445 Best Restaurants in England

Set in a former basement brothel, this Soho meatopia cranks out £26 platters of chargrilled beef, lamb, and pork skinny chops and juice-soaked flatbread, all served on antique pearlware. Supplied by Philip Warren butchers from the Cornish moors, Blacklock's killer chops sizzle on the grill under heavy Blacklock cast irons from Tennessee. All-in platters include starters of crispbread topped with egg and anchovy and punchy sides like the 10-hour ash roasted sweet potato. Enjoy zippy '80s tunes, wine on tap, and a hearty tableside serving of white chocolate cheesecake for dessert. 

French tapas may sound sacrilegious, but Gallic gem Blanchette hits the spot at this family-run hipster bistro where jazzy French sounds complement the charming bare-brick and oak table candlelit interior. Visually feast on the eclectic Paris flea market bric-a-brac and then order a host of smaller plates to share, like the crispy frogs' legs and truffle saucisson (sausage) or baked scallops with Café de Paris sauce. The cramped tables can be a touch intimate, but desserts like chocolate tart, tonka bean syrup, and macerated cherries are a fitting Left Bank finale.

This tiny backstreet joint with limited seating consistently draws enthusiastic crowds for its delicious burgers made of pure Cornish beef or vegan and vegetarian ingredients. The lightly toasted buns are baked with sesame seeds (there are gluten-free alternatives), toppings include field mushrooms and wilted spinach, and the skin-on fries are hand-cut. Wines, local beers and ciders, and soft drinks are also available, some of them organic. There's normally a line outside, and phoning or emailing ahead with your order is highly recommended, whether to eat in or carry out. One option is to enjoy takeout at nearby Porthminster Beach—watching out for the marauding gulls.

This cozy independent restaurant receives rave reviews for its hearty Eastern European fare. You'll find primarily Polish dishes, including favorites like pierogi, bigos (a hunter's stew made with cabbage, wild mushroom, and sausage), pancetta-wrapped rabbit leg, and schnitzel, as well as vegetarian options. It's popular, so it can get noisy and reservations are suggested.

At one of the most exciting restaurants in Hereford (but not an actual bookstore), you can browse the nice selection of books while you kick back for a leisurely brunch or dinner with great updated British food and drinks in a hip atmosphere. The Sunday roasts have become a must for locals. The laid-back yard, shared with the burger joint and pizza place next door, is one of the city's coolest hangouts.

Despite the name, this laid-back and vaguely eccentric restaurant is quintessentially English and is 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, then either make your order via the QR code or note the table number and order at the bar—you can sit in one of the airy rooms upstairs or in the terraced backyard—a secluded spot for a cup of tea with lemon drizzle cake. The restaurant opens at 8 am and closes at 5 pm (4 pm on Sunday).

Sit in this casual, bustling café, part of a chain, and watch the comings and goings of the Bath square outside as you choose from the all-day menu. Impressive choices include everything from a full English breakfast to toasted sandwiches, and there's a wide range of teas, coffees, and smoothies. Another café is on Alfred Street. 

Part of a chain specializing in quick, nourishing meals, this relaxed café in a 14th-century former inn allegedly once patronized by Shakespeare, Cromwell, and Pepys serves hot and cold breakfasts, lunches, and afternoon snacks. Choices include cheeseburgers served with bacon and fried egg, a Moving Mountains beetroot, mushroom, and soy version, or a sweet corn hash with halloumi, avocado, and poached egg. You can eat upstairs in the spectacular Tudor great hall or in the quieter side room.

The finest of a slew of restaurants and cafés in Bristol's trendy, newly developed Wapping Wharf harborside district, this compact venue might be squeezed into a pair of shipping containers, but punches way above what its diminutive dimensions might suggest. The seasonally changing menu is also on the small side, and most dishes are tapas-size, but every one is startlingly original, and each is a winner. Smoked trout with golden beetroot, buttermilk, and horseradish, for example, is an excellent start to such mains as rump of lamb, cannellini beans, and rainbow chard. Desserts are also fabulous, and you can watch it all taking shape in the open kitchen. Dishes on the seven-course tasting menu (£55; request when booking) are unspecified—it may surprise but will not disappoint. The restaurant is steps away from the Floating Harbour and M Shed, and there are tables outside on the deck for warm days.

While visitors don't need much persuading to venture out of the town center to the trendy nearby enclave of Jericho, Branca's charming interior, vibrant atmosphere, and solid menu of Italian classics provides yet more allure for the neighborhood. À la carte options inside the rustic, airy corner restaurant include everything from stone-baked pizza to risotto along with a wide selection of meat and fish dishes. Look out for the lunchtime and supper specials and be sure to check out the next-door deli.

Raymond Blanc's sophisticated brasserie in the Jericho neighborhood is the more affordable chain restaurant cousin of Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Great Milton. The changing menu always lists a good selection of steaks and innovative adaptations of bourgeois French fare, sometimes with Mediterranean or Asian influences. Try the confit duck or the rainbow beetroot salad. In a happy concession to more Anglo-Saxon tastes, the restaurant also does a fantastic traditional British roast on Sunday that includes bottomless roast potatoes!

This unpretentious neighborhood restaurant serves inventive modern European cuisine—think rabbit, pork, and pistachio terrine or brill, mussels, and fennel in a bouillabaisse sauce. Enjoy your meal with some of the best natural wines you'll find in London.

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 public rooms. The hearty traditional British food—from grilled haggis with house-made 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 are more modern in style, with large, comfy beds.

A converted pub, this cozy, thatched café and restaurant has famously good homemade cakes as well 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.

