445 Best Restaurants in England

With views of St. Mary's Church, this historic pub dating from 1554 offers a reassuringly traditional and charming milieu for food and refreshment. Light meals are available at lunchtime, teas in the afternoon, and for the evening meal you can choose from the seasonal menu and start with a mushroom and spinach tart, then try the Gloucestershire pork chop with fondant potato for your main course. The inn's grounds hold what is claimed to be the world's oldest bowling green. There are 11 well-furnished bedrooms upstairs.

Chocolate rules at this old spot serving 16 chocolate drinks; you can choose among 300 kinds of chocolates in the shop, too. Aztec Experience hot chocolate blends five spices; the milk-chocolate truffle cake is scrumptious. Servers in period costumes also deliver traditional English fare such as potted shrimps.

The draw at this burger joint popular with students and tourists alike is a good choice of delicious beef, chicken, and vegan burgers, served alongside fries, onion rings, and—a rarity in the United Kingdom—tater tots. Wash down the grease with an excellent, Fat Hippo–branded lager or IPA (made at Allendale Brewery in nearby Hexham), and save space for an ice cream–covered waffle or brownie to finish. Kids get a build-your-own burger, side, and drink for a bargain £7.50.

It almost feels like Sigmund Freud or Gustav Klimt might doff their Homburg hats and shuffle into a dark leather banquette at this evocative, early-20th-century–style Viennese neighborhood café on Marylebone High Street. Savor the antique light fittings and distressed wallpaper before diving into a rye brötchen (bread roll) sandwich with chopped chicken livers and dill. Expect top service from staff in natty Trachten-style Tyrolean green waistcoats and dark green ties. The all-day restaurant opens early on weekdays (7:30 am) and semi-early on weekends (9 am) so you can head here for a unique Austrian-theme breakfast. 

A former grain mill, Fisherton Mill houses independent shops as well as artists' studios and a gallery showcasing paintings, sculptures, textiles, jewelry, and all manner of crafts. Enjoy a light lunch or Wiltshire cream tea in the highly regarded café specializing in healthy, home-cooked options. It shuts down for the day at 5.

Fabulous modern food, real ales on tap, and gin cocktails are offered at this 17th-century inn, which retains its historic past but has plenty of modern style. Choose from a wide range of dishes including venison, steak, and seafood specialties, or try the selections on the daily specials board. Upstairs there are 28 rooms, including one where Charles II and Lady Fisher hid from Oliver Cromwell during the Civil War.

This unfussy but elegant café-restaurant serving breakfast, brunch, lunch, and afternoon tea offers freshly made soups, sandwiches, hot dishes, and cakes created with locally sourced ingredients. Favorites include a chickpea and butternut squash stew with eggplant and coconut, fried mushrooms on sourdough toast with creamed spinach, and a roast duck salad with bok choy. There are no reservations and it's very popular, so a wait may be involved at busy times.

Slightly off the tourist track but only a few minutes from the cathedral, this classic gastropub offers a winning combination of traditional decor lightened with tasteful modern touches and great, locally sourced food. The eclectic menu includes such standout dishes as Madras chicken and butternut curry, Halloumi burger, and beer-battered haddock. It may appear small at first sight, but there's a second dining area with a similarly cozy feel upstairs. Good local ales are served at the bar.

Though it now has branches in Chinatown and elsewhere in the capital (and throughout the U.K.), this celebrated purveyor of Cantonese cuisine first got its start here in Queensway over 30 years ago. The modest surroundings ensure the focus is on the food: from pitch-perfect salt-and-pepper squid and the dangerously more-ish char siu (barbecued pork) to the famous crispy duck that's considered to be the best in London, your tastebuds will be eternally grateful you stopped here.

The Harvey Nichols department store's roaring success is partly due to the lure of this stylish café, a standout for food, city views, and dramatic, high-tech design. The well-crafted Modern British menu changes bimonthly but is sure to have imaginative dishes like pan-fried sea bream with a lemon and mixed seed mousse, potato cake, and marinated zucchini or charred lamb leg with a Greek salad. There's also a separate plant-based menu. Irresistible desserts include cherry and whipped milk chocolate ganache with a mille-feuille, The three-course set menu that includes a Rosé Spritz (£35) is a good deal.

