Warwickshire Restaurant Guide

“Adam Bennett produces dishes of supreme quality, prepared with flair and skill” according to all reports on this “lovely” Grade II listed inn, which – aided by the profile of Andreas Antona of Birmingham star Simpson’s – has become one of the most commented-on destinations in the Midlands. All accounts say a meal here is “absolutely stunning” and “it is also very refreshing to be able to order à la carte at a Michelin-starred restaurant, rather than being forced to order a tasting menu” (although one local “would eat here more often if there were a greater variation of dishes on offer”). Service is “always friendly, attentive and competent” and “it maintains a brilliant experience”. Top Menu Tip – “the most extravagant chicken liver parfait imaginable, top venison, and a wonderful variation on île flottante”.

“A great surprise! An authentic Italian restaurant with a broad menu of very good food and wine” – “delivered with panache and generosity”. The “beautiful and romantic decor, with cherry trees garlanded with tiny lights” only adds to the appeal.

“The epitome of the proper French bistro as you would have found in France 25 years ago”, owned by acclaimed butchers, Aubrey Allen. “Pascal the patron excels at providing excellent meat and fish dishes that are always reliable, and service is friendly even when they are packed!”

Ex-Simpson’s head chef, Matt Cheal’s “smart but comfortable” venue occupies “a timbered building on Henley in Arden’s picturesque high street”. The six-course tasting menu offers a succession of dishes described in reports as “delightful” and “accurately cooked”.

Expert game chef Mike Robinson’s collaboration with the Indigo boutique hotel brand, in a timber-beamed dining room from the Shakespearean era, has made “a great addition to Stratford” over its first three years of operation. There’s an “unpretentious” menu of tasty sustainable wild meat, and “if you sit around the small chefs’ counter it gets a little warm from the wood-fired oven, but is a great spot from which to chat with the chefs”.

“The ambience if you can get a window seat is excellent” in the top-floor restaurant of the RSC, whose rooftop position gives fine views of the river and swans below. It’s not a foodie experience as such, but some regulars believe “standards have improved since their enforced Covid break”.

“A treasure” – Paul Foster’s “phenomenal, truly inspiring food”, served in the “cosy rustic setting” of a timbered building in Shakespeare’s hometown, “goes from strength to strength”. The “whole team is engaging, knowledgeable and friendly”, and it’s “definitely the place to go for wine buffs – we tried several wines we’d never heard of and food pairings we thought we wouldn’t like but were delighted with”.

“Gerald never disappoints. No menu, just great food chosen and cooked the way he likes it and always fresh and filling”. That’s the surprise-menu formula at Gerald Maguire’s small independent, whose menu is described on its website as follows: ‘Some soup, Some Fish, Some Meat, Some Rice, Bread, Coffee…Something Sweet!’

Celeb chef Glynn Purnell opened in this 200-year-old building on the High Street at the end of May 2022, aiming for a simpler formula than his ‘fine dining’ HQ. It was too late to generate feedback in our annual diners’ poll, but we’d love some feedback so please give it a whirl!

Launched in early 2022, this very ‘now’ operation is built into the walls of Hampton Manor’s Victorian Garden and promises an immersive sustainable dining experience built around a fifteen-course tasting menu served from an open kitchen, where (according to the website) ‘every choice is a commitment to soil health, biodiversity, ethics and sustainability’. At the stoves, your hosts for the evening chef David Taylor with his wife Anette on FOH. There’s also the option for an overnight stay in the Walled Garden, incorporating a kitchen garden tour, a ‘bedroom lounge’ with views of the open kitchen and ‘bath time ritual that celebrates the scent of the garden designed by local organic apothecarists’. Limited feedback so far, but it’s an instant favourite for one early reporter who thought it “outstanding all-round” (and in Autumn 2022, the AA awarded it a rare four rosettes).

Launched in late 2021, an old Victorian furnace house on the edge of the Manor’s walled garden provides the venue for this relatively informal operation, where MasterChef: The Professionals winner, Stuart Deeley, cooks over coals. It was the most popular option at the property this year, although one report felt that “while the BBQ was perfectly good, it needed elevating to meet its aspirations”.

Local boy Rob Palmer, previously head chef at Hampton Manor – where he won the hotel's Peel’s restaurant its first Michelin star in 2016 – opened this tasting-menu spot in a former computer game shop in Solihull in early 2022. No reports as yet, but this looks like one to watch in this plush Brum ’burb.