Tring Restaurant Guide

It’s “a fun experience to celebrate a special occasion” at Scott Barnard’s chef’s table-oriented venture seating just 16 people – particularly if you sit upstairs, where chefs plate up the “excellent” eight-course tasting menus before your eyes (ranging from £95 per person for weekday dinner to £120 per person at weekends); downstairs offers a more relaxed sample of the same menu without the drama, and there’s also a glamorous cellar bar if you want to get a head start on the fun.

2022 Review: Set in a “lovely building” with tables under a 200-year-old olive tree, this restaurant – one of eight in a local chain – is frequently packed with regulars, who come back for its “good honest Italian fare at a reasonable price”. There’s “something for everyone on the menu”.

2021 Review: “Well cooked and presented meals” – and “good value”, too – are served at this unusual venue in the foyer of the beautifully preserved 1930s Rex cinema. There’s also a cocktail bar with live pianist – and a particularly strong lunch and pre-film menu.

This “great country pub” in a Chilterns village makes a handy “all year round” escape from the big city, and has a cleverly constructed menu that changes every week and majors on local produce.

“Splendid surroundings for a plentiful and tasty afternoon tea” are again noted as a highpoint at this Jacobean/Georgian stately home spa hotel, with grounds laid out originally by Capability Brown and nowadays owned by the National Trust. Top Tip – “they are happy to give you a box for anything you can’t finish!”

“Super Thai food” makes this “rather cramped” but otherwise “lovely” local fixture “really worth a visit” according to fans (albeit one that’s also popular for takeaway) and it’s great value for money too; from Tuesday to Saturday they do a lunchtime noodle bar.

A “very pleasant country pub” helmed by Sally & Alvin Michaels for two decades, and whose “good food” of Anglo-French bent (including home-smoked fish and meat, and local game) “attracts diners from well beyond its area”; indeed, one reporter who took far-flung American visitors found that they “loved the location and quaintness” of this attractive Georgian locale – also handy for the Harry Potter experience at Warner Bros Studio nearby.

“Tasty bistro food” is enjoyed in the “lovely setting” of a seventeenth-century former school in Old Amersham, a “cosy” local spot opened by the Gilbey’s gin dynasty 35 years ago. Founder Michael Gilbey passed away in summer 2022, and his widow, Lin, has put the site up for sale. (She also runs its sister restaurant in Eton.)

This “great local” has had an up-and-down time of it of late, with the Gerrards Cross branch under new management, and The Grocer at 91, which had pivoted to being a food shop in the pandemic, now closed. On the plus side, this “very busy” outpost is still going strong with its “reliable” (if pricey) sandwiches, salads and toasties, and they also recently opened a new Amersham venue, The Grocer at 2 (Whielden St), spanning a grocery store and café.

Frederic Desmette’s cosy old sixteenth century cottage on the village green is a “real family-run restaurant” that’s “not influenced by current fashion”, but instead turns out a “fairly static” but “excellent quality” Belgian menu all “served up by Freddie with great aplomb!”

2022 Review: You can eat like a Rothschild at this gastropub on the Waddeston estate, dining on meat from the estate’s farms and vegetables from Baron Rothschild’s walled garden at Eythrope. The pub serves “really excellent food” and is set in “pleasant countryside”, with profits going to support the historic Waddesdon Manor, now owned by the National Trust while the Baron retains the estate. There is also afternoon ‘teapas’ – a selection of savoury small plates and more traditional scones and cakes.

2021 Review: Afternoon tea is “a real treat” in the “wonderful and friendly surroundings” of this country house hotel and spa, whose claim to fame is that it appeared in ‘Four Weddings’. Reports of more substantial meals here are more up-and-down.

“Prime manages to feel special and cosy all at once” – a family-friendly steak specialist where the main event is dry-aged on the bone and “not cheap but well worth it” for a “special occasion choice”. This branch recently added a new canopied gin garden with heating in winter, and you can also check out a trio of siblings in St Albans, Beaconsfield and Berkhamsted.