Elstree, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: A former boathouse on the high street, turned hotel and dining room, that remains of note for its “delightful food impeccably served in a not overcrowded restaurant” – though you’ll need to book ahead on weekends, when they also lay on a “good Sunday lunch”.

2021 Review: “A new chef is bringing style and ambition to this lovely period building” – an “intimate” five-hundred-year-old Tudor structure in central Pinner where Stelian Scripcariu has taken over from Terry Farr (owner for over 25 years) at the stoves. A trip “can work out expensive” (nothing new there) but all local reporters say it’s “well worth a visit”.

“Gourmet cooking at reasonable prices in a delightful village pub” encapsulates the appeal of this five-year-old venture from well-travelled chef James Harkin, whose parents ran the Alpine Restaurant in nearby Bushey for 48 years, and his partner Magda. The menu mixes pub classics with more refined Italian dishes.