Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Buxton
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Buxton restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 27 restaurants in Buxton and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Buxton restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Buxton Restaurants
1. Losehill House Hotel & Spa
British, Modern restaurant in Hope Valley
Losehill Lane, Edale Road - S33
Down a lane near the lovely Hope Valley, Paul and Kathryn Roden’s Peak District property has a marvellous setting and wins consistent praise from a loyal fan club for its “beautifully presented” food, and “pleasant” staff. The choice is primarily à la carte, with the evening selection offering three courses for £60 per person.
2. KIRA by Sunitha
Pan-Asian restaurant in Bollington
88 Palmerston Street - SK10
At KIRA Bistro & Lounge Bar, we believe that dining is more than just a meal; it’s a culinary experience that engages all the senses. Imagine the tantalising aroma of our signature dishes wafting through the air, each masterpiece showcasing Sunitha&r...
4. Simply Thai
Thai restaurant in Buxton
2-3 Cavendish Circus - SK17
2022 Review: “Excellent Thai food full of flavour” (including wallet-friendly set lunches) are the order of the day at this Peak District outfit decorated with traditional carvings and sculptures, and hosting twice-monthly jazz and cocktail nights.
5. Old Hall Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Chinley
Whitehough - SK23
2022 Review: This Grade II-listed former coaching inn incorporates fourteenth-century Whitehough Hall, whose dining room with a minstrels’ gallery provides a medieval setting for the “excellent food” served here. Former banker Daniel Capper took over the running of his childhood home when a leaseholder failed.
6. The Swan Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Kettleshulme
Macclesfield Rd - SK23
“A pub that can serve ultra-fresh, skillfully cooked seafood is a rare treat” – “this country inn in the hills above Macclesfield” has a “light and comfortable small dining room adjacent to the old bar”. It enjoys “strong support from the village”, which clubbed together 20 years ago to buy the freehold when the pub was threatened with closure.
7. The Lime Tree
British, Modern restaurant in Bollington
18-20 High Street - SK10
2022 Review: Patrick Hannity's decade-old spin-off from his Manchester original is less well known than its progenitor but is “usually excellent”, too; the food is “light, balanced and filled with flavour”, incorporating produce from his Peak District farm.
8. Kandy
Sri Lankan restaurant in Macclesfield
116 Mill Street - SK11
2021 Review: “I can’t vouch for its authenticity as a Sri Lankan experience… but it’s a delight to eat!” – so say fans of this family-run three-year-old café. By its nature, a good choice for pescatarians, veggies and vegans.
9. Piedaniels
French restaurant in Bakewell
Bath St - DE45
“Great-value French cuisine” has drawn guests for more than 25 years to this family-run venture from Eric & Christiana Piedaniel – both career chefs. It makes a “lovely quiet environment for lunch” just 10 minutes’ drive from historic Chatsworth House.
10. The Fisherman's Table
Fish & seafood restaurant in Marple
103 Church Lane - SK6
2021 Review: A “new restaurant serving ultra-fresh fish from Fleetwood” (but also Shetland scallops, Irish sea trout and Cornish monkfish), set up by fishmonger Jamie Barrett, who owns the Marple Fish shop round the corner. A former car spares shop, it's now a hybrid country-pub and beach shack, style-wise.
11. Kambuja (was Angkor Soul)
Pan-Asian restaurant in Marple
12 Stockport Rd - SK6
2021 Review: “All the Cambodian food is tasty and authentic”, and for lunch they serve “flavoursome” soups, filled baguettes and noodle dishes at this “small and cramped” operation – which (with its spin-offs) is quite possibly the only restaurant of its type in northern England. In the basement they buy and sell second-hand vinyl – hence the name. Branches have now opened in Altrincham and, most recently, Stockport market.
12. The George
British, Modern restaurant in Alstonefield
2023 Review: “The days when this was a pub have long gone: it is an unashamedly ambitious restaurant which charges a full price for some very good cooking” – so say fans of this Peak District gastropub near the Dove Valley, who say “the chef knows what he is doing, and as long as you can afford it this is one of the best places to eat in the Peak District”. William Sitwell of The Telegraph paid it a visit in September 2022 and gave a similar but more nuanced view: the “cooking really is excellent and delicate with clever flavours” and “there is talent and charm by the bucket-load”, but he felt the dishes on the menu were presented and served in tiny portions, and he was encouraged to think of them as tapas. He declared, they “are the most un-tapassy things I’ve ever seen”.
