Upton, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2024 Review: This “stylish restaurant” near the bridge to Windsor has been run for almost 50 years by co-founder Lin Gilbey, who is responsible for its interior design. Her husband and business partner Bill (scion of the Gilbey’s Gin dynasty) sadly passed away in 2022, but Lin has pressed ahead with improvements, acquiring the premises next door to offer corporate entertainment and private dining facilities. Modern British cooking is generally felt to be “solid”.

“Top notch pub grub” wins votes for Adam Handling’s converted pub in Old Windsor, which will celebrate its fifth anniversary in 2026. A selection of funky small plates (like Yellowfin tuna, green chilli, ponzu or BBQ mackerel, grape salsa) zhoosh up a menu that’s fairly classic gastropub in its approach (steaks, burgers, fish ’n’ chips). The prices bug one or two fans though (“been several times, and the bill is now a bit silly”).

A “fun” and smartly turned-out country pub offering “consistently good food and service” at a “price point you’d expect for Windsor: fairly high”. Launched in 2018 by industry insiders Jamie Dobbin (an ex-Savoy, Ivy and Groucho Club chef) and James Lyon-Shaw (ex-ETM group manager), it’s now the flagship of their five-strong Brucan Pubs group.

“It has to be done… and at the price it’s possibly a never-to-be-repeated experience… but what an experience – theatrical, magical AND delicious!” – Heston Blumenthal’s famously wacky temple of weird molecular gastronomy is entering its 30th year, and most reports say it’s “still an unforgettable and amazingly inventive experience”. Perhaps sensitive to the odd accusation that it can “feel a bit dated and a bit behind the likes of Core, The Ledbury and Row on 5” nowadays the rate of innovation has stepped up this year. A cheaper à la carte option has been reintroduced after an absence of many years (three courses for £255 per person); and there’s now ‘Mindful’ and ‘Journey’ menus (including iconic dishes of the last 30 years) for £275 and £350 per person respectively. Bad vibes about its cost-levels abated somewhat in this year’s annual diners’ poll – only 1 in 6 now consider it “overpriced”.

“A fabulous, thoughtful menu” dominated by “impressive game” from adjoining Windsor Great Park (red deer, muntjac, rabbit, pigeon and more) impresses guests at this “high-quality” venue dating from 1877 and styled as a hunting lodge, by the main gates to the park – hosts Steven & Ami Ellis lead an “attentive” service team, and there’s “an inviting drinks list”. Top Tip – “we enjoyed a fantastic Game Tasting Menu of seven courses which was amazing value for money at £80 per person… a fabulous selection of Charcuterie and Snacks including Rabbit Chorizo, Pigeon Salami, Rabbit Rilette with Cheese Sable and a heavenly Pigeon Sausage Roll along with a game consommé… Game Bird Liver Parfait… excellent Stuffed Pheasant Leg and Woodcock which was accompanied by an Offal Cottage Pie… the flavour was stunning”. BREAKING NEWS: As of October 2025, the venue is ‘temporarily closed’ as the team is ‘refreshing’.

With its tapestries, mullioned windows and Tudor fireplace – as part of a stately home that dates back hundreds of years and which has been a hotel since the 1930s – this intimate dining room (just seven tables) aims, and generally succeeds in providing “a real five star experience”. Foodwise this year, we have reports of "absolutely wonderful meals, truly unique in terms of food pairings, presentation and service” with no complaints, but our rating is an act of faith in continuity as Alex Payne left after our annual diners’ poll was completed in July 2025 (to Sorrel, see also) with Chef Stefano Di Giosia moving here from Kol. In the evening you can choose a four-course tasting menu for £125 per person or a ‘Signature’ selection for £155 per person. Weekday lunches provide a cheaper entry level option of four courses for £95 per person.

“You feel like royalty” at this “amazing property” owned by the National Trust, which dates back to 1666, but was transformed into the Italianate mansion that you see today by Sir Charles Barry in the 1850s; Cliveden has welcomed a Who’s Who of 20th-century history, and was once owned by America’s richest man, William Waldorf Astor, as well as providing the backdrop to the notorious Profumo Affair. While the modern European cooking doesn’t always outshine that epic backstory, few places offer a more “amazing ‘Arvo’ tea”: “a truly wonderful retrospective experience of grand living in the 1920’s, with first class cakes and savouries and superlative views of the gardens”. One savory is ‘Winston Churchill Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding’, namechecking just one of the many famous former guests here.

A “beautiful location in the old stables at Cliveden”, where “you can sit indoors on a lovely cobbled terrace” in the summer, is the main attraction of the second-string restaurant at the Astor family’s glamorous Italianate mansion, where Christine Keeler came to salacious fame back in the Swinging 60s. It’s “expensive” and “relies on its setting”, of course, but “service is good” and there are no complaints about the food this year.

2022 Review: Upscale Georgian gastroboozer, handy for J1 of the M40, whose “very pleasant surroundings” (in a ridiculously picture-postcard village), superior ambience and “nice garden” add considerably to its charms. The food, which is divided into small and big plates of comfort food-style British fare, isn’t wildly ambitious but is “consistently good”.

“Exceptional attention to detail and exquisite food” lead to many best meals of the year being reported in this “elegant and classy” retreat – the dining room at the heart of the Dorchester Collection’s luxurious country house hotel and spa, near the borders of Virginia Water. A number of reports are “surprised it still has only one star from that ‘other’ guide” – “surely Adam Smith is knocking on the doors of two” given the “exquisite” food and “culinary theatre” delivered by the intricate succession of dishes for £185 per person. Despite its 2023 revamp, one or two critics still find its style too “oligarchy and international”, while still acknowledging that the food is “excellent”. Top Menu Tip – “turbot with caviar and two sauces… yes please!”

2023 Review: “Good food at a fair price” was reported again this year at this well-regarded pub: part of a local group with siblings in Gerrards Cross and Beaconsfield. In good weather you can eat on the terrace, or book an ‘Oak Pod’ which seats up to 6 people, and incorporate a heater.

“A real delight” declares the strong local fan club of this “beautifully decorated out-of-town pub-cum-restaurant” in the heart of chichi Beaconsfield, which has been run since 2019 by Daniel Crump & Margriet Vandezande-Crump and has garnered no end of awards in that time. The food is very much not gastropub fare: you can eat à la carte (with mains about £40) or there’s a seven-course tasting menu for £110 per person and practically all reports say results are “superb”. One reporter this year, though, said that while “others seem entranced by this place, it seems to always be trying too hard and slightly misguided” (a view echoed by the Guardian’s Grace Dent in her August 2025 review who thought that “in a bid to be the best restaurant for miles around, they might just be missing the chance to be simply delicious”). For fans, though, “it just keeps getting better”.