Kirkham Restaurant Guide

“An amazing setting – beside the River Wyre – by a historical toll bridge” sets the scene at “The Beaumes’ comfortable yet quirkily decorated pub, which continues to offer the best food on the Fylde (that sticky-out bit of Lancashire on the edge of which sits Blackpool).” The “mouth-wateringly good” cuisine is just the start of it at the 2024 AA Inn of the Year, with the site housing seriously stylish rooms (in the main building but also luxury tree-house style lodges), plus a deli, farm shop and gallery stocking homewares and jewellery. Top Menu Tip – “Meat, fish and vegetarian choices are all excellent. Cheese Beignet starter is mouth-wateringly good. Beef suet pudding is gorgeous”.

2023 Review: “Completely consistent… they still do the best ever Pizza Napoletana” – this huge Italian ‘Ristorante & Pizzeria’ just outside Preston was opened in 1985 and has grown over the years to house 300 guests in one sitting, of whom about a third are in a striking glazed extension, complete with al fresco terrace.

2021 Review: “A top option on the Fylde coast” – Paul Moss and Caroline Upton’s well-established and jazzily decorated bar/restaurant near Blackpool only attracted limited feedback last year, but still good all-round.

2024 Review: This “buzzy and consistent” brasserie at a stylish modern hotel and wedding venue offers “excellent service and good food”, with an eclectic menu that stretches from “delicious steaks and fish ’n’ chips” to sushi and other Asian delights, then back to comforting domestic desserts including chocolate mousse and fruit crumble.

“A real bistro near Birkdale station” – the Vérité family-run operation looks firmly rooted in French traditions, but its menu presents many dishes of modern British and European inspiration (eg. Chicken Schnitzel, Madras Spiced Slaw, Coconut Curry Sauce, Bombay Fries, alongside charcuterie, paté and crème brûlée). Top Tip – “great for a business lunch”.

2021 Review: This large, modern roadside outfit, just off the M6 near Preston, has established an enviable reputation for its “well cooked, authentic Indian food” over the last 15 years. “Pity it looks rather like a works canteen”. Important to note: it is alcohol free.

“Craig Wilkinson continues to offer well-above-average, classically inspired food at his pub in the eponymous hamlet of Bay Horse, opposite what was once the similarly eponymous Bay Horse station on the West Coast Main Line”. Even those who have been “dining there for circa 20 years” (Wilkinson’s family has owned the venue even longer) just “cannot fault it” – and, “whether you’re sat in the bar area mixing with the locals, dining in the restaurant, or enjoying a drink in the beautiful garden”, the “atmosphere is fantastic” too.

There’s “always a good eating experience with plenty of choice” of “excellent Indian food” at this Ribble Valley fixture, founded in 1992 by curry industry veteran Mohammad Ali and extended three times since then to cope with its popularity.

2024 Review: “Went here after reading Jay Rayner’s Nov 2022 review. Superb!” – this no-frills café near the Central Lancashire University campus (from Hong Kong natives Fai Tsang and her husband, Wai) is “very much a café rather than a restaurant but you can (need to) book”, thanks to brilliant Cantonese cooking that’s worth rolling up your sleeves for. Top Menu Tip – “The roast duck and siu yuk are delicious with the crisp skin contrasting the tender meat. Soy chicken is very flavourful and the brisket tender, tasty and well spiced”.

Fans “predict big things” for this yearling – a “really amazing new Oli Martin place” located in the apartment-hotel where his former haunt ‘263 Restaurant‘ used to sit. The “super little restaurant” turns out “simple but superbly cooked British food focused on Lancashire produce” (much of it foraged), with their “humble sausage and smoked mash” the best one reporter had ever had – and all “extraordinary value” too.

2024 Review: This crowd-pleasing pub once served as a hospital, but since its takeover and refurb’ by the Brunning & Price group some years back, it’s now a proper country gastroboozer (also with a handful of rooms); on the menu – high-quality British dishes abetted by some more exotic influences from around the world.