Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Marlow
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Marlow restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 75 restaurants in Marlow and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Marlow restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Marlow Restaurants
1. The French Horn
French restaurant in Sonning-on-Thames
“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.
2. Orwells
British, Traditional restaurant in Binfield Heath
Shiplake Row - RG9
“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.
3. Caprice at Crowne Plaza Reading East
British, Modern restaurant in Reading
Wharfedale Rd, Winnersh Triangle - RG41
New luxury 4 silver star Crowne Plaza Reading East, provides a stylish, contemporary look and feel to suit the business traveller, leisure and spa guest. The hotel, set in landscaped podium gardens, delivers exceptional dining experiences. Serving both modern British & authen...
4. Glaze at Crowne Plaza Marlow
British, Modern restaurant in Marlow
Fieldhouse Lane - SL7
Experience excellent food and fine wine in the 4 silver star Crowne Plaza Marlow’s newly refurbished Glaze Restaurant in Marlow, AA Rosette awarded for its culinary excellence. Having recently undergone a huge refurbishment project, the Glaze Restaurant is no...
5. Caldesi in Campagna
Italian restaurant in Bray
Old Mill Ln - SL6
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…
6. English at Crazy Bear Beaconsfield
restaurant in Beaconsfield
Old Town - HP9
Nestled in the heart of picturesque Buckinghamshire, the Crazy Bear Beaconsfield stands as a beacon of extravagance and unique style, blending traditional British heritage with an audacious twist. Our restaurant prides itself on a diverse range of exquisite ...
7. Thai at Crazy Bear Beaconsfield
Thai restaurant in Beaconsfield
Old Town - HP9
The Crazy Bear Beaconsfield introduces an exquisite Thai dining experience, where modernity meets tradition in a symphony of flavors. Our Thai cuisine is celebrated for its originality and provenance, embodying the essence of authentic Thai culinary art with a contemp...
8. The Crown at Bray
British, Traditional restaurant in Bray
High Street - SL6
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.
9. Sindhu
Indian restaurant in Marlow
The Compleat Angler - SL7
“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!”)
10. Artichoke
French restaurant in Amersham
9 Market Sq - HP7
“Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant.....and tucked away in sleepy Amersham”; Laurie Gear’s “classy” venue is celebrating over 20 years in its sixteenth-century grade II listed site in Old Amersham (although it took Michelin until 2019 to cotton on and give it a star). It is one of the most commented-on venues in our annual diners’ poll on the fringes of the capital. “Stunning”, relatively traditional cuisine is “served by people who actually understand the job of hospitality”, in a Scandi-influenced interior.
11. The Vanilla Pod
French restaurant in Marlow
31 West St - SL7
“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).
12. The Chequers Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Weston Turville
35 Church Lane - HP22
Chef-owner Dritan and maître d’ Ranka (husband and wife) took over this country pub in the Bucks countryside in 2010. It inspired limited feedback this year, but all upbeat regarding its fairly traditional fare whose high level of aspiration makes this more a ‘restaurant in a pub’ than a gastropub.
13. Hawkyns by Atul Kochhar
Indian restaurant in Amersham
16 High Street - HP7
A surprise find in an ancient sixteenth-century pub on the high street – Atul Kochhar’s “superb upmarket Indian” is a “delight”, where the set menus are “outstanding value” (“would happily have paid more”, says a fan) and service “very attentive from the outset”. The ambience is sometimes rated no better than “OK” – for some tastes it’s not as immensely characterful as one might think given the venue’s cameo in ‘Four Weddings’, as the backdrop to Hugh and Andie’s romance.
14. Meimo
Moroccan restaurant in Windsor
69-70 Peascod St - SL4
Meimo's is one of Windsors finest restaurants
Meimos Restaurant has an extensive menu with dishes that will suit all tastes and a friendly atmosphere. A real locals' favourite and definitely not a tourist-trap!
With popular dishes such as Lamb or Chicken Tagine with exotic...
15. The Sir Charles Napier
British, Modern restaurant in Chinnor
Spriggs Alley - OX39
“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”.
16. The Bottle & Glass Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Binfield Heath
Bones Lane - RG9
“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’.
17. Home Sweet Home Inn
restaurant in Wallingford
Roke - OX10
“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.
18. The Butcher’s Tap
British, Modern restaurant in Marlow
15 Spittal Street - SL7
“After a minor revamp where the butchery emphasis was toned down and the pub feel improved”, this highly rated boozer (“a noisy part of the Kerridge empire”) “now has a great atmosphere”. “The meat is exceptional” too, whether you select your cut from the counter and watch as the chefs grill it, or just pop in for the “superb burgers” (including the in-demand special burger of the month).
19. The Coach
British, Modern restaurant in Marlow
3 West Street - SL7
“The best of Tom Kerridge’s places” – his no-bookings local in the centre of the town may look “pleasant, if nothing exceptional”, but it is the one the locals head to in preference to any other. “Normally it is difficult to get excited about a soup and a fishcake” but here the “simple but excellent food makes it worth a special journey” and “service is very welcoming and professional”.
20. Vaasu by Atul Kochhar
Indian restaurant in Marlow
2 Chapel Street - SL7
“The best Anglo-Indian food tasted this year!” is a typical view of this three-year-old venture from high-profile chef Atul Kochhar, which just might be the best of his half-dozen restaurants (which include Sindhu at the Compleat Angler, also in Marlow). Inspired by the cuisines of the Punjab and Rajasthan, it has a “lovely tasting menu” as well as shorter set and à la carte options, and serves some “interesting and very pleasant Indian wines”.
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