445 Best Restaurants in England

Diners at this chef-owned country inn 5 miles north of Skipton in the hidden hamlet of Hetton often make it hard for anyone else to find parking, such is the reputation of this highly regarded, Michelin-starred gastropub set in an early-18th-century building with contemporary decor and views across the Dales. Its three-course fixed-price menus for lunch (£85) and dinner (£95) feature beautifully prepared roast lamb, beef, and seafood dishes. The ancient stone barn conversion across the road has five well-equipped guest rooms. There are also six bedrooms above the restaurant and another four in a more modern building.

Since the 1990s, this sleek modern space in the basement of the Queensberry Hotel has served top-notch English and Mediterranean dishes, finally being recognized with a Michelin star (the only one in town) in 2018. Head chef Chris Cleghorn creates a seductive, sophisticated selection of three-, five-, and seven-course tasting menus featuring delights such as smoked Devon eel with Isle of Wight tomatoes and tarragon; Cornish monkfish cooked over coal and served with leek and ginger; and raspberries accompanied by sheep curd and lemon verbena.

This upmarket yet great-value Indian restaurant in a colorful, stylishly updated space has been a Newcastle favorite since it opened in 1983, and it's easy to see why. Head chef Kulmeet Arora, better known as Bob, serves up freshly prepared Punjabi cuisine using the finest ground herbs and spices. Meat eaters will savor delicious dishes like garlic chili king prawns, medium-spicy murgh makhani (butter chicken), and delicious machi Kashmiri (monkfish and cashew curry), while vegetarians will enjoy the selection of channa (chickpea), daal (lentil) and paneer (cheese) based dishes.

With a Michelin-starred chef whose family farm is right down the road, this former drover's inn has a high reputation among foodies that belies its Yorkshire village location. Dishes feature unusual combinations and esoteric ingredients based on what is available from the nearby garden or can be foraged locally—even cocktails include fruits and herbs made into alcohol, with wood sorrel replacing garnishes of lemons and limes. The 12-course dinner tasting menu changes daily but might include mains like barbecued langoustine tails brushed with pickled and salted rhubarb, scallops in a wild garlic and girolle sauce, or lamb sweetbreads, and desserts like crab apple with dark chocolate. Pescatarian and vegan items are also available. There are no à la carte options but there is a smaller lunchtime tasting menu on Saturday. You can stay over in one of the nine comfortable bedrooms, although only single-night bookings are available.

Perched on a bluff overlooking sandy Burton Beach, this airy restaurant in a hamlet at the western end of Chesil Beach specializes in freshly caught seafood and locally raised meat and produce. The short but focused menu includes dishes like grilled Dorset Blue lobster with garlic and samphire or fillet of turbot with braised artichokes and peas. It's a set menu on weekdays, but à la carte is available on weekends. Bar food is served when the restaurant is closed, and there's an afternoon tea. The restaurant is in a Victorian villa remodeled to evoke a chic 1920s feel, and the tables outside on the terrace have fabulous views across Lyme Bay. There are also nine light-filled bedrooms with views upstairs. The restaurant is 7 miles northwest of Abbotsbury, near Bridport, via B3157. 

Oak-beamed ceilings, exposed stone walls, and inglenook fireplaces add to the charm of this restaurant in a 300-year-old former shepherd's cottage across the road from where Thomas Hardy went to school. It specializes in daily-changing, two- or three-course set menus featuring superior French-influenced cooking using locally sourced produce, with dishes like Portland crab cocktail on a crumpet, Maiden Castle pressed lamb with kale pesto, and sticky (meaning coated with a sticky sauce) beef brisket. There's also a Sunday lunch and afternoon tea. Eight comfortable bedrooms are available in an extension overlooking gardens or fields. Lower Bockhampton is signposted off the A35, 1½ miles east of Dorchester.

A sophisticated crowd enjoys the sumptuous and elegant decor at this classic brasserie at the back of the royal grocer, Fortnum & Mason. An old-school trolley arrives table-side to serve Siberian sturgeon caviar with scrambled eggs, baked new potatoes, and blinis, while creamy beef Stroganoff and whole duck with elderberry sauce get the full table-side-flambé treatment. Truffles that are shaved at the table are another specialty. The popular Welsh rarebit toasty has a punchy mustard kick, while nostalgic desserts include a fleet of alcoholic ice-cream floats. It's open all day, with an unusually long five-hour window for lunch bookings—perfect if you want to take a break from shopping nearby.

One of only five three-Michelin-starred restaurants in the city, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester achieves the pinnacle of classical French haute cuisine in a surprisingly fun, lively, and unstuffy salon. Diners feast on a blizzard of beautifully choreographed dishes, including classic rum baba with Chantilly cream, sliced open and served in a silver domed tureen. Slick service is off-the-scale outstanding, while the sommelier is a brilliantly charming expert on all things vino. The £285 tasting menu is the best way to sample the full gourmet experience overseen by chef patron Jean-Philippe Blondet.  

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 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.

