Whitley Restaurant Guide

This “Reading institution” occupying an 18th-century tollhouse in the town centre has “had a few ups and downs over the last 25 years, but this year is back on top form with a solid menu and excellent service”. Self-taught chef owner Paul Clerehugh, a former rock guitarist with Sweet, also runs the Crooked Billet music pub in Stoke Row (see also).

This “lovely restored Victorian lido” (complete with heated swimming pool and spa) has been “the best ticket in the culinary disaster of Reading for several years now”. One regular feels that the Mediterranean-style food “is still good, but the à la carte prices seem to have gone up more here than most places – still, it always feels like you’ve had a mini-holiday when you’ve been here”.

“Cracking Sunday lunches with football-sized Yorkshires” are the culinary highlight of this “pretty village inn” in a glorious spot just by the Thames (which gets a mention in Jerome K Jerome’s classic ‘Three Men in a Boat’). It’s a notably “stylish” and “buzzy venue” with a “lovely outdoor area” but has never been a particularly foodie destination. Local heart-throb George Clooney was rumoured to want to buy the pub when he moved into the area with his wife Amal – he told Graham Norton “it’s fantastic and we drink all kinds of pints and things”.

Set on a 400-acre estate, this converted 18th-century manor house is nowadays a 45-room hotel and promotes its commitment to sustainability, complete with its own biodynamic farm. Skye Gyngell (of London’s Spring) oversees the dining room, which receives a very mixed rep in our annual diners’ poll. Many are wowed or find the cuisine “tasty but playing it a bit safe”, while others settle for “OK, but thought it would be better”, and nobody says it’s terrible. Views diverge on the interior, too – “soulless” to some but an “exceptional” highlight to others.

In summer 2023, citing the need to ‘slow down’, TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson bowed out from his Oxfordshire gastropub after nearly two decades at the helm (the latter part of which was overshadowed by controversies relating to its anti-vaxxer stance, and, more recently, a worrying hygiene rating). While David Brown, who heads up Marlow’s Royal Oak has stepped into AWT’s shoes (the latter will remain on hand as a consultant), head chef Jamie Webber remains from the previous line-up, which should ensure continuity when it comes to the popular venue’s “generous” and “well-cooked” pub grub.

“An excellent and attentive spot by the river with a fantastic brunch in the morning sun”, whose all-day menu is produced by a small team run by owners Shaun & Gemma Dickens. “I came here for brunch ahead of my nephew‘s wedding and enjoyed it so much I returned the following day!” Top Menu Tip – “recommend the full English and the smashed avocado with poached egg on sourdough toast”.

2021 Review: Henley residents can now save on the rail fare to ‘The Smoke’. Hot on the heels of opening a luxury food court in Harrods, the famous store’s first café outside London is to open in late 2019 on the market place of this chichi town (in what was formerly a branch of Nicolas). We are promised an experience akin to the new food hall approach recently adopted in SW1: ‘a menu of dine-in and dine-out options, replicating the current food-to-go and deli offering’ in Knightsbridge.

This romantic, high-end dining room has brought a slice of Italy to Henley’s waterside since the mid-1990s; “the space is not large, but the extensive use of mirrors makes it feel airy” while the crowd-pleasing menu is always “reliably good”. Given its popularity, it can get “very noisy” – particularly during the local Regatta, which lends its name to one of their many specials (the latter “significantly more expensive than the standard menu offerings”, which are a bargain).

This “very old pub in a great location next to Henley Bridge” has been a scenic boozer for yonks, but now comes in a “fabulous new incarnation”, having been taken over by seasoned restaurateurs Matt Dockray and Phil Renner, who relaunched in late 2022. The hugely stylish interior (not least in the vaulted dining room, strewn with trinkets) makes it a “great place for a first date”, and there are positive early reports on the elevated pub classics by head chefs Joshua Wilde and George O’Leary – both previously senior sous-chefs at Tom Kerridge’s Marlow joints The Coach, and The Hand and Flowers.

This “fabulous” and “colourful” Chilterns gastroboozer “consistently delivers” – even well into its fourth decade in business. “Look out for the music nights” combining “imaginative pub food” with “live performances by artists far beyond what you’d expect from a rural pub” – but then again, this isn’t just any pub: it’s famously run by chef-proprietor Paul Clerehugh (ex-of glam rockers Sweet), and Kate Winslet hosted her wedding breakfast here.