Fine Dining in England 2025

We had a really good year for fine dining in 2024 and I’m looking forward to following it up with a varied year in 2025. We are hoping to travel more in the motorhome this year so will probably use the Top 50 Gastropubs list. A lot of these locations are dog friendly (always check first!) so Lewis gets the chance to enjoy visiting different places too.

Writing about food is always good fun – mainly because you get to try the food first! From our previous meals out both of us have picked up so many tip and tricks that we incorporate into cooking at home.

January 2025 – Grace and Savour, Hampton-in-Arden

Chef’s counter again – what an experience

Grace and Savour was incredible from start to finish. We booked the dinner, bed and breakfast package and it was a real treat. The room, complete with freestanding bath, looked out to the courtyard and from it we could also see the chefs preparing for dinner service.

The food was incredible, and being sat so close to the action only made it better. I usually like to have a sneak peek at the menu but found it hard to find anything in advance – this is done deliberately and really enhanced the experience. Each dish was brilliant, and the accompanying sauces were a real highlight.

Grace and Savour is built around sustainability and this ethos ran through everything that we were served. Each course (and accompanying wine) was explained perfectly by the team along with the reason why it had been selected. The restaurant actively tries to source from local suppliers, support restorative farming techniques and reflect the hard work that British farmers do.

January 2025 – The Square at Porthleven, Cornwall

Proper food down in Cornwall

We love Cornwall and another weekend there gave us the perfect excuse to visit The Square. This restaurant looks over the picturesque harbour in Porthleven and it’s wall are adorned with paintings by Cornish artists (that are available to buy).

The food here is really tasty and the portions are definitely Luke sized! The service is warm and friendly too – it’s a really nice place to be.

The menu is based around a ‘local is best’ ethos and really showcases what Cornwall has to offer. We’ll certainly be back!

February 2025 – Culture, Falmouth, Cornwall

Local is best on this whistlestop food tour of Cornwall

I ate at Culture with Amy (Gill’s daughter) while visiting her for a weekend. It was a very last-minute booking but I’m really glad we did!

The setting was really cool – it felt like we were in the cellar of an old pub (despite not being entirely underground due to being part of the hill running down to the harbour in Falmouth). The kitchen was visible from our table, and it was great to see the work going into preparing our food. The service was friendly and knowledgeable, which really added to the experience.

Each course was designed to showcase the best of Cornwall, and Culture has a Michelin Green Star to recognise its sustainable gastronomy. We loved every course – Amy described the beef as ‘the best steak in the world’! The bread course was served with a delicately smoked butter topped with honey…amazing!

February 2025 – The Golden Ball, Lower Assendon, Henley-on-Thames

Fine dining with Gill’s dad and Lewis

Gill and I took her dad to the Golden Ball as we were ‘down south’ with him for a day. Gill organised eating here and booked it because it was dog friendly. I found this hard to believe as it looked way too posh. But it was, and Lewis was welcomed as soon as we walked in.

We had the taster menu and it was fab. The Golden Ball is run by a husband-and-wife team, and the food reflects both parts of their heritage. My favourite course was the brill that came with a delicious curried sauce. It was both delicate and full of flavour! The three of us had different favourite courses which is always the sign of a good menu.

The meal finished with ‘The Golden Ball’ for dessert – we all agreed that this was an amazing way to end the meal. Overall, I was really impressed with the food and the service at the Golden Ball, and the portions were definitely Luke sized – comparable with those at the Hand and Flowers that we visited a couple of years back.

March 2025 – The Ugly Butterfly by Adam Handling (Part One), Carbis Bay, Cornwall

Continuing the Cornish theme and introducing Luke’s mum to fine dining

2025 has been quite the year for food in Cornwall so far and March started with 2 visits to the Ugly Butterfly. We visited the Ugly Butterfly for Amy’s birthday as she had wanted to eat here for a while. My mum joined us on a short break to Cornwall as did Gill’s dad, so it really was a multi-generational gathering!

The restaurant is possibly situated in the best location that I’ve eaten at; the views are stunning. For this visit we were able to enjoy the sunset from the bar with a few cocktails before moving into the main restaurant. Here we sat at the chef’s counter to watch the action up close.

The taster menu was brilliant. Each course was delicious and built around local ingredients wherever possible. Some ingredients were even foraged from the Southwest Coastal Path that we have been exploring on our visits down to Cornwall. There is also a focus on reducing waste – including using trims and offcuts from the restaurant to flavour cocktails in the bar; one I tried even used left over bread.

The chicken parfait was one of the best dishes I have eaten (and I’ve tried a lot of food!). Once again everyone had a different favourite course – a special shout out to the scallops which were stunning!