A bustling small café, the delicatessen serves breakfasts, coffee, and light lunches. You can browse local cheeses, honey, fresh fruit, and vegetables in the shop amid a constant stream of locals and visitors. Take a seat and enjoy your meal, or stock up for a picnic.

There are plenty of vegetarian and vegan options at this joyous Middle Eastern extravaganza on the northern reaches of Soho. Go all in with the "Bubala Knows Best" spread to experience a cavalcade of laffa bread hummus dips, smoked Jerusalem artichokes, seared Chinese cabbage skewers, and slow-roasted celeriac, tahini, and Musakhan onion. The herb and spice count is high—with a profusion of sumac, za'atar, Aleppo chili, and ras el hanout—but happily, the sour labneh strained yogurt and epic challah and warm pita breads and raw crudités help smooth the way. 

At this buzzing little café in an ancient building with wooden beams, locals drop in to discuss horses and dogs over a glass of wine, families gather around the big round table for lunch, and tired shoppers sink into armchairs for a reviving coffee. The Italian-inspired menu is filled with light dishes like antipasti, bruschetta, soups, baked potatoes, and salads. An English baker makes the cake specials on-site daily. There's also a terrace for warm days.

Chef Angela Hartnett's low-key Italian café is an excellent value eatery perfect for pre-and-post theater meals. Set off Covent Garden piazza, you'll find classics like chicken Milanese or veal osso buco as well as fine cicchetti, crudo, risottos, gnocchis, and handmade pastas. Bargain three-course set lunch and theater meals are £30, and the portions, flavors, and general atmosphere are all on the warm and generous side.  

Ignore the dad-joke pun—this is a really good, modern, vegetarian- and celiac-friendly café. Mismatched, shabby-chic furniture fills the cozy dining room, where you can enjoy delicious, fresh scones, cakes, tasty panini and wraps, and some egg dishes. It's easily missed, so look out for the salmon-colored door at the corner of Saddler Street and Owengate.

Set in a corner of what was once a vast Victorian warehouse, this airy eatery is open from early morning to late at night, serving great food and freshly roasted coffee (you’ll pass by the giant coffee roaster en route to the bathroom). The focus is on world cuisine (the jalapeño cornbread is a perennial favorite), and the all-day menu features shared plates as well as sourdough pizzas. There are excellent cocktails, too.

Variety is the spice of life, and it's also the modus operandi of this airy Charlotte Street eatery where an ever-changing roster of guest chefs from around the globe roll into town with their exquisite seven-course tasting menus. One week it might be Japanese trout roe with egg yolk and koshihikari rice, while the next week will feature skate wing bilbaina from the Basque country. Whatever the cuisine, the one constant is the sheer quality of the dishes on offer. Alternatively, there's also a wine bar that serves delicious tapas-style plates---don't miss the fried chicken with pickled cucumber and Scotch bonnet honey.

With a vaulted glass roof on steel supports, this self-service cafeteria in a walled garden across from the cathedral combines contemporary style with freshly prepared dishes to create a refreshing stop for brunch, lunch, or afternoon tea. Food is served daily until 4:30 or 5 pm, and there are tables outside on a slate terrace for fair-weather eating.

Revel with the A-listers in the glamorous buzz at this upscale Italian brasserie wedged between Cork Street, Savile Row, and the Royal Academy of Arts. It's perfect for a pit stop during a West End shopping spree or after browsing the nearby Mayfair galleries and auction houses, with diners spilling out onto pavement tables for breakfast, brunch, and cicchetti (Italian tapas)—and then returning later in the day for something more substantial. The luxe green-and-brown interior is a tony backdrop for classics like red mullet carpaccio, veal Milanese, and tagliatelle bolognese, and don't forget the pick-me-up tiramisù.

The timbered and gabled building may be venerable—it dates back to the mid-15th century—but the cuisine is contemporary British. The small but well-executed menu is particularly strong on dishes using local ingredients, like roast wood pigeon with white onion purée, roast lamb with wild garlic and spaetzle, and pan-seared chalk-stream trout with dill oil. Good service and the heritage charm of the surroundings further enhance the dining experience. There's also a good-value set lunch and early evening menu. 

Tucked away down a pedestrianized back street, this casual French bistro is a favorite haunt for politicians based in and around the nearby Palace of Westminster. Open all day, one can only imagine the political intrigues being discussed over Gallic classics such as coq au vin or snails in garlic butter, all washed down with wines from the surprisingly extensive list.

Top-notch French and Mediterranean cuisine, faultless service, and a winning wine list make this one of London's all-star favorite restaurants. At this cozy haunt overlooking Wandsworth Common, prepare for unfussy grown-up gastro wonders ranging from homemade charcuterie to lighter, simply grilled fish dishes. Expect plates like chateaubriand, venison loin, and roasted cod with truffle mash all to be effortlessly conceived. Desserts like prune and Armagnac tart are packed with flavor, and the sommelier's a hoot.

The enticing prix-fixe lunch menu and a wide-ranging à la carte dinner menu featuring French and European fare attract diners to this award-winning restaurant, which is renowned for its signature dishes like onglet (hanger) steak with tarragon and sea bass with clams and samphire. It's also a great place to stop for afternoon tea or coffee after a walk by nearby Pulteney Weir.

Once a fire station, this bustling bistro is now unashamedly French and rustic, with red-and-white-check tablecloths and a menu chalked up on the blackboard. Start with some moules marinières (mussels cooked in a white-wine-and-onion sauce) or French onion soup and move on to grilled sea bass or a classic rib-eye steak with Café du Paris butter. The two-course, prix-fixe menu is a great value.