St Albans, British, Traditional Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “Just reopened and even better than before”, this ultra-lux country-house hotel has an unusual ‘high-concept’ buffet-style dining room inspired by Asian food halls, with chefs cooking at eight ‘live action food stations’ (robata grill, seafood, tandoor oven et al), from which guests choose as much as they want. It’s not fine dining, but it is good-value in its way and it’s something-for-everyone style suits entertaining or a family get-together.

A “very pleasant country pub” helmed by Sally & Alvin Michaels for two decades, and whose “good food” of Anglo-French bent (including home-smoked fish and meat, and local game) “attracts diners from well beyond its area”; indeed, one reporter who took far-flung American visitors found that they “loved the location and quaintness” of this attractive Georgian locale – also handy for the Harry Potter experience at Warner Bros Studio nearby.