We all enjoyed the food, the surroundings and the service; and were extremely impressed with the talented young team behind all this. The Ugly Butterfly is currently in the Michelin guide but I’m sure it won’t be long until they can display a well-earned star.

March 2025 – The Ugly Butterfly by Adam Handling (Part Two), Carbis Bay, Cornwall

Afternoon tea, overlooking the sea, with Amy

We loved eating at the Ugly Butterfly a couple of days previously so had high hopes for our afternoon tea…and we weren’t disappointed!

When we arrived we were welcomed like old friends and there was extra special fuss made of Amy on her actual birthday. Afternoon tea started with the same snacks that we had enjoyed from the taster menu, this time washed down with (non-alcoholic) fizz.

The presentation of the food matched the taste, each item was a real treat. We enjoyed a fresh take on a traditional afternoon tea, including hot savouries, crustless sandwiches, sweet treats and of course scones, jam and local clotted cream.

Once again, the hard work and dedication of the team really shone through, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time in their company. They always took the time to note where items had come from locally, foraged, or how waste products had been used as key ingredients.

April 2025 – The Shore, Penzance, Cornwall

Local is best (again) on another trip to Cornwall

The Shore…what a different experience! This one man show was the most relaxed fine dining we’ve sampled.

Bruce (the barefoot chef!) does everything in this 14 cover restaurant and each course is presented and explained with Scottish humour. The food was brilliant; deliciously fresh seafood that was complimented by the accompanying sauces (and wine pairing).

There’s a focus on sustainability and reducing food waste at The Shore. For the fish custard Bruce uses the remnants of whichever fish he has had to form a really flavourful dish. There was also a home pickled aubergine that accompanied the gurnard – this was an incredible burst of flavour.

The Shore was great. If you’re ever in Penzance and want to do something a bit different, I’d definitely recommend eating here. Be sure to book in advance so Bruce knows what ingredients to pick up from the fish market!

May 2025 – The Olive Tree, Bath

Gill’s dad’s birthday and a kitchen tour

We organised a weekend in the southwest for Gill’s dad’s birthday so I just ‘had’ to find a restaurant to visit. I love that task!

The Olive Tree was a really good choice (even if I do say so myself!) We were welcomed and made to feel at home by the young and friendly team and the experience just kept getting better from there.

The food was incredible – it was heavily influenced by Cornwall so we felt right at home given the Cornwall heavy dining experiences of 2025 so far. We were served an amazing selection of flavours with some real stand out dishes - the Cornish cheese raviolo was one of the most flavourful and tasty things that I've eaten.

We were invited into the kitchen to meet Chris Cleghorn and talk all things food. It was fab seeing the inner workings of the restaurant. I absolutely love that the chef in charge of cooking the dish presents it to the guest with the head chef stepping in to backfill and make sure there are no delays on the line. While talking to Chris it was obvious that he was watching every dish leaving the kitchen, pointing out single flowers that should be moved to make sure the plates were presented ‘just so’.

June 2025 - Hide and Fox, Hythe, Kent

Small but perfectly formed

The Hide and Fox has recently been awarded its second Michelin star and it's not hard to see why! From walking through the doors into the intimate 20 cover dining area we were instantly aware that this was going to be a great experience.

The restaurant mentions prebooking a taxi as they are quite hard to come by in the area. We downloaded the Folkestone Taxi app (https://www.folkestonetaxi.com/) and prebooked our journeys to from the restaurant. Both ways worked perfectly with polite drivers arriving when they were booked to.

We loved the building it was set in and the relaxed, friendly service...the food and wine were pretty special too. Both Gill and I added wines to our baskets online that we had tried for the first time as part of the wine pairing. It's always good to discover new things and rediscover old favourites.

There were two different menus on offer – we (unsurprisingly) went for the 8 course instead of the 5 courses. We were served some lovely food, however, you can't please everyone all of the time. I thought the fish with grapes was a 'different' combination that I wouldn't rush to try again. Gill enjoyed it and thought it was very pleasant. It just shows how subjective food is, and how difficult it must be to make sure everyone leaves happy!

My highlight of the meal was a very different take on a cheese course. We were served Wigmore English Brie as both a lump of cheese and whipped/creamed and layered into a millefeuille, complete with honey and pear as accompaniments. This was absolutely stunning and absolutely justified choosing the 8-course menu. The strawberry palette cleanser/pre desert that followed was also great.

July 2025 – mana, Manchester

We finally ate here...

My brother lives just outside Manchester and has recommended to us mana every time he has visited – after ages we eventually got to see why.

We had the full taster menu and I also had the additional waygu course, all washed down with a good wine pairing. Despite it being a big menu with lots of courses, the food was mainly clean so we didn’t end up ridiculously full like you’d expect after a couple of cocktails, 11 courses, snacks, and wine.