13. Fischer’s at Baslow Hall
British, Modern restaurant in Baslow
Calver Rd - DE45
This well-known Peak District property has been run by Max & Susan Fischer since 1988 and is currently managed by their son Neil, who is credited in reports with keeping standards at least as high under his parents. Watch this space as there are plans to open a champagne bar on the terrace this summer.
14. The Gallery Restaurant at The Cavendish Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Baslow
Church Lane - DE45
This swish country house hotel, in one of the Peak District’s most picturesque villages, is transforming before visitors’ eyes as part of an ongoing, £1.1 million makeover. As we went to press, the more casual ‘Garden Room’ had already been reborn, with chef Adam Harper (ex-of the acclaimed nearby Fischer’s) overseeing a new menu with impeccable local sourcing such as Chatsworth beef; this, the more formal fine diner, will follow suit, but meanwhile won praise this year – well “on its way to a Michelin star” by some accounts. All reports acclaim the “brilliant food and ambience in all areas” and it’s also tipped for afternoon tea.
15. The Peacock at Rowsley
British, Modern restaurant in Rowsley
Bakewell Rd - DE4
This “old manor house” handy for Chatsworth (and “not to be confused with the Peacock Inn in nearby Bakewell”), may “feel old-fashioned”, but its “great food and interesting menu” (from tasting menus to more “relaxed” options, both taken in the “fine dining room”) make it “a pleasure” by all accounts. Local ingredients (beef and lamb, say) are sourced from the Haddon Estate on which it sits.
16. Hyssop
British, Modern restaurant in Glossop
54 High Street West - SK13
2023 Review: Fooderati insider Thom Hetherington was amongst those sending out an SOS on behalf of this well-regarded neighbourhood restaurant in his hometown, which was gutted by fire in September 2022. By the end of the month it had crowdfunded the money to re-open and restore its mix of funky small plates (typically you would order 7-8 in a meal), plus gins, cocktails and a thoughtful small selection of wines.
17. La Popote
French restaurant in Marton
Church Farm, Manchester Road - SK11
“Terrific French cooking” by Cheshire-born chef-patron Joseph Rawlins combines with immaculate presentation from his FOH partner, Parisienne Gaëlle Radigon, in a smart, “contemporary setting” (“love having a tablecloth: so many restaurants don’t”) at this converted farmhouse in a village famous for its timber-framed church and ancient ‘Marston oak’ (Britain’s largest tree). Top Tip – “the set meal is exceptional value”.
18. The Devonshire Arms at Beeley
British, Modern restaurant in Beeley
Devonshire Square - DE4
2022 Review: This “lovely gastropub” on the Duke of Devonshire’s Chatsworth estate gets mostly positive feedback for its “good food and real ales”. There’s sometimes a perception, though, that “it falls short” of its potential: “the cooking was fair, but it could be so nice here”.
19. Where The Light Gets In
British, Modern restaurant in Stockport
7 Rostron Brow - SK1
“A very different but great experience” – Sam Buckley’s hipster hotspot has won fame at these atmospheric brick-walled premises in a former coffee warehouse with huge windows, which opened in 2016. It’s “a super space for a romantic dinner”, especially if your date is of a foodie disposition; the “gorgeous food” from a tasting menu at £110 per person puts a major emphasis on sustainability and local sourcing and there are “delicious wine pairings, introducing you to novel wines”, all served by “lovely staff”.
20. The Blind Bull
British, Modern restaurant in Little Hucklow
Visit England’s pub of the year in 2023, this renovated, twelfth-century Peak District inn’s other claim to fame is being the fifth oldest pub in the country. Feedback on its conservatory dining room was more limited than we’d like this year, but acclaims its “excellent food, lovely view and proficient service”. There’s an eclectic selection of modern pub grub, or you can choose to dine from the focused (four choices for each course) dinner menu at £39.50 for two courses.
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