Warwickshire, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“Adam Bennett produces dishes of supreme quality, prepared with flair and skill” at this top-class gastroboozer, whose dining room occupies a 19th-century former schoolroom, and whose bar occupies an old butcher’s. It received nothing but praise this year for what is a “fantastic dining experience and great value for money despite the ‘cost of living crisis’”. It’s worth noting, however, that in January 2025, owner Andreas Antona announced his retirement after 50 starry years in the industry, putting the legendary Simpson’s in Brum up for sale; while the latter’s fate remains in the balance, one regular here is “confident the superlative standards will be maintained” – and there’s a good chance they will, given that Antona has happily decided to carry on overseeing this venture alongside other personal projects.

2022 Review: This former fishmonger, butcher, casino, tailor etc. is acclaimed by locals for its “perfect fine dining in an intimate setting”. After pandemic lockdowns, it’s “back with a subtle but impactful makeover and a great new tasting menu” – now the only option, and ringing in at £65 for six courses.

2022 Review: It’s “nice to eat outside by the canal on a sunny day” at this well-run casual spot, with a useful menu of grills and sarnies.

2022 Review: The oak-panelled dining room at this Lutyens-style Relais & Château spa hotel makes a suitable setting for chef Paul Evans to showcase fresh produce from the hotel’s long-established kitchen garden. Long-serving chef-director Simon Haigh oversees the Eden hotel collection’s culinary offering from this flagship restaurant.

2022 Review: “A real gem in our local area” – this branch in the stylish, seven-strong Warwickshire-based 'Lovely Pubs' group has a lot to recommend it: “service is on the right side of friendly and very attentive”, they serve “great pub food, but restaurant quality” (including “fantastic seafood platters”), and if you stick to the main bar downstairs, there's plenty of atmosphere too.

Ex-Simpson’s chef Matt Cheal decamped from smaller premises in Henley-in-Arden to the former Jacques fine dining restaurant in Knowle two years back, gaining a cocktail and tapas bar along the way. There’s a lot of love for the “wonderfully plush surroundings (my old branch of HSBC!) which lend any visit the feeling of a special occasion”, while early reports on the food – à la carte or a tasting menu – praise some “beautifully presented” dishes (even if some feel “the flavours aren’t quite as impressive as the surroundings”).

2022 Review: With its “lovely setting (indoors or outdoors)” and “nicely priced menu” of dishes from around the world – including a selection of “fantastic” small plates to share – this 200-year-old country pub with a contemporary brasserie extension is a useful option near Stratford.

2024 Review: This half-timbered town-centre fixture is useful for a “consistent offering” that includes “good-value lunch and pre-theatre menus”. “First ate here in the mid-80s with a Sixth Form school trip – it was good then and still is”.

“Excellent game – particularly venison, cooked to perfection over an open flame” – is the prime attraction at this Grade II listed building, which was standing in Stratford when Shakespeare was a boy. Wild-food specialist Mike Robinson presides over the kitchen, where game from their own estate and produce from their own botanical and herb garden is cooked over charcoal or wood (mostly oak and elder). Top Tip – “we’ve had Xmas lunch here for the last few years: always wonderful!”.

“A wonderful outlook”; that it’s “convenient while attending the theatre”; and that you should “book early if you want a riverside view from your table”, are undisputed points regarding the RSC’s top-floor dining room. More positive reports say that it has a “nice menu” and that “the food quality has improved recently”. Others, though, continue to find it “all round disappointing”, with “function-style fare” in a room that’s “drab” if you don’t get one of the good seats.

This “lively local bar and restaurant with excellent food” is part of an owner-operated hotel midway between Warwick’s main attractions, the racecourse and the castle. The name derives from the price charged for a cup of coffee and a tot of rum here when the Grand Union Canal was under construction in the early 1800s.

Glynn Purnell’s three-year-old operation has a bright, modern interior that’s in contrast to the period building it inhabits on an attractive high street and is hailed by its biggest fans as “a great pub where food, drinks and service are all very good”. As with last year, though, its ratings in general are middling and dragged further down by the odd more critical report.

“All round a great experience” with “great attention to detail” – this brave three year old “continues to deserve its excellent reputation” and to justify the pivot made at this Warwickshire hotel to locating its main dining experience in the very walls of the “lovely” Victorian Walled Garden, complete with cooking over fire and the use of ingredients like carrot nectar, apple kombucha, and pickled magnolia. One long-term fan feels that “David Taylor’s food now seems to have reached the point he was aiming for with each of the fourteen dishes of the Tasting Menu sophisticated, original, clever and delicious (more mature in approach than when it first opened which is not surprising)”: “well crafted with many high points”.

2024 Review: “This must be the most ‘undiscovered’ fine-dining restaurant in the West Midlands”, say fans of this yearling from locally born and trained Rob Palmer, formerly head chef at Hampton Manor, whose debut as patron is a 26-seat open-kitchen venue in a former computer game shop. “Food and service are first-class”, and if it’s “a little pricey, it’s worth it”. In the evening, the five-course menu is £85 per person; or there’s a seven-course option for £99 per person.

2022 Review: In a refurbished eighteenth-century boathouse (hence the name), this “excellent riverside bistro/café” delivers a “high-quality fish and seafood menu” – plus airy views of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre from the balcony.