Both the taste and presentation of its creative dishes have been winning rave reviews for this family-run, centrally located restaurant. Produce is largely fresh and local; meats and poultry are free-range and sustainably farmed. There's a six-course set-price tasting menu for sharing as well as shared plates that allow diners to sample a broader mix of dishes. Options might include roast cod with oyster mushrooms in a green curry cream, venison haunch with walnuts, and pigeon breast with roast celeriac.

Candlelit at night, with a haunting Dickensian vibe, Andrew Edmunds is a permanently packed, old-school Soho dining institution. Tucked away behind Carnaby Street in a creaky but charming 18th-century town house, it's a cozy favorite whose unpretentious and keenly priced dishes draw on the tastes of Ireland, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. Desserts like warm treacle tart or bread-and-butter pudding offer few surprises, but the wine list is always superb and famously reasonable. It could be larger, less creaky underfoot, and its wooden church pew seats more forgiving, but it's a deeply romantic way to get a taste of what Soho was like in bygone days. 

For a refreshingly modern take on Indian cuisine, try this bustling restaurant a few minutes from the town center. Classic recipes are taken as starting points for the artistically presented dishes, which include tandoori breast of guinea fowl with fenugreek sauce, pistachio chicken korma with sweet basil and clove, and a Singapore-style chickpea and baby eggplant curry (part of an extensive vegetarian selection). A two-course seasonal set lunch and an early evening set menu offer good value. The setting is contemporary and cosmopolitan, and service by staff in traditional dress is friendly and prompt. Live performances by a musician or dancer occasionally take place at dinner.

Within one of Chester’s most resplendent hotels, this sophisticated restaurant with its curved booths and tables draped in white linens is a real splurge but completely worth it. Seasonal tasting menus (no à la carte optons) featuring delicious British ingredients such as native lobster with Isle of Wight tomatoes or Scottish mussels will delight and surprise.

This stylish restaurant, charcuterie, and Campari bar—a lively take on the workingmen's canteens of backstreet Venice, known as bacaros—offers highly creative small plates. Options include croquettes, fried mixed fish, and pizzette (mini-pizzas).

This 17th-century inn serves a great range of local ales and hearty meals that are just what you need after a long walk on the fells. The interior is dark and cozy, and the best bit is the opportunity for badger-watching every evening, when the staff leave food for the remarkably tame local wildlife. (Many British people love badgers.) You can also watch the badgers remotely using the inn's Badger Webcam.

Those who like good food at great prices head to Bakchich, a Lebanese and Moroccan street-food joint featuring a large communal table with smaller tables dotted around it for convivial or more intimate dining. On offer are delicious hot and cold meze, meshawi charcoal grills (chicken, lamb, and seafood), wraps, salads, and a small but tasty kids' menu. The nonalcoholic drink list includes fresh lemonade and smoothies.

British restaurateur Keith McNally re-creates his famed New York Parisian–style grand brasserie at this bustling spot off Covent Garden. The soaring grand café setting creates an enchanting backdrop to enjoy the reassuringly classic French brasserie menu, including standbys like fruit de mare platters, lemon sole meunière (with capers and parsley), côte de boeuf, and grilled lobster. A fitting treat for pre- and posttheater meals, spoil yourself with classy rock oysters and steak tartare before polishing off a pile of profiteroles for dessert.

Fabulous handmade pasta at affordable prices characterizes this sleek Italian eatery off Soho's Golden Square. Sit at the bustling chef's counter to sample options like bucatini cacio e pepe, or pork, fennel, and 'nduja ragù with twirly ribbons of mafalde pasta. Enjoy fine creamy burrata starters or Sicilian red prawns and samphire as well as a side of ample Soho people-watching from the row of raised kerbside counter window seats. Gluten-free pasta options are also available.  

The Marylebone outpost of London's BAO dynasty is an homage to the dumpling shops of Taiwan, making it a casual eatery that visitors can pop by for a quick bite or where they stay a while and savor as much as possible from the concise menu. It is no hyperbole to say that everything on the menu here is sublime, but the beef noodles and confit pork bao buns are a must. Given the quality of the food and the stylish interiors, BAO Marylebone is a great value. Other branches of the restaurant can be found in Soho, Shoreditch, Kings Cross, Battersea, and Borough (and some come with private karaoke rooms).   

This legendary Italian coffee bar on Frith Street is Soho's unofficial beating heart and a 22-hours-a-day institution. Established in 1949 during the postwar Italian coffee bar craze and still run by the founding Polledri family, today an eclectic parade of colorful locals grab a quick espresso or cappuccino made from the vintage Gaggia coffee machine, and wolf down a chocolate baci, slice of pizza, or bacon bap at the mirrored bar counter. The place is plastered with Italian flags and pics of vintage Italian opera singers, movie legends, and '50s world boxing champs, and it's the best spot in town to watch Italy play during the World Cup.

