Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Petersfield
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Petersfield restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 24 restaurants in Petersfield and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Petersfield restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Petersfield Restaurants
1. The Star & Garter
British, Modern restaurant in East Dean
2023 Review: In the heart of the Goodwood Estate, this attractive looking inn benefits from a “large garden” and serves an menu of “imaginative” pub grub (although the “menu descriptions tend to the obscure!”).
2. E Street Bar & Grill
British, Modern restaurant in Petworth
New Street - GU28
“Looks can deceive at this understated venue” – a stylish haunt with numerous characterful spaces, whose rather metropolitan style is somewhat at odds with this antique-dealer-infested town. The upscale brasserie menu majors in seafood selections and steaks – fans tip the “well-priced three-course set lunch and affordable wine list”.
3. Lickfold Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Lickfold
Highstead Ln - GU28
2021 Review: It’s all change again at this out-of-the-way old country pub, north of Petworth. DJ Chris Evans owned it about five years ago, then Tom Sellers ran it, but that came to an end last year, and as of August 30 2019, it has a new management team and a less ‘fine dining’ approach than under the chef of London’s Restaurant Story. Reports please!
4. The White Horse
British, Modern restaurant in Chilgrove
1 High St - PO18
2022 Review: Current owners The Epicurean Collection – behind a string of boutique pubs and inns – have a hit on their hands with this award-winning venture: a “worthy addition to an area generously supplied with high-quality country pubs”. The rolling South Downs beyond the windows inform much of the “imaginative menu”, with a particular accent on introducing non-shooting folk to game (the latter courtesy of the local Goodwood Estate).
5. Shoe Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Exton
Shoe Ln - SO32
2022 Review: “Have a lovely walk to work up an appetite” before visiting this laidback brick-walled boozer on the River Meon, handy for the South Downs Way, and with a “very nice little garden down by the brook”. To make sure of enjoying its “great” pubby staples “you need to book – even midweek – as it’s very popular”.
6. The Duke Of Cumberland
British, Modern restaurant in Henley
2021 Review: “Fabulous country food” (hefty and satisfying) is the order of the day at chef-patron Simon Goodman’s hillside sixteenth century boozer, which these days profits from a proper dining area and, as ever, an “amazing garden” overlooking Leith Hill, the highest point in Surrey.
7. 36 on the Quay
British, Modern restaurant in Emsworth
47 South St - PO10
In 2019, locally born chef Gary Pearce and his wife Martyna took over this well-established restaurant-with-rooms right on Emsworth harbour from Ramon & Karen Farthing, who had developed it into one of the South Coast’s better-known dining options over two decades. Gary’s “complex and innovative cooking” – honed in top kitchens including Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham and Belgium’s De Wulf – scored consistently well this year, if on somewhat limited feedback.
8. Fat Olives
British, Modern restaurant in Emsworth
30 South St - PO10
“Satisfyingly simple and unpretentious” – the verdict on Lawrence & Julia Murphy’s long-running (est. 2000) and “rustic” venture in a cute, seventeenth-century fisherman’s cottage, on the road down to the quay; the “varied menu” features “plenty of fresh fish, beautifully prepared and served” and coming “at a reasonable price” to boot.
9. The Deck
British, Modern restaurant in Emsworth
Emsworth Marina, Thorney Road - PO10
2022 Review: Sailor-turned-entrepreneur Ed Collison set up his popular venue at Emsworth yacht basin at the age of 21 in 2016, serving everything from £4.50 bacon breakfast rolls to a splash-out seafood platter for two at £120 a pop. During lockdown he launched a fleet of silver catering vans, and in November 2021 announced a new branch of the Deck, replacing the Boat House Café, at Gosport marina.
10. Caracoli
Sandwiches, cakes, etc restaurant in Alresford
15 Broad St - SO24
2021 Review: An “excellent coffee and cake selection” (verging on the “healthy” side), supported by “interesting” snack lunches underpin the allure of this town-centre café – and “in summer you can retire to the courtyard or sit out front to watch the world go by”; “unfortunately the branch in Winchester has now closed”.
11. The Earl of March
British, Traditional restaurant in Lavant
Lavant Rd - P018
2023 Review: The view (towards Goodwood) from the window is said to have inspired William Blake’s anthem, Jerusalem, in 1803, but the current future is uncertain at this eighteenth-century coaching inn, which shut its doors in early October 2022. We await news of the new incarnation of this vantagepoint over ‘England’s green and pleasant land’.
12. The Royal Oak
British, Modern restaurant in East Lavant
Pook Ln - PO18
This 200-year-old local pub at the foot of the South Downs is “well run and popular”, with a “well-executed and great-value menu” of superior gastropub fare.
13. Farmer, Butcher, Chef
British, Modern restaurant in Chichester
Goodwood Estate - PO18
2022 Review: “The food is excellent, and you’re made to feel welcome” at this showcase for the produce of the Goodwood Estate, an early convert to organic farming (although Lord March, the Duke of Richmond, is better known as a petrol-head). “They’ve turned the courtyard into a lovely space”, and the highlight of the menu is the ‘butcher’s board’ sharing selection of various meat cuts.
14. The Anchor Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Lower Froyle
2021 Review: “So quirky and friendly”, “and the food is great too” at this smart pub-with-rooms geared up for huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’ in the Hampshire countryside. Top Tip: “Go for the scrumptious dessert of beer cake and apple ice cream”.
15. The Richmond Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Chichester
Mill Road, West Ashling - PO18
2021 Review: “A definite must-visit” – “an amazing small gastropub next to a beautiful pond”, on the Goodwood Estate, and with a line in “tasty and flavoursome” victuals (including game).
16. The Horse Guards Inn
British, Traditional restaurant in Tillington
Upperton Rd - GU28
“If only more pubs were like this” – a “perfect local”, on the edge of the Petworth estates, where “the food is largely locally sourced and much better than standard pub grub” (indeed, the “innovative daily changing menu” comes “from a chef who obviously cares”). Bonus points for the appealing garden, and there’s a “good atmosphere inside too, unless you’re in the overflow room”.
17. Cassons Restaurant & Bar
British, Modern restaurant in Chichester
Arundel Road, Tangmere - PO18
It’s “a little old-fashioned”, but that does little to dent the appeal of Viv Casson’s “lovely” restaurant, a short drive from the Goodwood Estate; the venue celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2023, and whether you go for the Sunday lunch or regular themed dinners, it “delivers on efficiency and solidly good food”.
18. Nathan Marshall Clarke House
British, Modern restaurant in Liss
Farnham Road - GU33
A “great little spot” in what was once a courthouse – though it’s not necessarily evident from the façade or the rustic interior either; the “husband-and-wife team (Nathan and Evi Marshall) work well together”, and the modern European food “continues to improve”, making it “a welcome addition to an area surprisingly thin on exceptional restaurants”.
19. The Horse & Groom
British, Modern restaurant in Chichester
Four miles from Chichester, and bordering the South Downs National Park, this 200-year-old pub-with-rooms is part proper boozer (upfront) and part tastefully arty restaurant offering ambitious gastrofare. Reporters this year praised the “warm ambience” and a “treat” of a menu that features some “standout courses” such as scallops and venison.
20. The Hollist Arms
British, Modern restaurant in Lodsworth
2023 Review: This “excellent South Downs destination in a picture-perfect village” – “with fine, restaurant-quality cooking” from chef Jesse Bryson (ex-Noble Rot and Leroy) – “is flourishing for good reason”. The stone-built seventeenth-century pub was taken over in 2020 by Angus Davies, a former manager at Chez Bruce and Lorne.
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