Tucked away at the bottom of Topsham's winding main street and near the placid River Exe, this seafood bistro attracts enthusiastic plaudits for its succulent culinary creations, its friendly service, and its cozy atmosphere. You might find deviled mackerel, Brixham crab, and scallops on the fixed-price menu (£33 and £39), though you might also be tempted to sample pan-roasted lamb rump or asparagus tart, as well as such impressive desserts as elderflower cheesecake. The brick walls of the main dining area are hung with local art, and there are tables upstairs, too.

Lee Gallimore was head chef at some of the Cotswolds' most prestigious restaurants before opening his own property in Cheltenham. Here, the chef specializes in seafood sourced directly from fishermen in Devon and South Wales, and the shellfish platter for two to share is a feast, but there's plenty more on the menu. On Sundays, the traditional roast lunch offerings are appealing, with the topside of Hereford beef and the free-range pork loin always looking particularly mouthwatering.

With its glass-and-steel framework, this former florist's shop just north of the town center makes a charming conservatory dining room, full of plants and twinkling with lights in the evening. The menu concentrates on the best of Oxfordshire produce and changes daily, but you can expect to find the likes of delicate seafood linguine, farm-fresh roasted vegetables, and pizzettas.

Just over the bridge from Windsor, this restaurant at the center of Eton's Antiques Row serves a changing menu of imaginative fare, from potted ham hock and rhubarb with sweet onion and mustard seed to crayfish and dill hot-smoked trout fish cakes. Well-priced wines, both French and from the restaurant's own English vineyard, are a specialty, as are the savories—meat, fish, and vegetarian pâtés. Scrumptious cakes are served with afternoon tea on weekends. The two-course set menu—served at lunch and dinners most days of the week—is a good deal. The conservatory, with its colorful scattering of cushions, is a pleasant place to sit, as is the courtyard garden.

Family-friendly and tucked away on a pretty mews, Ginger & White is a delightful fusion of a continental-style café and traditional British "caff"—all bound up with a modern, sophisticated Hampstead vibe. Specialties include homemade peanut butter, cakes, buns, all-day breakfasts with farm-sourced free-range eggs, salads and sandwiches, and specialty espresso. It can get crowded on weekends. There's another branch in Belsize Park.

Everyone visiting Scarborough has to have fish-and-chips at least once, and this harbor-front spot is a classic of its kind. Choose an upstairs window table for the view, and tuck into freshly fried, lightly battered, locally caught cod or haddock. Fresh fish pie, oysters, crab, seafood casserole and lobster, plus  sausages and steaks, all locally sourced, are also available.

This vegetarian café and restaurant is perfect for breakfast, coffee, or a light lunch. Order at the counter and find a space in one of the three rooms—all simply furnished with rustic-style benches and tables and local art on the pastel-colored walls—or in the walled garden. Apart from pizzas, quiches, jacket potatoes, and house-baked rolls and cakes, the chalkboard might include such dishes as butternut squash lasagne or vegetable Thai red curry. The whole food shop out back offers a range of picnic ingredients, too.

This Manhattan-theme, Russian-owned swanky steak house, named after Chicago jazz legend Benny Goodman, has everyone in agreement: these truly are some of the best steaks in town. USDA-certified, 150-day corn-fed, and on-site dry-aged Black Angus T-bones, rib eye, porterhouse, and New York bone-in sirloins compete for taste and tenderness with heavily marbled grass-fed prime cuts from Scotland and the Lake District. There's also grilled cauliflower steaks, tuna tartare, and a superb burger, but everyone at this sultry mecca has only one thing on their minds: the sizzling 250 g–400 g steaks chargrilled on the premium Mibrasa range, which come with truffle chips and creamed spinach, plus Béarnaise, pepper, or Stilton sauce.

Next to Canterbury West Station, this farmers' market restaurant with wooden tables is well known for offering fresh, seasonal Kentish food—think spring lamb leg with lemon and mint or wild bass with a crab and tarragon broth. Whatever is freshest that day appears on the menu, whether it's quail eggs, trout, or duck breast. The vaulted wooden space with stone-and-brick walls was a storage shed in Victorian times (hence the name); today the restaurant has huge arched windows overlooking the market and a butchers' stall.

Floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the Avon Gorge and Clifton Suspension Bridge at this restaurant, where meat and seafood dishes are cooked over an Argentinian asado, or firepit. Look for onglet, aged rump, fillet steak, sea bass, and monkfish tail, as well as such vegetarian options as roasted cauliflower steak and spicy charred carrots. Fixed-price early evening menus are also available. Sited inside the Avon Gorge Hotel and part of the Hotel du Vin group, the restaurant is named after the two legendary giants whose competition for the hand of the beautiful Avona led to the carving of the gorge. Enjoy pre- or post-prandial drinks on the broad outdoor terrace of the adjacent White Lion bar.

Reasonably priced and healthy comfort food is served cafeteria-style at this established, family-run favorite. On the menu are dishes like a steak gyro, a quinoa salad with grilled tofu, and a Goan spiced fishcake with poached egg and crispy kale. Serving breakfast (including a great full English and a vegan version of same) and lunch, the place transforms into a busy cocktail bar (no full meals) in the evening.

This pretty stone-built pub-hotel is one of the region's best (and best value) dining options. The delicately flavored and beautifully presented dishes, from cured sea trout with cucumber salsa to lamb rump with potato terrine and wild garlic, would seem more at home in a fine-dining restaurant than a village pub if it weren't for the remarkably low prices. A three-course lunch will set you back just £28. More regular pub dishes, like fish-and-chips and beef burgers, are also available, and also far better than you'd expect for the prices. Too full to move? Book yourself into one of the seven well-appointed rooms upstairs.

For views and location, this breezy beachside eatery with a crisp, modern interior and deck seating can't be beat. On the menu you'll find hearty breakfasts and a judicious balance of meat, seafood, and vegetarian dishes for lunch and dinner, from salads, sandwiches, and burgers to fish risotto and sweet potato and chickpea red Thai curry. There's also a beach bar for drinks, ice creams, and other snacks, barbecues at weekends in summer (roughly Easter–Oct.), and live music on Sunday evenings.

This informal eatery close to the Russell Square tube station serves scrumptious Asian fast food in generous portions at reasonable prices. Popular with students from the many nearby universities, the accent is on freshly prepared, flavorful fare—from sushi and ramen to tempura and delicious noodle and rice dishes.

Seafood is the main event in the two small, pink-toned rooms of this restaurant off Market Jew Street. The menu showcases whatever the boats bring, though crab Florentine, grilled on a bed of spinach and topped with Parmesan, and whole Dover Sole with chive butter are usually available. Meat dishes might include guinea fowl with a mushroom and apple stuffing and wrapped in filo pastry. The restaurant is small—just six tables—and the semiformal style is intimate, elegant, and traditional.

Despite a Michelin star and a co-owner who's also the chef at one of Britain's (and indeed the world's) top restaurants, this is a relaxed neighborhood gastropub with an unusually fine kitchen. It specializes in British produce, wild food, and especially game, with dishes like roast monkfish cheek with butternut squash or venison in an ale and prune sauce, all served via set menus only (£50 for two courses, £65 for three). Sunday roasts are especially popular.

This 16th-century building with two magnificent stone fireplaces is now a welcoming pub, and the friendly and efficient service gets high marks. The menu is full of hearty old favorites, with mains like steak and ale pie or grilled chicken breast with bacon, melted cheese, and barbecue sauce, plus an assortment of salads, burgers, and homemade kebabs. Craft beers (called "real ales" in Britain) are a specialty, and there are two B&B rooms upstairs if you wish to stay the night.

This gastropub's weekly changing menu emphasizes seasonal ingredients, with meats sourced from local small farms' rare and native breeds (much of it cooked over a Josper charcoal grill) and fish delivered from nearby Hartlepool. With its wood paneling and open fire, the downstairs bar evokes a snug Georgian tavern, while upstairs, the elegant dining room of the same period features several antique clocks made by John Barraclough, clockmaker to the Brontës, who lived in this building. There are special vegan and children's menus, too.

This incredibly popular café serves high-quality and great-value meals and snacks from mid-morning to late afternoon daily. Come early for an excellent full English breakfast or opt for a light lunch like homemade soup or Welsh rarebit (a fondue-like dish where a sauce of melted cheddar, ale, and mustard is poured over slices of toasted bread). Save room for a homemade cake or delicious cream tea (scone, jam, and clotted cream). Above the café are eight pleasant, individually themed bedrooms. Avoid peak lunch hours (12:30 to 2 pm) on weekends, unless you want to wait in line (it's not possible to reserve a table).