6 Best Restaurants in Bath and the Cotswolds, England

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.

For over 30 years, this sleek 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 four-, six-, and nine-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. The set-lunch menu (available Friday through Sunday) is a good value at £70. 

The relatively short, perfectly balanced menu at Le Champignon Sauvage showcases the contemporary French cooking of David Everitt-Matthias, who has run the restaurant with his wife, Helen, since 1987. The food is a favorite of the United Kingdom's most famous restaurant critics and includes delights such as chalk stream trout with oyster emulsion and miso glazed monkfish with barley broth and cockles. Fixed-price menus at lunchtime (£35 for 2 courses) help keep the cost down.

Step away from the center of town to sample the ingenious cuisine that Michelin-trained chef Gordon Jones conjures up in his open kitchen. There is no set menu, but you can choose between seven and nine courses and every dish will be a surprise; there might be smoked eel with maple syrup and purple potatoes, a crisp haggis, roasted turbot with giant raisins and caper dressing, and blackberry sorbet with marinated cucumber. You can also choose a wine flight to accompany the tasting menus. The location is unprepossessing and the decor plain, enlivened by a few antlers and phials of oil, but the service is friendly and unstuffy; if you want to talk with the chef about your food, he will willingly do so. Book well in advance; lunch is easier to reserve than dinner.

The 18th-century Pump Room, with views over the Roman baths, serves morning coffee, lunches, and afternoon tea, to music by a pianist or string trio who play every day. The stately setting is the selling point rather than the food, but do sample the West Country cheese board and the housemade cakes and pastries. Light or full lunches are on offer, and the restaurant is open for dinners in summer, serving a set menu (two courses for £36, three courses for £45). Be prepared to wait in line for a table during the day.

Lured by the fresh ingredients and cool, unfussy surroundings, diners come here to enjoy the freshest of Cornish fish, Salcombe Bay crab, and Forest of Dean ham accompanied by unusual but delicious vegetables like borage, wild garlic, and sea cabbage. The accent is on fish, but you will also find hay-baked Cotswold lamb, vegetarian dishes, and plenty of local cheeses. The menu changes bi-monthly so it's always seasonal. and the set menu is £49 for 2 courses. The service is friendly and knowledgeable.