On the whole the food was great, and the restaurant itself is stunning – stylishly decorated with loads of windows and high ceilings. You don’t have the option of a chefs table as every table faces the open kitchen which enables you to build anticipation about what is coming next.

Two courses really stood out. ‘The rest of the lobster’ was a really flavourful broth made with lobster heads and served in a lobster shell – complete with a lobster claw stuffed pasta (cappelletti) inside it. The flavour of all of it was remarkable and definitely something that I’d like to recreate. The dish that followed this was scallops and they were incredible too; they were served with lemon thyme which complemented them perfectly.

This next paragraph is a bit delicate, and definitely subjective. Service - there were a couple of shining stars but overall we’ve had much better. Sometimes it almost felt like the explanation of a dish 'had' to be done so was got out of the way as quickly as possible. There's wasn't the personal touch that we've experienced elsewhere, and it just all felt a bit rushed. Gill and I spoke about this afterwards a thought maybe this was because there wasn't a dedicated service team - the chefs had to get back into the kitchen to start working on the next dish.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the food – it was served in brilliant surroundings and I would definitely recommend it - but in terms of the overall experience I thought mana could have done better.

July 2025 – The Gurnards Head, Zennor, Cornwall

The food made the journey out there worth it!

Another trip, another incredible place to eat. Cornwall is like the gift that keeps on giving with food options – The Gurnards Head was exceptional.

Set out in what can only really be described as ‘the middle of nowhere’ is this absolute gem of a pub (with rooms if you need a place to stay). The lanes were some of the smallest that we’ve found in Cornwall but the brightly painted building was the light at the end of the tunnel! We were welcomed with such warmth when we arrived and various members of the team made a fuss of Lewis as well as cooing over baby Isla. There was a wide selection of drinks on offer…this was the point I decided that Gill could drive back! I tried a Japanese rice lager and a craft flat cider with our food – both were very different and I wouldn’t 100% rush to try them again but glad I gave them a go.

Along with the friendly service the food was a massive highlight. We shared all 3 of the ‘Edge Takers’ (great name for nibbles) of smoked cods roe, focaccia, and charred peach. These were all incredibly tasty (particularly the cods roe/taramasalata) and were a great preview of what was to come. Up next for me was the red gurnard, chilli, ginger, cucumber and sesame ceviche with coriander – the combination of flavours in this were amazing, I’d eat it daily if I lived closer! For main I had the rib eye steak which was served with almost a salsa of green beans, capers, gherkins and stilton as well as a beef dripping hash brown. Again, this was a great dish and the flavour and texture combinations worked brilliantly.

I finished with the white chocolate ganache which was a great way to end the meal then we set off for a stroll down the coast path before braving the drive home. As a venue it could be easy to think that ’we’re off the beaten track so people will come due to lack of options’ but The Gurnards Head have gone the other way and made themselves that they shouldn’t be missed. The quality of the food, incredible flavours, warmth of service and value for money make it well worth a detour if you are ever in Cornwall.

August 2025 – The Boat, Lichfield, Staffordshire

Farm to table fine dining for Gill’s birthday

I have tried to get a date in the diary to eat at The Boat for a while now. It had always sounded ideal with being dog friendly, relatively local and with an ethos built around sustainability. In reality it was even better than I was expecting. From the outside you could be tricked into thinking that you were going to a normal roadside pub. Once you enter the tastefully decorated and furnished building and are greeted by the open kitchen (as well as a warm welcome), you realise that it is much more than that! We were seated in the 'bar area' as that was the dog friendly part of the pub, but we had the same menu as the rest of the guests. This worked brilliantly - we were in our own little section, secluded, away from the main restaurant. So while we didn't have the view of the open kitchen we had plenty of space and privacy for our dining experience.

We all ate the tasting menu, complete with the cheese course (and an additional starter for me – Korean flavoured chicken thigh topped with caviar). The food was great – full of flavour (without overpowering the main part of each dish) and beautifully presented. The starters were a great way to kick the meal off, particularly the squid ink dyed cods roe ‘pillow’ which I could have eaten over and over again. The bread course was accompanied with garden pickles which were a really flavourful addition.

I enjoyed the flavour combinations in the course that was goats cheese, tomato and smoked eel. The goats cheese was whipped (?) and coated with seeds. It had a surprising sweetness that worked so well with, and was balanced by, the dashi based sauce. The Amalfi lemon parfait was such a tasty dessert. I’ve never tried burnt honey before but hope I get to again – it added such a depth of flavour and combined perfectly with the fresh honey from The Boat’s own farm.

I’m really pleased that we got to eat at The Boat and am already looking forward to visiting again.