One of London's favorite Spanish tapas bars, modeled after the tiny Cal Pep tapas spot in Barcelona, has only a few raised bar stools within the open-counter kitchen south of Trafalgar Square. Lunchtime lines form from noon daily for a top-quality succession of impeccably sourced small plates, ranging from giant Spanish carabineros red prawns and Iberian pork cheeks to black squid ink risotto with cuttlefish. There's a thoughtful selection of Spanish reds, whites, sherries, and sparkling white cava, and be sure to leave room for noted desserts like the almond-based Santiago tart.

There’s a bit of buzz about the food scene in Hereford at the moment, with lots of restaurants using some of the region's bountiful produce to turn out delicious dishes. This spot in the regenerated Old Market area is leading the march, in part thanks to one of Herefordshire's most prized assets, which makes frequent appearances on the menu: Hereford beef. The burgers are big and messy but very tasty. The cool diner vibe, with leather booths and low-slung lighting, along with a menu of boozy milkshakes and a cracking playlist, make this a place people want to be. There is also a location in Shrewsbury.

Locals are keen to proclaim the virtues of their favorite Brick Lane bagel emporium, but to be perfectly honest, there's not much true competition aside from this spot and its two-doors-down neighbor, the Beigel Shop. Both serve delicious fresh beigels (the traditional European spelling) 24 hours a day, seven days a week, both date back to when Brick Lane was home to a largely Jewish immigrant community, and both are family-owned (two branches of the same family, in fact). When it comes to picking between each establishment's excellent value hot salt beef sandwich (with sweet gherkin and tangy English mustard optional extras), however, always go for Beigel Bake.  

At this always-packed Persian kebab hole-in-the-wall, it's best to sit at the raised counter overlooking the tandoor grill and clay oven and indulge in the expansive meze spreads, hot taftoon flatbreads, and richly flavored coal-cooked marinated lamb, chicken, and poussin kebabs. With exposed brick walls, hanging plants, and a delightfully edgy atmosphere, you can sip nonalcoholic cocktails and sharbat cordials in cozy side booths or hide out in the green foliage-strewn backroom snug. A favorite with global stars like Dua Lipa and Bella Hadid, be sure to book ahead. 

The crowds line up all day to make their way into this small fish-and-chip shop just off the seafront, down near the fish shacks. Although the decor is humble, reviewers consistently rank the battered fish and huge plates of double-cooked chips (chunky fries) as among the best in the country. Everything is steaming fresh, and it's all cheaper if you get it to take out—the beach is just a few steps away.

This upscale Italian institution is always crowded and the tables are jammed too close together, but everyone still adores the glorious spread of regional Italian small plates found here. Located off Theaterland's Shaftesbury Avenue, the famous trattoria offers magnificent peasant-based pasta, stews, fritti, salumi, and raw crudi, spanning from Naples to the Veneto. Try the fine Romani fried sage leaves with anchovy, the salt-baked fossil fish from Lazio, or roast suckling pig from northern Italy's Emilia-Romagna. Start with an Aperol spritz before enjoying the majestic all-Italian wine list, which weaves from Super Tuscans to punchy Barolos.

Welsh chef Tomos Parry brings his signature wood-grilled, whole roast Cornish turbot to this Basque-inspired hipster restaurant, almost hidden up a fairly narrow staircase on a quiet corner behind Shoreditch High Street. Watch the head chef and his team produce live-fire smashes from the intimate, open kitchen like aged Jersey beef chops, seared leeks, and burnt cheesecake. Even the grilled bread is something special at this very relaxed and welcoming venue, where there's an affordable range of options that won't break the bank. Lunch and early evening sittings have a more relaxed vibe with plenty of families and business meetings going on. Housed in a former pole-dancing club, it's probably London's most unassuming restaurant with a Michelin star. It's a small venue, so it can get noisy at night.

Tasty Gujarat-inspired vegetarian street food lures the budget-conscious to this colorful, vivacious canteen-style restaurant tucked in a basement on Piccadilly Gardens. Order from the bar, and watch chefs in a semi-open kitchen get busy on Indian dishes both classic and modern. There's a second Manchester branch (and a Bundobost brewery) on Oxford Street, plus a branch in Liverpool.

What started as a little café that sold oysters and cups of tea is now a bustling restaurant, with a nationwide reputation. It has no pretenses of grandeur but serves some of the best smoked fish you're likely to taste anywhere. The fish pie is legendary in these parts, and the traditional English desserts are exceptional. The actual smoking (of fish, cheese, and much else) takes place in the adjacent smokehouse, and products are for sale in a shop around the corner.

This bistro on Bermondsey Street near the Fashion and Textile Museum is as French as a pack of Gauloises, from the yellow walls and red-and-white checked tablecloths to the perfectly executed classics like lapin à la moutarde (rabbit in a creamy mustard sauce), suprême de volaille aux mousserons (chicken breast stuffed with mushrooms), escargots, and raspberry soufflé. The daily changing menu offers three reasonably priced options per course, and the wine list (French, of course) goes off the beaten path with discoveries from small local producers. The limited amount of space means that diners are in close proximity, but everyone is usually too busy scarfing down the excellent food to notice.