Marle, Heckfield Place
British, Modern restaurant in Heckfield
Heckfield Place - RG27
Set on a 400-acre estate, this converted 18th-century manor house is nowadays a 45-room hotel and promotes its commitment to sustainability, complete with its own biodynamic farm. Skye Gyngell (of London’s Spring) oversees the dining room, which receives a very mixed rep in our annual diners’ poll. Many are wowed or find the cuisine “tasty but playing it a bit safe”, while others settle for “OK, but thought it would be better”, and nobody says it’s terrible. Views diverge on the interior, too – “soulless” to some but an “exceptional” highlight to others.
16. The Greyhound
British, Modern restaurant in Henley-on-Thames
Gallowstree Rd, Peppard Common - RG9
In summer 2023, citing the need to ‘slow down’, TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson bowed out from his Oxfordshire gastropub after nearly two decades at the helm (the latter part of which was overshadowed by controversies relating to its anti-vaxxer stance, and, more recently, a worrying hygiene rating). While David Brown, who heads up Marlow’s Royal Oak has stepped into AWT’s shoes (the latter will remain on hand as a consultant), head chef Jamie Webber remains from the previous line-up, which should ensure continuity when it comes to the popular venue’s “generous” and “well-cooked” pub grub.
17. The Crooked Billet
British, Modern restaurant in Stoke Row
Newlands Ln - RG9
This “fabulous” and “colourful” Chilterns gastroboozer “consistently delivers” – even well into its fourth decade in business. “Look out for the music nights” combining “imaginative pub food” with “live performances by artists far beyond what you’d expect from a rural pub” – but then again, this isn’t just any pub: it’s famously run by chef-proprietor Paul Clerehugh (ex-of glam rockers Sweet), and Kate Winslet hosted her wedding breakfast here.
18. The Hare & Hounds
British, Modern restaurant in Newbury
Bath Road, Speen - RG14
2023 Review: After months of restoration, this 17th century Georgian building near Newbury re-opened in January 2022 and now boasts a traditional pub, very attractive pitched-roof dining room in contemporary style and 30-bed coaching inn, as well as a covered garden terrace. No feedback as yet in our annual diners’ poll – reports please!
19. The Great Shefford
British, Modern restaurant in Great Shefford
Newbury Road - RG17
2023 Review: Complete with a riverside terrace, this privately owned pub near Newbury receives a good rep in our annual diners’ poll for its 40-seat dining room overlooking the river Lambourn, where chef Sam Cary aims to deliver ‘refined modern British pub food’. In an April 2022 visit, Tatler’s Fay Maschler declared it “a rare jewel of a country pub” offering “everything you want a welcome to be”.
20. The Crown INN
British, Modern restaurant in Andover
-Upton - SP11
2023 Review: “Always reliable, serving exceptional food for a village pub”, say fans of Dave Watts’s rural inn, where classic pub dishes jostle on the menu with somewhat more ambitious fare. Top Tip – “the plat du jour is unbelievable value!”
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