Caversham Restaurant Guide

“Three generations of the same family have been pleasing visitors” to this Thames Valley bastion of traditional haute cuisine, owned by the Emmanuel family since 1972 and with a first-class position overlooking the water at Sonning Eye. The famous signature “roast duck on the spit is the best”, while “the fab wine list is worth taking home to salivate over”. While a minority of reporters caution that it is “very good but too expensive”, most feel the high quality justifies the investment.

“Atul Kochhar’s Marlow outpost is in the charming Compleat Angler hotel by the side of the Thames” – a marriage of traditional British setting and Indian cuisine that’s proving enduringly popular. At night the room is less characterful, “whereas in daylight, there is the fabulous view of the River Thames’s Marlow Weir”. “Service is top notch and very welcoming” and the cuisine “is an inventive fine-dining take on Indian cuisine, beautifully presented” – “every element is spiced marvellously and cooked perfectly”. There are “interesting wine pairings too (I’d never previously heard of mango wine. I certainly wouldn’t have ordered it had it not been selected for us… it worked well!”)

“Excellent pub food in Chilterns countryside” is to be had at this cosy seventeenth-century country pub in the hamlet of Roke, near Wallingford. The straightforward menu specialises in grills, and if you still have room for cheese afterwards there’s a notably good selection.

“Out-performing many more feted restaurants” – Michael Mcdonald “runs a fantastic family- run restaurant that never fails to hit the spot” at this “quiet and discreet” fixture, which occupies part of a house that was once home to TS Eliot. The dining room itself is “small, but well laid out” and buoyed along by its “very good, friendly and professional service”. “The menu is limited, but every dish is enticing” and all-in-all it provides “a proper dining experience” that’s “consistently great value” (and one of the 100 most-commented-on outside London in our annual diners’ poll).

“Everything you want in a country pub” according to fans of this thatched free house on the Phillimore Estate, a short drive outside Henley-on-Thames and on the edge of the Chilterns. Run by David Holliday and with chef Alex Sargeant – both ex-Harwood Arms in Fulham – it has a “delightful dining room with food that’s at the top end of gastropub grub” and for less ambitious fare, head to the adjoining ‘burger barn’.

Giancarlo & Katie Caldesi’s country venue – a counterpart to their Marylebone flagship – offers classic Italian cuisine in “a lovely atmosphere with fabulous service”. It’s “good-value”, too – at least certainly compared to the nearby Fat Duck and Waterside Inn…

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“Delightfully out of the way” with a “tremendous location” in the leafy Chilterns: Julie Griffiths’ hidden-away restaurant (too posh really to be called a pub as it originally was) is “worth the trip out of London” or makes a “perfect lunch stop off the M40”. Its impressive standards over the years make it one of the top 100 most commented-on destinations outside of the capital in our annual diners’ poll and it provides “flavoursome” (if not especially foodie) traditional fare backed up by a “serious wine list”. “Julie always maintains the highest standard” (as she has done for over 50 years at the helm now) and it is particularly “a perfect location on a fine summer day”.

“Just a thoroughly super place to eat innovative food, beautifully presented, enjoy good company and feel thoroughly pampered!” – Ryan & Liam Simpson-Trotman’s rural star has firmly established itself since 2010 as a major highlight near Henley. Set in a converted pub, service is charming, but the root of its appeal is the “outstanding” modern European cuisine, which is available à la carte during quieter services but is usually presented as either a six-course tasting menu for £100 per person or ten courses at £150 per person.

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2023 Review: “Still going strong” – this comparatively un-foodie pub has thrived in this gourmet village by offering an attractive and traditional backdrop for easygoing British cuisine, realised with wit: fish finger sandwich, steak, top burgers and so on.