Corsham Restaurant Guide

Since 2006, chef Hywel Jones has been at the helm of the kitchen of this traditional, period dining room which provides a very classical country-house retreat in a rural Palladian mansion: go somewhere else if you want stripped floors and open kitchen, as here you will get swagged curtains, tablecloths, silverware and aperitifs in the lounge. Limited feedback this year, but remaining positive on its high-quality, classically rooted cuisine: there is a tasting menu, but the à la carte offers three courses for £115 per person.

2022 Review: Chef Rob Potter wins solid praise for the consistency of his cuisine at this plush Cotswolds five-star hotel with golf club. The style is “traditional rather than super-inventive” (“we didn’t experience stand-outs but good quality throughout”).

Launched in 2016 by Chris Tabbitt (ex-of Bibendum and the Old Bridge hotel in Huntingdon) and Sarah Olivier, this “small and beautifully formed” modern European is a “very comfortable, dependable” sort of place indeed. From the “perfectly executed”, “very well-priced” food (e.g., steak-frites, washed down with “even better value” red wine), to the “very personable service”, it offers an “intimate dining experience” that’s “hard to beat”.

2024 Review: “Outstanding views from the dining area” and “lovely garden” over the surrounding countryside (top walking territory) characterise this well-liked stone gastroboozer; there are plaudits too for its “small menu of good classics” (plus latterly small plates).

2023 Review: A “quirky and interesting” local with a “good atmosphere” serving a “creative menu, with cooking of a consistent high standard”. It makes a “fantastic pub for Sunday lunch”, with “outstanding roasts”.

Set within the Georgian surrounds of the Indigo Hotel, this indie restaurant from Harwood Arms co-owner Mike Robinson has rejigged its formula, with diners treated to cocktails in a vault-set speakeasy, before heading upstairs to the clubby dining room for a seven-course dinner showcasing the best of British wild food. Reports on the new format were limited but what there were proclaimed the food “truly epic, with plenty of slightly off-the-beaten track choices, e.g. hare” (that seem less surprising given Robinson’s reputation as a game guru). The celebrated chef is joined here by exec chef Liam Goldstone, who also runs the hotel’s more casual Brasserie Beau.

“Everything is good and as it should be” at this “delicious small plates” outfit tucked in a wine shop and where, as a result, there’s a “large choice of wine by the glass and you can buy any wine from the shelves and pay an additional £15 corkage, rather than the usual mark-up”. Bonus points for the “really nice atmosphere too” (“in summer it’s an absolute sun trap to sit outside under the awnings” and “in winter it’s cosy and candlelit”). This venue is part of the growing Beckford group, which runs a series of well-regarded venues in South-West England – including, of more recent vintage, Bath’s Beckford Canteen.

2021 Review: The USP of this “very relaxed” yet “lively” Bath pizzeria is the ability to choose your dough as well as the topping on your pizza; not just regular and gluten-free, they also offer hemp, seaweed, black rice and turmeric bases, plus distinctly adventurous toppings (“who knew pistachios on a pizza could be so amazing?!”). A Bristol branch opened in March 2019.

“It’s not London, but it is setting the standard for great food served well in Bath” according to fans of this outpost of the glam national brasserie chain. According to the locals “it has consistent good standards, which is not the case with all the others”.

“A great location in the centre of Bath” is backed up by “very competent cooking and good service” at this well-established corner-restaurant, whose level of cuisine and elegant interior are a cut-above. It’s run by chef Rob Clayton – who was formerly head chef at the posh Bath Priory Hotel for seven years – and his family.

2022 Review: Taking afternoon tea in this “wonderful Georgian setting with a trio playing during the meal” – and the Roman baths next door – is to wallow in English history, with literary visitors from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens as your guides. The nibbles – “beetroot-cured smoked salmon with homemade blini”, perhaps – are a secondary consideration, “but well worth having!”.

“Been going so long it’s become an institution in Bath – and all the better for that” – this bistro set in a Georgian house was taken over three years ago from the founding Golden family by head chef Matthew Lisanti. Ratings would be higher were it not for reports of cooking that was “competent but not mind-blowing” – possibly “a problem of too-high expectations”.

“The word’s got around that the Vietnamese home-style cooking here is seriously delicious”, so this “terrific Dining Club restaurant presided over by the wonderful Noya” (who “also runs supper clubs menus once a week and classes”) is “usually packed” (it is the most commented-on restaurant in Bath in our annual diners’ poll and one of the top-50 most commented-on destinations outside London in the UK). It’s only a “small” and “unpretentious” venue, but “service is always efficient, friendly and welcoming” and “whilst she is only small in stature, her meals are gigantic in terms of flavour and sophistication”; and also very “affordable”. On the downside, one or two visiting Londoners are “disappointed after the local hype” (“good but nothing super-special, but I grew up in south London where we have dozens of not dissimilar places to choose from…”). But when you visit may also be key (“the simplicity of its Pho and Noodle menus – great for pre-theatre – are juxtaposed with Noya’s five-course fixed supper club menus once a week”). Top Menu Tips – “lovely pork belly noodles are very tender and well spiced”; “herby prawn summer rolls and coconut-rich An‘s chicken curry!”.

Their original venue on Walcot Street is no more, but this “friendly and casual” sibling on Chapel Row – indie fine wine shop meets bar and small plates venue – is doing a swift trade, not harmed by its gorgeous heated terrace and garden. Alongside “wines outside the usual suspects” (they run a Wednesday wine club and tasting nights), the food is “a cut above” what one might expect from a booze merchant, even for those who are “usually not a fan of small plates and explanations”.