108 Best Restaurants in England

A frequent (and deserving) entry on "best fish-and-chips in Britain" lists, Aldeburgh's most celebrated eatery always has a long line of eager customers come frying time. The fish is fresh and local, the batter melts in your mouth, and the chips (from locally grown potatoes) are satisfyingly chunky. Upstairs you can bring your own wine or beer and sit at tables, but for the full experience, join the line and take out the paper-wrapped version. The nearby Golden Galleon, run by the same people, is a good alternative if this place is too crowded.

It's worth detouring a bit for this supremely appealing pub on the village green at Great Tew, about 8 miles northwest of Woodstock. The small restaurant offers a traditional but creative menu, which includes dishes like pea and shallot ravioli or a panko breaded mushroom burger. The bar stocks fruit wines and local ales and offers a small cocktail list; there's a fine selection of mugs and jugs hanging from the beams too. Book ahead on weekends. If you can't bear to leave, a spiral stone staircase leads to five guest rooms.

A ten-minute drive from Stow-on-the-Wold in Nether Westcote, this popular gastro-pub is as cozy and comforting as the name would suggest. The food here is exceptional, and the products are so local that the staff can usually point to the farm from where the meat was sourced. If you want to try as much as possible, opt for the six-course tasting menu (£80). Within the restaurant, a large bay window and terrace offer up views of the valley below, and attention to detail gives the pub some humorous touches such as the saddle-seated stools. If you decide that you are just too comfortable to move, there are four rooms to extend your stay in.

An informal restaurant by Michelin-starred chef Simon Rogan, Henrock is a superb addition to the dining scene in Bowness. Much of the fresh produce is grown on Rogan's farm in nearby Cartmel, and all of the dishes are seasonal with strong roots in British cooking. In addition to lunch and dinner, Henrock also has an imaginative afternoon tea menu with sweet treats such as chocolate and passion fruit tartelette and pink pepper, raspberry, and rose choux buns.

Visitors and locals alike head for the half-timber Hobsons Patisseries to indulge in the famous savory pies or scrumptious afternoon teas. Just a couple of minutes walk from Shakespeare’s Birthplace, it’s an almost obligatory lunch stop.

Sit downstairs to appreciate the hardwood floors and oak beams of this local epicurean favorite; upstairs, the look is a bit more contemporary. The updates of tried-and-true dishes include herb-crusted rack of English lamb and panfried calf's liver with creamed potato, wilted spinach, pancetta, and crisp shallot. Desserts are fantastic here, and daily specials keep the menu seasonal. The two- and three-course fixed-price menus (not available for Monday lunches) are good deals.

There's an old Amsterdam coffeehouse vibe at this dark and creaky wine bar and restaurant on historic Lamb's Conduit Street in Bloomsbury. Run by two wine buffs and cult wine magazine publishers, you'll find deceptively simple ingredient-driven British dishes like roast Yorkshire pheasant with bread sauce and quince. There's an ever-changing French and British cheese plate menu, fantastic focaccia, sourdough, and soda bread, and an ambrosial wine list.

Scrubbed pine tables fill the main dining room of this converted fire station near Ely Cathedral; another room, used when there's a crowd, has an open fireplace and a polished wood floor, and also serves as an art gallery. The menu could include fenland recipes like sea bass with shrimp and dill sauce, as well as more familiar English fare, such as steak and kidney pie. Desserts might include treacle pudding (a sticky, steamed cake) or housemade ice cream.

The quality of locally sourced and foraged food has been raised to a new level by this Michelin-starred restaurant, which, together with the Lake Road Kitchen, has given Ambleside unexpected status on the British gastro map. Chef Ryan Blackburn has created a menu anchored to Cumbrian traditions but at the same time mouthwateringly creative and contemporary. Look for hand-dived scallops with pumpkin, braised daube of beef with smoked celeriac, and Cumbrian gingerbread with rhubarb soufflé. The restaurant has an unprepossessing setting, down steps in a dim room, but there's history in the whitewashed, rough-hewn walls: Wordsworth once worked here as "Distributer of Stamps.” A tasting menu is also available at lunch and dinner.

