Woburn Restaurant Guide

“All food pubs should be like this!” – according to fans of this “perfect pit stop” on the outskirts of town. “You can’t fault the intent or enthusiasm of the service and the food, if unadventurous, is very decent”.

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.

“Amazing food, top-notch service” – and “the value is OK for fine dining” – such are the attractions of Scott Barnard’s polished neighbourhood restaurant, which divides between a chef’s counter operation with tasting menu and open kitchen seating just 16 people overall; and larger dining room. The latter is considerably cheaper at £60 per person: at the chef’s table the experience is £105 per person during the week, rising to £130 per person at the weekend.

2021 Review: This former ballroom gains most praise for its “great breakfast/brunch” that makes “a brilliant way to start the weekend, with lots of free top-up coffee and newspapers to read”. In addition to “the best brews, home bakes and bagels”, there’s also a full dinner menu featuring sustainable local produce.

Set in a “real rural location” just outside London in the Chilterns, this village pub is serious about food and offers a “good choice of very tasty dishes”. David & Becky Salisbury celebrated 25 years at the helm in January 2024.

“Stunning tasting menus” prepared by chef Steven Barringer provided a couple of reporters’ best meal of the year at this “intimate dining room” – a high-ceilinged, midnight-blue room on a road into the town. It’s sign bills it as a ‘Relaxed Fine Dining Restaurant for Everyone’, inviting passers-by to ‘Come in and enjoy our tasting menus’: but you’d have to have a little time on your hands, with the options being either five or seven courses, starting at £70 per person for the former.

Two minutes from the station, a scion from the dynasty behind the famous Brilliant Indian restaurant in Southall has spread her wings to open a 150-cover venue in the shiny new Unity Place development in late 2023; dusting off some of her family’s oldest recipes (and there’s an in-house microbrewery too). No survey feedback as yet, but in her June 2024 review, The Guardian’s Grace Dent declared it one of the best things to have happened to Milton Keynes in ages – “absolutely charming” once you leave the exterior streetscape behind, with “light, thoughtful cooking that determinedly sets out to incapacitate you, with lovely, kind service”.