Horncastle, French 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).

One of the UK’s first wave of modern gastropubs (est. 1989, pipping the Eagle in Farringdon by a couple of years), this Chilterns village boozer serves an “imaginative menu which changes daily” in a “great atmosphere”. But there’s more to it: founder Paul Clerehugh is a former guitarist with 1970s glamrockers The Sweet, and organises “great music nights” in the pub’s heated marquee, attracting an eclectic line-up of performers (George Harrison in the early years; last year, Nigel Kennedy, the Bay City Rollers and Geno Washington).

“A charming venue in a picture-postcard village location” – this “excellent” pub-with-rooms has a “lovely bright restaurant serving superb food” with influences from around the world, and a “good range of private dining options”. Charles I is said to have dined here during the English Civil War.

“Ridiculous!”. “We’ve been to a lot of Michelin star restaurants, and we know this is a pub and not a tasting menu restaurant, but, sorry, only a limited choice of dishes for each course and very expensive for what they are at that” – typical feedback this year on Tom Kerridge’s famous Thames Valley boozer. Its fame was sealed in 2012 when it became the first pub in the world to be awarded two Michelin Stars, but after a sunny heyday and many years of celebratory reviews, its trajectory in recent times has been of steady decline and this year’s feedback was by far the worst yet. Over half of reporters consider the experience their most overpriced of the year, and – aside from the ludicrous prices – the food itself also takes flak for being “uninspiring” or “too salty”, with expressions like “inedible” and “made me angry” starting to feature in one or two accounts. It’s frankly hard not to conclude that only Tom’s TV celebrity stops the Tyre Men from pulling the gongs here. Perhaps he is aware, as change is afoot with a reallocation of the team – after our annual diners’ poll had concluded, in June 2025, Sarah Hayward was announced as the new head chef here, crowned Michelin Young Chef of the Year in 2023. Top Tip – during the week, there is a ‘Classics’ menu for £95 per person (not available at the weekends, hence higher formula-price shown).

“A midsummer evening… drinks on the terrace overlooking the river… memorable” – and especially “great for special occasions”. That’s what the royal family thinks, anyway, about this Thames-side legend: one of few restaurants ever to have hosted them in the public dining area (and also, for private dining, the choice of the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip as the venue to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary). Opened in 1972, and celebrating its 40th year of holding three Michelin stars in 2025 (first under the late Michel Roux, nowadays run by his son Alain) it is also one of the Top 10 most commented-on restaurants in our annual diners’ poll outside London; and is especially tipped for landmark celebrations with reports this year of successful 60th, 70th and 80th birthdays marked here. You don’t visit the Waterside for the latest in culinary trends – this is essentially “classic and refined” Gallic haute cuisine and “each element is so full of flavour” with “incredible attention to every detail” from a kitchen team headed by Fabrice Uhryn reporting to Alain. Deft, “welcoming and professional” service is intrinsic to its success, nowadays overseen by Frédéric Poulette, who began his working life as a commis waiter here aged 18. If anyone makes a complaint it’s that it’s “good only and overpriced” and that’s what drags ratings into more middle territory this year, not for the first time. For more diners though it’s just a case of “perfect food, done perfectly”. (“We’ve earned our spurs eating at the Fat Duck and Ynyshir in recent years, but the tasting menu at the Waterside was the best meal of my life. I wouldn’t go back to the first two, but I would definitely go back to the Waterside. My wife bought me a voucher for Xmas so we stayed the night along with two friends. The welcome, the rooms, the service, the tasting menu – all agreed it was outstanding. An expensive evening but an experience I will remember for years”.)