Opened by Thomas Rule in 1798, London's oldest restaurant is still perhaps its most beautiful. The epitome of High Victorian design, overflowing with antique portraits, prints, cartoons, busts, and taxidermy, here you can indulge in traditional British fare like jugged hare, steak and kidney pie, or roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. For a taste of the 18th century, choose game from the restaurant's High Pennines estate, including roast grouse, mallard, or pheasant. Snag a table in one of the skylit rooms or the spot where the  Victorian-era Prince of Wales had trysts with the famed beauty and actress Lillie Langtry. 

If you've ever wondered what the future tastes like, it might just be the 11-course tasting menu here at Silo, a sleek zero-waste restaurant opened by pioneering chef Douglas McMaster in this on-trend area of East London. Clever use of techniques like smoking and dehydration will change how you think about everyday ingredients like carrots and potatoes, while the occasional meat dishes—game and offal feature often—are melt-in-the-mouth delectable (those not in the mood for the full 11 courses can go à la carte with the small plates menu). The local neighborhood may still be a bit rough around the edges, but Silo, with its beautiful high-ceilinged dining room, black-clad staff, and wow cooking, is one of the chicest dining experiences in town.

This sophisticated restaurant serving excellent seasonal British fare is set in a Tudor house beside the idyllic River Stour. Outside, there are lighted terraces where food and drinks are served on warm evenings; inside, original beams, leaded-glass windows, and a brick fireplace add to the sense of history. The menu at lunch and dinner may include thyme-roasted partridge with salsify and grapes, or John Dory with razor clam chowder. For dessert, try the fresh fruit pavlova. In summer, evening barbecues are occasionally held on the terrace.

Set just outside the medieval city walls, this historic pub turned restaurant serves locally sourced British produce with creative culinary twists. Mains include confit pork belly with burnt-ends croquettes and cod loin with creamed bacon and leak, but it's the "nibbles" (snacks) that are really inventive—try the sausage roll, served as three thick slices with housemade mushroom ketchup. It's a little pricey, but the food is excellent and the portions are very generous. There are also five appealing bedrooms available upstairs, with prices starting from £100, including breakfast.

Downton Abbey meets The Crown at this quintessentially English, old-school dining salon located within an Edwardian-era hotel down the road from Buckingham Palace. A favorite with royalty and courtiers, here you can enjoy daily specials like traditional beef Wellington or antediluvian quirks such as Eggs Drumkilbo (a hard-boiled egg/lobster seafood cocktail with caviar)—a onetime favorite of the late Queen Mother.

Created by four friends who have returned home to the Lakes, the menu at the Fellpack is designed as a celebration of Cumbria's ingredients and traditional recipes, albeit with a quirky twist. The space has both indoor and outdoor seating, plus a vintage Airstream trailer serving burritos and fries.

With a porch that appears in a Beatrix Potter story and a location just a rabbit's hop from the author's home, you might expect this pub to be something of a tourist trap, but luckily it's anything but. The meals are tasty and copious, making use of local ingredients. There's a slate floor, a crackling open fire, and a bar that stocks some of the best beers around. Four bedrooms upstairs offer a good-value alternative to pricier lodgings.

Locals congregate in a pair of low-ceiling rooms at this tiny 17th-century establishment by the gates of Windsor Great Park. Those under 18 aren't allowed inside the pub (although they can be served at a few outdoor tables), but adults will find a suitable collection of wine, espresso, and local beer, plus an excellent menu with dishes like roasted cod with butter sauce and samphire or steak frites with brandy and peppercorn. On Sunday the pub serves a traditional, hearty lunchtime roast.

Reputedly one of Norwich's oldest pubs, and one of the oldest in the country as a whole, this place dates back to at least 1249. From noon until 7, the kitchen serves such hearty pub staples as fresh, hot pies. Theakston and Adnams beer are available on tap, as is Aspall cider (the very alcoholic, British kind). Food is served until 6:45 pm. 

One of the town's most famous inns, the 17th-century Admiral Benbow was once a smugglers' pub—look for the figure of a smuggler on the roof, and (if it's not too busy) ask to see the tunnel used for contraband. There's a good selection of West Country ales, and in the family-friendly dining room, decorated to resemble a ship's officers' mess, you can enjoy pizzas, seafood, and steaks. Seafaring memorabilia, a brass cannon, model ships, and figureheads fill the place.

