Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Newbury
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Newbury restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 15 restaurants in Newbury and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Newbury restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Newbury Restaurants
1. The Vineyard at Stockcross
British, Modern restaurant in Stockcross
“Exceptional wines, especially the selection from California” have always been the main talking point from a culinary point of view at this well-known Berkshire property, run as a passion project by Sir Peter Michael and his family for the last 26 years (and boasting an amazing cellar of 30,000 bottles and 3,000 bins). Widely acknowledged as “a lovely place” (especially if you stay in one of its 49 rooms), it once held two Michelin stars, but currently holds none despite cuisine that rates consistently well in our survey and inspires no complaints (“the cuisine on this occasion reached new heights. Exceptional locally sourced fallow deer, cooked with wonderful accompaniments including parsnips and pear plus some great spiced cubes of potato. Just delicious and exquisitely presented. Desserts all excellent”). We’ve maintained its rating, but in October 2024 it was sold by the family to Apex Hotels, so change is likely afoot.
2. Three Tuns Freehouse
British, Modern restaurant in Great Bedwyn
High St - SN8
2021 Review: “A super pub and family destination, with good food” – James Wilsey’s sizeable operation, with beer garden, has a beautiful rural location and is consistently well-rated.
3. The Woodspeen
British, Modern restaurant in Newbury
Lambourn Rd - RG20
“Despite losing its Michelin star, standards at the Woodspeen remain very high” according to practically all of the many reports on this restored pub in West Berkshire, which was transformed in 2013 by top catering CEO, Alastair Storey (and which is one of the top-50 most commented-on destinations outside London in our annual diners’ poll). There is a variety of menus, including a sensibly priced à la carte option all served in a stylish setting (which includes a striking, high-ceilinged contemporary space added onto the original building). “I have been dining at The Woodspeen since it opened. I have seen the team develop over the years. It’s an excellently run restaurant with great food. May have lost its Michelin star but it is as great as it always has been in my view”. Top Tip – “good value for money, especially for the set lunch”.
4. The Pot Kiln
Game restaurant in Frilsham
Yattendon Estate - RG18
Reopened in June 2024 (after our diners’ poll had concluded), this well-known inn (Kate Middleton’s favourite back in the day) has been relaunched under new management and after a £750,000 refit with seven rooms for accommodation. Gone are the days of its traditional British menu: Nick Galer and his team now present Basque-influenced dishes, including tapas and cured meats, and the interior has been significantly changed, incorporating a charcoal-fired grill at the centre of a big open kitchen. There’s still a separate bar and big outside area; and they still run their popular weekly pizza nights (now on Sundays) when they fire up the big oven in the garden.
5. Royal Oak Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Yattendon
The Square - RG18
“Excellent pub with rooms with a superb restaurant, serving delicious food” that “shows influences from the Mediterranean to the Middle East and beyond”. “They’re the bunch who have taken over the nearby Pot Kiln gastropub, so we were bumped into the hotel… but it was a pleasant bump – great food, reasonably priced and welcoming service/surroundings”.
6. The Wellington Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Baughurst
Baughurst Rd - RG26
Jason King & Simon Page met in Hong Kong before coming back to these shores to take over this “quintessential country inn” on the Hampshire/Berkshire border in 2005. While the odd diner feels that “prices are on the high side”, all agree the kitchen hits “consistently high standards”, with herbs plucked from the “beautiful gardens”, and staff “doing their best to cope” amid a “pleasantly chaotic” ambience.
7. Eliane of Hungerford
International restaurant in Hungerford
24 High Street - RG17
2021 Review: “Really healthy food” (be it gluten-free, veggie, vegan or even more specific – think raw vegan) is the calling card of this bright “cafeteria-style” outfit, which spawned a Sunningdale spin-off in 2017.
8. George & Dragon
British, Traditional restaurant in Hurstbourne Tarrant
The Square - SP11
2021 Review: A “high-quality gastropub (with rooms) not too far from Andover”, winning increasingly favourable reports for its “interesting food, varied flavours and unusual takes on traditional fare”. Add in “obliging service and not too outrageously expensive” prices.
9. The Miller of Mansfield
British, Traditional restaurant in Goring-on-Thames
High St - RG8
2022 Review: “This superb gastropub” – an eighteenth-century inn “two minutes from the Thames and convenient for London day-trippers” – serves “interesting food with some high gastronomy”: “all produce is locally sourced, and bread made and butter churned in-house”. Husband-and-wife patrons Nick & Mary Galer (both ex-Fat Duck Group) “clearly care about what they do and look after their diners”. Ratings dropped a notch this year amid reports of “the odd off note” – possibly they “need a bit more practice after lockdown”.
10. Don Giovanni at The Leatherne Bottel
Italian restaurant in Goring-on-Thames
Bridle Way - RG8
2023 Review: “A brilliant location” – on a picture-perfect stretch of lush Thames riverbank – is the justification for maintaining the listing of this Thames Valley veteran, on the fringe of Goring. On a sunny day, there are few nicer places to be. Its “classic Italian menu”? Not much commented on (nor, to be fair, criticised) and not the main point.
11. The Beetle & Wedge Boathouse
British, Modern restaurant in Moulsford
Ferry Ln - OX10
“A lovely setting on the river” (the stretch of the Thames commemorated in ‘Wind of the Willows’, and best admired from the terrace) elevates a visit to this former boathouse, last used for the ferry in 1967. Happily, the “charming modern interior still retains some of the character of this long-established venue”, despite a more pub-like refurb in recent years, and there was praise this year for some “tasty and filling” cuisine (and at a “very reasonable” price tag too).
12. The Palm
Indian restaurant in Froxfield
Bath Rd - SN8
2021 Review: It might not look like much from the road – an out-of-town bathroom showroom might be on the mark – and the location on the A4 doesn’t help, but brave the underwhelming façade of this outfit and you’ll find a “swanky” restaurant turning out “inventive Indian cuisine”.
13. The Hare & Hounds
British, Modern restaurant in Newbury
Bath Road, Speen - RG14
2023 Review: After months of restoration, this 17th century Georgian building near Newbury re-opened in January 2022 and now boasts a traditional pub, very attractive pitched-roof dining room in contemporary style and 30-bed coaching inn, as well as a covered garden terrace. No feedback as yet in our annual diners’ poll – reports please!
14. The Great Shefford
British, Modern restaurant in Great Shefford
Newbury Road - RG17
2023 Review: Complete with a riverside terrace, this privately owned pub near Newbury receives a good rep in our annual diners’ poll for its 40-seat dining room overlooking the river Lambourn, where chef Sam Cary aims to deliver ‘refined modern British pub food’. In an April 2022 visit, Tatler’s Fay Maschler declared it “a rare jewel of a country pub” offering “everything you want a welcome to be”.
15. The Crown INN
British, Modern restaurant in Andover
-Upton - SP11
2023 Review: “Always reliable, serving exceptional food for a village pub”, say fans of Dave Watts’s rural inn, where classic pub dishes jostle on the menu with somewhat more ambitious fare. Top Tip – “the plat du jour is unbelievable value!”
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