You feel as if you’re stepping back in time at this Victorian pub; the posters, advertisements, flags, and curios tell you the idiosyncratic landlord keeps it as it would have been during World War I. The candlelit restaurant forms one of the three snug rooms and, unsurprisingly, serves traditional fare such as lamb’s liver, corned beef hash, and gammon (thick-sliced ham) with pease pudding. You can stay overnight here as well.

Up the steep slope from the water's edge in Bowness, this spacious, stylish pub serves good home-cooked fare as well as a fine collection of beers that includes its own Hawkshead brew. The seasonal menu includes a traditional Cumbrian sausage ring and breaded whole tail scampi from Whitby. Leather sofas and open fires make the Angel a cozy place; service is low-key and friendly, with crayons for kids and games to play. The decoration is bright, minimal, and contemporary, with wooden floors and off-white walls. Thirteen comfortable, good-value bedrooms complete the picture.

Located on Birmingham's revamped Centenary Square, this laid-back café/restaurant in Symphony Hall puts you right in the heart of the city's cultural action. Portions are huge, and options like buttermilk fried chicken wings and sticky maple fried chicken are served with healthy-sized Brummie bacon cakes. Open for lunch and pre-concert dining, as well as food and drinks, it also hosts intimate gigs.

Perfectly positioned at the bottom of the village, this friendly retreat dating back to 1828 looks out from atop a seawall to dramatic views of the North Sea (if you can get a coveted window table), with a warming open fire in winter and sunny terrace in summer. The reasonably priced menu leans towards well-prepared traditional pub grub, fresh fish and chips, and shellfish like Whitby scampi or crab and lemon salad. There are three B&B rooms upstairs.

Flocked floral wallpaper, old lamps, an open fire, and a handsome wooden floor set the tone at this appealing pub. Homey and intimate, the pub serves big, tasty portions of traditional British food such as scampi tails, chicken-and-leek pie, and gammon with egg and pineapple. You can wash it down with locally brewed beer. The excellent Sunday lunches are popular with locals.

Attached to the Coniston Brewing Company, whose ales are on tap here, the Black Bull is an old-fashioned pub in the heart of the village. It can feel a little dated, but it's a good pick for simple, hearty food such as fried whitebait, housemade leek-and-potato soup, and a tasty steak-and-ale pie. The beer choice is exemplary. Old photos of Donald Campbell's boat Bluebird decorate the walls, and there are wooden beams and benches. The inn also has 11 ensuite rooms, which are suitable for families.

Despite the name, this laid-back and vaguely eccentric place is quintessentially English and ideal for a relaxed lunch away from the nearby rigors of the Park Street shopping scene. Generous salads, soups, and burgers are available, as are all-day breakfasts and brunches. Find your table first, note the number, and order at the bar—you can sit in the terraced backyard or in the two airy rooms upstairs, a secluded spot for a cup of tea with orange and almond cake. The restaurant opens at 8 am (9 am on Sunday) and closes at 5 pm.

Modern and buzzy, with friendly service and tasty food, this brasserie in a converted grain warehouse has two dining rooms, one with wood tables and terra-cotta walls, the other more formal, with white tablecloths. The seasonally changing menu includes elegant main courses like portobello mushroom stuffed with goat cheese and nuts on a butternut squash and wild mushroom risotto. Arched windows overlook the river in both dining areas, and in summer there's a deck for alfresco dining. There's also a special gluten-free menu.

At this 500-year-old pub, restaurant, and inn in the heart of superb walking country, antiques, comfortable chairs, and prints and oil paintings furnish the cozy, beamed public rooms. The hearty traditional British food—from grilled haggis with housemade plum jam to pan-seared sea bass and wild-mushroom stroganoff—is popular with locals, as are the many whiskies and ales, including a specially brewed Britannia Gold beer. The whole family can relax with a bar meal and Cumbrian ale on the terrace while taking in the village green and the rolling scenery beyond. The nine simple guest rooms (eight of which are en suite) are more modern in style, with large, comfy beds.

A converted pub, this cozy, thatched café and restaurant has famously good homemade cakes as roasts and afternoon tea. The building, which dates from 1347, has low ceilings, a garden that's open in summer, and a crackling fire in winter.

More than you might imagine from the modest name, Brown's Pie Shop serves the best of old-school British food. Enjoy succulent beef, great desserts, and some very good, freshly made savory pies. There are also fish specials, steaks, and a small selection of vegetarian dishes. This restaurant, close to the cathedral, serves an inexpensive early-evening menu.